The FIA’s World Motor Sport Council has handed McLaren a three race ban for bringing the sport into disrepute after they were found to have misled race stewards at March’s Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.

The ban will be suspended, however, in light of the ‘open and honest way’ in which team principal Martin Whitmarsh addressed the Council on Wednesday, and will only be applied if further evidence emerges, or there is another breach of the International Sporting Code.

Accepting the decision, Whitmarsh commented: "I would like to thank the FIA World Motor Sport Council members for affording me the opportunity to answer their questions this morning. We are aware that we made serious mistakes in Australia and Malaysia, and I was therefore very glad to be able to apologise for those mistakes once again.

“I was also pleased to be able to assure the FIA World Motor Sport Council members that we had taken appropriate action with a view to ensuring that such mistakes do not occur again."

The full statement from the FIA:
At an extraordinary meeting of the World Motor Sport Council held in Paris on 29 April 2009, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes admitted five charges of breaching article 151c of the International Sporting Code relating to events at the Australian and Malaysian Grands Prix.

The following decision was taken:

“Having regard to the open and honest way in which McLaren Team Principal, Mr Martin Whitmarsh, addressed the WMSC and the change in culture which he made clear has taken place in his organisation, the WMSC decided to suspend the application of the penalty it deems appropriate.

“That penalty is a suspension of the team from three races of the FIA Formula One World Championship. This will only be applied if further facts emerge regarding the case or if, in the next 12 months, there is a further breach by the team of article 151c of the International Sporting Code.”

The full reasons for this decision will be issued shortly.

source: www.formula1.com

Jenson Button made it three wins out of four for Brawn GP in Bahrain on Sunday afternoon, with a finely judged performance that stretched his world championship score to 31 points.

Before the race the Englishman had suggested that Brawn’s domination was under threat. But when Red Bull dangerman Sebastian Vettel lost out at the start as McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton burst through to momentarily separate the Toyotas, Button was able to squeeze round the outside of the German in Turn One and was thereafter never threatened by him.

It was just a matter of waiting for the Toyota to make their stops (leader Glock on lap 11, polesitter Trulli on lap 12), and thereafter he only lost the lead after his own first stop on lap 15 (regaining it on lap 22 when Vettel and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen stopped), and after his second stop on lap 37, when Vettel again moved ahead for three laps.

Far from challenging, the young German had his hands full looking after his tyres in traffic, and as Button sped away the Red Bull driver had to contend with a strong challenge to the end from Trulli. A day that started well for Toyota ultimately yielded a podium finish, but after both cars started from the front row that had to count as a disappointment. Trulli blamed a long middle stint on the prime Bridgestone tyre which let Vettel pass in the final stops.

Hamilton quickly faded after his KERS-assisted start, but nevertheless ran strongly to a good fourth place for the improving McLaren team.

Rubens Barrichello had an up and down afternoon in the second Brawn with three pit stops, and grabbed fifth ahead of Raikkonen, who thus scored Ferrari’s first points of the season, having led laps 20 and 21 after a long opening stint. The Finn actually fell behind Glock when the German made his second stop, but used his KERS to squirt past into a sixth place that the Toyota driver challenged to the flag. Fernando Alonso completed the points scorers in eighth for Renault, fending off Nico Rosberg after the latter’s final stop.

Felipe Massa had a terrible afternoon after an extra stop to check damage sustained in first-corner traffic at the start, and could only finish a lapped 14th. Ahead of him were Nelson Piquet who drove a strong race for Renault, Mark Webber who charged from the back of the grid for Red Bull, Heikki Kovalainen who never recovered from a terrible start for McLaren, and Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Bourdais.

Behind were Giancarlo Fisichella, who collided with the Ferrari briefly and then held up Button on the 51st lap, his Force India team mate Adrian Sutil, Sebastien Buemi in the second Toro Rosso, and the BMW Saubers of Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld which had a simply dreadful time with an initial heavy fuel load. Williams’ Kazuki Nakajima was the sole retirement, after a clash with Kubica.

Button now has 31 points from Barrichello on 19, Vettel on 18, Trulli on 14.5 and Glock on 12. Brawn have 50 points, to Red Bull’s 27.5 and Toyota’s 26.5. Ferrari got their points tally off the ground, and have three.

source: www.formula1.com

The Bahrain Grand Prix was arguably another race that Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo might rather have missed, given that his team scored just three points, courtesy of Kimi Raikkonen’s sixth place. But at least it was three points more than they managed at the last three rounds, thus avoiding what would have been the worst start to a championship campaign in Ferrari history. Montezemolo blames a late start to ’09 development, ‘grey’ areas in the rules, and a certain level of complacency for the Scuderia’s slump…

Q: What is your explanation for Ferrari’s poor start to the season?
Luca di Montezemolo: I was thinking in my car coming to the track that my first race with Ferrari was at Silverstone in 1973. At that race Jacky Ickx started from 16th position and Arturo Merzario from 18th. So in my life I have seen a lot of difficult moments - this is part of the competition, this is part of sport. We have won eight world championships in the last ten years, in the last two years we won three out of four titles - and the fourth we lost on the last corner of the last lap of the last race. So we have to look ahead. But I want to understand why we are there, why we are in the middle of a black tunnel. And there are three main reasons. Number one, we have seen very badly written rules. They are what I call grey rules, with different interpretations. And if teams that have won the last three world championships, like Renault, McLaren and Ferrari, an important team and car manufacturer like BMW and even Red Bull, have made one interpretation, it means that the rules are not so clear. So very unclear rules means different interpretations, means polemics and different cars in the field. And there is KERS. KERS represents a lot of money. It represents something that has been introduced to make a link between Formula One and advanced research for road cars in terms of energy, and in terms of ‘green’ and in terms of innovation. So we immediately did KERS, even though KERS means a lot of money, it means a problem with the safety, it means reliability and it means a completely different car - as McLaren have done and as a lot of other teams have done. But we have been surprised that KERS was just a suggestion, not a real rule. And today we are facing a very strange and in my opinion not positive situation. We have three different F1s on the grid. We have F1 competition between cars with KERS, F1 competition between cars with no KERS and a different floor, and thirdly competitors with no KERS and no floor. I think this is bad, and it is one of the reasons why unfortunately we are not competitive and we are forced to invest time and extra money at such a difficult moment, to make heavy modifications to our car.

The second reason is that we have started to work hard on the new car late. And this was a pity, particularly in a year in which the rules have been completely new. It is not, in other words, an evolution of last year's car, and this is a second reason why we have not been competitive. And the third reason is that I think that inside the team there has been a little bit too much of a presumptuous approach. Sometimes by putting your head down in the ground is useful to looking ahead, but having said that sometimes having your whole head, feet, everything in the ground is better. So I think these are the main reasons. We are working hard and I have a big confidence in our team. I am sure that we will go back very soon - not immediately, but soon.

Q: How long will you wait and observe before you change something within the team? You cannot be happy with the way it is now…
LdM: Of course I am totally unhappy. But the stability of the team and confidence with the team has been my main goal since1992 and I will continue, as this team is exactly the same team that passed the finish line in Brazil - not 20 years ago but a few months ago - to win the championship. So I have no problem. When I know the reason I am confident, but when I don’t know the reason I am worried. I know the reason, my people know the reason and they are fully committed, so I am very confident. Then I am upset for other reasons, but they have nothing to do with the team.

Q: What is the present situation regarding unity within FOTA?
LdM: Well, I think the unity of FOTA is good. We will have a meeting in London on May 6 to discuss, as we did at the end of April, and we don’t know yet the exact rules for next year as stability is important to keep the costs down. We have made so many changes in the past year that now we need stability in the future. Some teams have taken the opportunity from very bad rules by making their own interpretation. What we will try to do is to get all the teams together as this is a very difficult moment.

Q: Can you clarify Michael Schumacher’s position with the team?
LdM: This whole situation was a little bit invented by the press. Michael’s position has been very clear since the beginning. When Michael stopped I asked him: ‘Michael do you want to become a manager? Do you want for one year to be the right hand of Jean Todt and then replace Jean Todt? Yes or No?’ He said no. So we said: ‘Why don’t you come sometimes to the races.’ But his main engagement was to work on the development of the road cars. He has a very good connection with our technicians but he has no role inside the team because he has no time to be present in Maranello. Having said that, Michael is part of our family, Michael is part of our history and he has a good relationship with Stefano Domenicali and is always welcome to suggest an idea. No more, no less.

Q: What do feel when you see Brawn winning and leading the championship? Ross Brawn was also part of the Ferrari family…
LdM: First of all I like Ross very much, because he has been part of our family during very important years and gave it a very important contribution. Then I see the Honda car with the Brawn name - a car that Honda invested a lot in, with two wind tunnels running. So this is still a Honda, built with one of the biggest budgets. And their interpretation of the rules is significantly different to other teams’. In my opinion this was mainly due to this grey area of the rules. At the least, the rules have been very badly written. Then I don’t want to make any comment about the result of the (diffuser) appeal as I don’t like to make comments as this is a Ferrari attitude since forever.

Q: What do you think has been the effect of that ‘presumptuous approach’ by the team?
LdM: Well, sometimes when you win too much, you think you are the best. I want a different attitude, particularly when you have fantastic people like we have in Ferrari. Sometimes we think that keeping top is easy. But over ten years, we have been able to maintain ourselves at the top. Except for 2005, when we were not competitive, we won or lost the championship at the last race. This year the main reason was that if we approached the rules in a different way, without KERS and with a different floor, then today we would talk about a different Ferrari.

Q: FIA president Max Mosley wanted to know from the teams what a good budget cap figure would be. What does Ferrari think about a budget cap? Wouldn’t that be a solution that would please you, as it would give you freedom?
LdM: Let me put it in a different way. We have been in Formula One since 1950 without stopping. We race and we continue to race in Formula One for three historic reasons since the beginning: competition is part of the Ferrari brand. We started as a team and then became a car manufacturer. The second reason is advanced research. We want Formula One to be a technologically competitive series where there is competition in which we can develop gearboxes, engines, electronics, and yes, why not KERS, and then transfer this to our road cars. And the third reason is that competing in Formula One means extreme competition between teams, drivers, cars, technology and technicians. We want to maintain this kind of level. This is the reason why we’ve been against a standardised engine. I personally have a lot of passion and Ferrari has a lot of passion, but this is not a never-ending story. So we will see. What I feel is important is that we have stability and credibility of governance of Formula One. What I think we need is a strong political authority, we need clear rules, we need teams that are very close away from the track and good competition at the track and we need a modern, efficient company as the commercial rights holder. Having said that I don’t like to do polemics, as this is what Formula One doesn’t need as it is facing difficult times. But I think that the reaction of the teams has been fantastic.

source: www.formula1.com

Reproduced with kind permission of the FIA

1st Jenson Button (Brawn GP), 1h31m48.182s; 2nd Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull), 1h31m55.369s; 3rd Jarno Trulli (Toyota), 1h31m57.352s.

Q: Jenson, the dream start to the year continues. And this was a dry race, this was a race all the way.
Jenson Button: It was indeed. This was a tough race for us. You might say I was leading for most of it but this race we had not the pace we had in the first three races. I don’t know where it has gone. I guess these guys have just caught up and maybe passed us. But the first lap of the race I knew was very important because Sebastian was going longer, so I made it work and I came out of the first corner in third. From then on it was a tough race but very enjoyable.

Q: Sebastian, a great result for you too. A hard race and in a lot of traffic. A tyre defined race in many ways but in the end you are on the podium again.
Sebastian Vettel: Yeah, a very good result for us. Good points, but as you said we will keep pushing. It was a difficult race. The start was quite okay but then I was surprised as all of a sudden there was Lewis (Hamilton) next to me. When I first looked in the mirrors he was not there but then I guess he pressed his special button and that gave him a bit of an advantage. At the first corner there were three, me in the middle and Jenson on the outside, so I had to give way and lost two positions in the first lap and then unfortunately I got stuck behind Lewis. I mean you might have a chance immediately to pass someone but then when you follow a car your tyres just go down. There is a lot of degradation. You start to slide and then you never really come back. It is quite difficult here as it is always hard braking, so you need the tyres, you need the stability, so therefore it is difficult to pass. I knew I had a longer first stint which put me just behind Jarno, so that was a bit of a shame as I was on soft tyres and I could have gone a bit quicker. Then I got stuck behind him again but then I was able to overshoot, staying out a little bit longer, which put me in front of him. But then it was the other way around and I had to defend from him. The whole last sting he was very close in my mirrors. I think he was pushing hard but I made no mistakes, so in the end we came second.

Q: Jarno, a relatively early pit stop and unlike most runners a switch to the hard tyre for the middle stint.
Jarno Trulli: Yeah, I am a little bit disappointed because I was waiting for the first win for Toyota. Unfortunately at the start I think I had oil spillage which cost me the first position. From then on it was a hard race as I was following my team-mate. I was going longer and then during the second stint we used a very long stint on the hard tyres, so I was trying to fight and it was really hard fighting with a lot of cars. I was not extremely quick but competitive being on the hard tyres and then eventually Sebastian took the position after my last stop. He was on the hard tyres and I was on the soft and I was pushing him. I was quicker but there was no way to overtake him, so that was how the race was. I want to thank the team as they have done a very good job, so let’s wait to fight again for the next race.

Q: Jenson, as Sebastian said, he did get stuck behind Lewis Hamilton. But you had an interesting battle with Lewis and managed to get the better of him very early in the race and that proved to be decisive.
JB: It was. He is very difficult to overtake anyway but on the first lap he made a few mistakes and I dived down the inside of him at many different places. And on the straight I thought I could get alongside him and I did out of the last corner and then he pushed his button and pulled back in front and I had to tuck back in behind again and get the tow off him and I was able to get him into turn one. That move really made the race for us. I knew I had to make it stick and I did, so I am very happy. This race win for us is probably the best out of the lot as we don’t have that competitive edge. And also it is the fourth flyaway. We have got a lot of bits that need to be changed and it is all getting a bit aged now, so to come away from this win it is great going back into Europe and we can look at improving the car.

Q: Sebastian, you were held up behind Lewis Hamilton for a lot of the race. Let’s have a look now and talk us through what the conditions were like for you at that moment, what the tyres were like and the difference between the tyres and what it is like in traffic.
SV: The problem is when you follow a car for more than one, one-and-a-half or two laps then your tyres really start to go off, front and rear. You start to have a lot of sliding and that was the problem, so both stints on soft tyres I was not able to use them really. The best car I had was with the hard tyres at the end which is unusual as that option wasn’t the better tyre. But it makes a huge difference if you are able to run in clean air or not. That was the problem today and apart from that we had a good car. I think it is very positive anyway as I think we did a very good job in qualifying and we are getting closer to these boys, so not long and we will be very, very close.

Q: Jarno, you started from pole but it did not translate into a lead at the first corner. Let’s have a look at the start and perhaps you can tell us what was going on.
JT: It was a good start in a way but unfortunately as you can probably see from the front I had an oil spillage, so basically the engine stopped when I was accelerating out and this cost me the position. Then I was basically following my team-mate. I knew I was going longer but obviously being behind is not always easy. I was struggling a little bit with the rear end of the car and just trying to push as hard as possible. In the end the race wasn’t too bad but we expected a little bit more.

Q: It seemed from the calculations before the race that you stopped a little bit earlier than you might have and then there was that decisive switch to the hard tyre. What was the thinking at that point?
JT: Well, to be honest it is difficult for me now to judge. I need to go through it with the engineers. In a way they calculated everything and in general they have done a very good job for me, so I have to praise them as we managed to put both cars on the front row and we managed also to get on the podium. I think all in all the strategy wasn’t too bad but we needed a little bit more pace.

Q: Jenson, Ross Brawn was very concerned before the start of the race about the heat factor, particularly with your change at the last minute going into the season with the Mercedes engine and the data you had. As it turned out both cars were fabulously reliable and of course the heat was a factor for you too. Talk us through your emotions now after this third win of the season.
JB: For us it is very difficult because of the heat. But this is one of those circuits that isn’t really that physical, so we could cope. The engine, we were a little bit worried about, as the temperatures have been very high in testing and in qualifying and I wasn’t able to do the running I would have liked, so to come away with the win at this point of the season I am chuffed to bits. The whole team should be very proud of themselves. They have worked so hard. As you probably know we are much smaller than we used to be and they are having to work doubly hard to get the job done, so I am very proud of all of them and they should be also.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Jenson, you are surprised to have won here. What made the difference?
JB: The first lap. To start with I got a poor start. I did a practice start coming into the pits and I was struggling with clutch slip and off the line I had exactly the same thing, so it was very lucky that I didn’t lose more place. At the start the clutch slip wasn’t too bad and then it was at turn one I had to make a move to get past Sebastian because they were obviously stopping later than us and it would have made the race very difficult. I was able to get around the outside and then the chance came up of getting past Lewis which was very difficult I must say because he was blocking very well but then at the last corner he made a slight mistake, so I pulled alongside him on the straight and I knew as soon as we got to the start-finish line he was going to push his KERS button and he did and he pulled away again, so I had to jump in behind and then did him into turn one. The first lap was what made the race really.

Q: Your fight back in the early laps was action packed for all of you.
JB: Good. The end of the race may not have been so exciting but the start of the race was very good for me and chasing down the two Toyotas. They seemed very quick on the option tyre and I was surprised a little bit by the pace and I wasn’t sure how it was going to work out. I didn’t even know that Jarno was behind Timo at that point in time. But it all worked out well and Sebastian got stuck behind Lewis which helped us but the biggest problem for me was backmarkers. I am sorry if my radio was played live as I might have said a few words that weren’t good for TV but the traffic was terrible out there. They were a long way in front but I just couldn’t get any closer. Plus when I exited the pits and went down to turn four and (Robert) Kubica shot past me with his KERS and overtook me and unlapped himself which was a little bit frustrating. That was the most difficult thing for me, trying to stay on top of that.

Q: Was the tyre wear roughly the same with the two different sets of tyres? What about the brakes? Any problems with the brakes?
JB: Brakes weren’t too bad. We were worried going into the race a little bit about temperatures. On Friday and Saturday we were struggling a little bit and we thought we might have to run the race with reduced revs which would have been a disaster. But lucky enough we had clear air for most of it. We kept the engine reasonable cool and the brakes were fine, so we were in good shape. I think if Sebastian did not have the traffic it would have made the race very interesting as I think our pace was very similar but that was not to be and we obviously came away with the win which I am very happy about.

Q: And were you conserving things at the end basically?
JB: Yeah, the last sort of 15 laps we had to conserve it a little bit as this is a lot hotter than what we expected. It is not just the engine but everything on the car including the driver, so conserving it a little bit. And with the way the regulations are these engines have to do a lot more running than normal, so you have to look after them a little bit.

Q: Sebastian, obviously early on you had a battle with Lewis as well. You feared the KERS as well.
SV: Yeah, it was difficult to pass him. The problem is in both stints, in the first and second stints, we were on the soft tyres and the soft tyres here were the quicker tyres, as I think more or less for the rest of the field. Coming back to the first stint the start was not ideal, maybe I was not careful enough. I should have gone maybe more to the right and tried to defend on Lewis. When I looked in the mirrors immediately after the start he was way behind me but then I underestimated his little button he had on his steering wheel and all of a sudden I had him on the right. I couldn’t run on the outside as Jenson was already there, so I was stuck in the middle. I had to give way to both of them. It was very close but basically then I was fifth. Very early in the race maybe I had a good chance to pass him. I was preparing for the last corner but I locked up the rear and all race it seemed very difficult to get a clean exit out of the last corner. It was very slippery there. Then I lost the momentum again. He pressed his button and that was it. Basically from then onwards, as I just described, when you have to follow a car, your tyres suffer a lot. You get a lot of degradation and that made it difficult then to pass and to use the pace we had behind Lewis in the first stint and behind Jarno in the second stint. The only stint I had in clean air was the last one but I had the hard tyres. Nevertheless for me the best stint was the last stint as the car was very consistent, getting quicker each lap. I was able to feel it more and more. Then I could play with the tyres. Obviously I had Jarno so I tried to save them in the beginning, so that at the end I had something to defend and it worked out well. But unfortunately the first two stints were behind traffic which spoiled our race a little bit. But nevertheless I think we are getting stronger. We are getting very close to these guys, so I hope not long, a couple of bits added to the car. Back in the UK, back in Milton Keynes, the people are pushing very hard and soon we will be able to fight them a bit more and give them a bit more of a hard time.

Q: Jarno, we talked about your start just now and you also had quite an interesting battle with Fernando Alonso banging wheels with him.
JT: Yeah, it was an interesting and tough race for me because I always found myself in a difficult situation. At the start, I was very unlucky because I think I had an oil spillage, so basically the engine didn’t pull away and I lost position there. I lost a lot of ground and I was lucky enough to get out of the first corner second. Actually, I had to fight back against Lewis, firstly because he had KERS on the straight and secondly because the engine wasn’t pulling at that time, so it was really hard. Going into turn four already wheel to wheel it was a nice battle, I didn’t give up because I knew it was again important for me to stay ahead. Actually I started following my team-mate. The car wasn’t too bad, the rear end was starting to go away, so I was struggling a little bit. Then, during the second stint, I had hard tyres and I was defending a lot of cars, as you say, a lot of battling there, obviously with cars that were lighter than mine. We were there to stop after a few laps. We were fighting with Sebastian until the end. I was on hard tyres and he was on soft, so actually he was biting my tail for most of the race and at the end, I was on soft and was quicker than him and he was on hard and I was trying to bite his tail and there was basically no way that he could get past. It was a nice race. It was a shame at the start but I’m happy because I did fight very hard and it was a good podium for Toyota.

Q: You had problems with the brakes yesterday but they were changed for the race; how easy was it to have a brand new set of brakes?
JT: It’s not the fact that I had a problem with brakes because they were worn, there was something wrong with the brakes during qualifying, there was a problem and actually we changed them. I didn’t have any problem during the race as well as during the whole weekend. So it was just a safety issue because we saw during qualifying that there was something wrong with the brakes and we didn’t want to blow them up. It was maybe something with that particular disc. During the race it was fine.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Ed Gorman – The Times) Anthony Davidson told the listeners of Radio Five Live that he considered this to be the finest race drive that you’ve produced in your career. Would you agree with him on that?
JB: I’d certainly say it was the finest first lap of my career, for sure. I was very happy with the race. I didn’t feel that I put a foot a wrong at all. It’s nice to be in a car where I can show what I can do, even in a difficult situation because it wasn’t a perfect situation. It’s a very special feeling to have got this win. And thanks to the Ginger Racer, as I call him, for those nice comments.

Q: (Ed Gorman – The Times) Can you just tell us a bit more about the overheating issues because we heard that you’d had to cut away some part of the bodywork to help the cooling in the car.
JB: There’s nothing different this race to the last race. We didn’t expect it to be as hot as it is here. All weekend we’ve been struggling a little bit and even in qualifying I couldn’t do three laps hard. I had to do a quick lap, slow lap, quick lap. It made it very difficult in practice as well because you couldn’t get the long run pace. It’s been a tough weekend from that point of view and if we were sat behind a car for a stint like these two were, it would have been no way. We would have had to drop back two or three seconds to get some clear air. So that’s a weakness but luckily enough I had the clear air and our reliability was very good. I’m sure we’ve got to look at what damage it’s caused for the next races because you know these engines have to do a lot more mileage than normal, so we will see. But the win was more important, I felt, and we came away with a very special win this weekend, for sure. As for the heat, my feet were warm and I’ve burned the top of my left buttock on a box – there’s an electrical box there. It’s a little bit burned, so hopefully we can solve that issue. I’ll get you stroking it later, Sebastian, don’t worry!

Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Corriere della Sera) To you all, your teams proved to be the most competitive ones so far but starting from Barcelona, your competitors will introduce some changes in the cars. Do you expect a different story for the championship?
JB: Well, at the moment you would say that these three teams sat here have been the most consistent, you’re right, but I would say that the McLarens seem to be a lot more competitive this weekend. They made a step forward in China. Supposedly they haven’t had anything new on the car here but they’ve moved forward a lot and Lewis ended up fourth. They’ve obviously done a good job, so you can’t forget McLaren. When we start in Europe I’m sure they are going to have some new parts and they are going to be very competitive. It’s positive that we’ve got some points on them already.
SV: There’s a long, long way to go, we’ve done just four races. As Jenson said, I think his team has made the strongest impression so far. We are pushing very hard, we are getting closer, so especially on Saturdays we seem to get much stronger. Today, obviously, I was sometimes stuck in traffic but I think all the teams are pushing, the championship is very interesting. You may not forget the teams (that were dominant) the last couple of years, McLaren as well as Ferrari. They have a lot of resources and they have proven in the past that even if they have a bad start they can come back very quickly, so we have to keep pushing and for us, we want to be the best, and there is at least one team still in front of us, so we have to keep pushing hard.
JT: Well, it’s definitely going to be an interesting season because of the changes and it gives quite an open window for development from all teams. I have faith in my team, they know very well that four races is very little. We’ve got a lot of races to go until the end of the championship, so we need to develop the car, get better and I can see already some signs of improvement from other teams. If you look at these races, there are some teams that made quite a bit step compared to the first two races, so I definitely expect a big fight during the season and I also expect quite a mix of leading cars and teams during all the races. This is nice, it’s nice for everyone. I was on pole, Sebastian won the last race and obviously the most consistent car and driver at the moment is Jenson with the Brawn but also Toyota and Williams are doing well, Red Bull but there are some teams which are really getting close, so we need to keep pushing.

Q: (Ian Parkes – The Press Association) Jenson, I think it’s pretty much accepted that every team is going to have major upgrades for Barcelona. Is it a case that the fight for the title will really start in Spain now?
JB: We’ve had four races; they’ve been pretty important to us, especially at the start of the season when people have got reliability issues or making mistakes, we’ve been able to pick up the points which is great. When we get to Europe we don’t know where anyone is going to be. We know that these two teams alongside me here are going to be competitive but we don’t know how and the same for McLaren. We have an upgrade coming in Barcelona, I just hope it’s enough. We have to wait and see. Nobody knows. And the thing is we can’t go testing either, so we don’t get that chance to get the feel for it. So it’s exciting going back to Europe and I think that for Formula One this is great. There’s so much change already in the sport and going back to Europe it’s going to be even more change. I think that’s what this sport needed and I think we’ve got it.

Q: (Tom Cary – The Daily Telegraph) Jenson, I know you expected it but when Lewis pulled up alongside you so quickly off the start did you fear the worst?
JB: Well, he didn’t actually use his KERS to get me, I don’t think, because he was past me before he actually got to 100kph. You don’t really think about it at that point in time, you just get your head down and see what you can do at the first corner. Our braking is good here and I knew that I had looked after the tyres and got them in good shape for the first corner under the brakes, so I knew that I could brake very late and it showed in turn one, so yeah, I knew that I had to get past Sebastian, that was the main thing, and if I could get past Lewis that was a bonus.

Q: (James Allen – Financial Times) Jenson, you looked very comfortable leading the race. Is there a feeling now with three wins that you feel that this is beginning to feel more and more my thing, I feel like I expect this, I belong here?
JB: Well, every race is exciting and if you can stand on the top step afterwards it’s exhilarating but if I don’t win a race… for example in Shanghai I was happy to finish on the podium but when you’ve won two races the win is exciting and that’s the same for all of us. We’re all racing drivers, we all want to win the race but it’s still not easy at the front. Our car is competitive but it’s still not easy to drive and that’s something that we need to work on because I had a lot of moments during the race where I was wide, locked up rears or fronts. Maybe it’s not just the way that our car was balanced, maybe it’s just a new set-up on the car, the way it works but you see a lot of people getting out of shape now. It’s tough for us but maybe good for you guys to watch.

Q: (James Allen – Financial Times) Jarno, just before you made your stop we heard Lewis’s engineer say to him on the radio that it was clear that the harder tyre was a second a lap slower today than the soft and then you came in and put hard tyres on. Could you just explain what the thinking was behind that? Was it because you were going to do a 25 lap stint and you didn’t trust the soft tyres on that length of stint?
JT: Yeah, we were not sure about the soft tyres. Obviously the team had a better idea than me with all the data collected during the winter and this season we were not actually sure about the soft tyres, how many laps they could remain competitive. That was one of the reasons behind the choice. It didn’t work out but in the end it is still a podium, still a good race but obviously the target was to win a race but I think we still have to improve our pace.

source: www.formula1.com

Sunday, 26 April 2009

Jorge Lorenzo was ecstatic about his performance in Japan but still playing down his championship chances following his second MotoGP win.

A1 Team USA is to promote its rookie, JR Hildebrand, to full race driver at Brands Hatch next weekend.

Regular driver Marco Andretti is unavailable for selection due to his IRL IndyCar commitments, and so the team will allow Hildebrand the chance to make his debut on the notoriously tough British circuit.

Hildebrand is in strong from, having just come off victory at last weekend’s Indy Lights race in Long Beach, California.

After his maiden win in 2008 for Toro Rosso at Monza, Sebastian Vettel’s success in Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix marked his second Formula One victory. But for his team, Red Bull Racing, it was a maiden triumph. Coming in their fifth season of F1 competition, and with Mark Webber finishing second, it couldn’t taste sweeter.

The team was formed through Red Bull’s purchase of Jaguar Racing in 2005, and prior to Shanghai, three podiums had been their best results – for David Coulthard in Monaco 2006 and Canada 2008, and Webber in Hungary 2007. Reliability woes marred their early campaigns and last season they found themselves overshadowed by the performance of ‘junior’ sister team Toro Rosso.

But, with the radical Adrian Newey-designed RB5 at their disposal and an excellent mix of talent and experience in Vettel and Webber, it was immediately clear Red Bull could be a force to be reckoned with in 2009 – and Sunday’s dominant performance saw that potential finally become reality.

"A great result for the team and Red Bull,” said team principal Christian Horner. “It's testimony to all the effort and hard work that Red Bull and (owner) Mr Mateschitz has committed to Formula One. I want to thank Red Bull and everyone in Milton Keynes, who have worked so hard for this.

“It's just an unbelievable result. We've got a great car, a great team, great drivers, a single diffuser and we have a double one to come, so we're looking good. The whole team and company can be very proud of this moment."

Vettel didn’t put a foot wrong all afternoon in Shanghai and even survived being hit from behind by Toro Rosso stablemate Sebastien Buemi. Afterwards he had nothing but praise for the team.

“Winning my second race, one with Toro Rosso and one with Red Bull, makes me extremely happy and I hope we can continue working in this direction!” said the German. “I'm extremely proud and happy. I'm so happy to have won the race, it was an enormous and great job by the whole of Red Bull. I want to say a massive thank you to them all, everyone has worked so hard, so thanks to the team and also to Red Bull.”

Webber’s chances of victory effectively ended with one error when he ran wide while battling Brawn’s Jenson Button for second place. But after the driveshaft issues the team had suffered earlier in the weekend - and pulling off what he described as 'one of the best moves of his career' to repass Button - the Australian insisted he was happy with his result.

“It's incredible to get the cars home and to get maximum points,” he said. “This comes after the near misses in Australia for Sebastian and for myself in Malaysia. It's a great day for the team in Milton Keynes, well done and thank you to them, and also to everyone in Austria.”

Vettel’s win and Webber’s second place means Red Bull are now second in the constructors’ standings with 19.5 points, one ahead of third-placed Toyota and 16.5 behind leaders Brawn GP.

source:www.formula1.com

With Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button fourth and fifth on the grid, both with heavily fuelled cars, Brawn had looked set for another victory in Shangai. That was until the dark clouds arrived, changing the whole complexion of the Chinese Grand Prix before it had even started.

Brawn - nor anyone else - had any answer to the sheer class of Sebastien Vettel and the Red Bull. In the atrocious conditions Adrian Newey’s latest creation - boasting only a single diffuser - was unstoppable. With a revised diffuser on the way, the RB5 must now be considered a serious title contender…

Red Bull
Sebastian Vettel, P1
Mark Webber, P2
The sheer class of the Red Bull RB5 was more and more apparent as the race developed, and it became clear that in the wet it generated the right sort of tyre temperatures to keep Vettel and Webber happy. The German certainly benefited from the safety car start, without which the outcome might have been closer, but Webber provided much of the entertainment in his fight with Button. Vettel’s only major problem was an inadvertent attack by Buemi, who got caught out under the second safety car when Vettel slowed for a white car he believed to be Barrichello, which turned out to be the damaged Trulli. It’s been a long road for Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz since he came into F1 with Sauber and then bought Jaguar Racing, and his one-two victory was richly deserved.

Brawn
Jenson Button, P3
Rubens Barrichello, P4
For a while Brawn looked good for a third consecutive victory, especially as the Red Bulls were running on a short fuel strategy. But it soon became clear that the BGP001’s dry road advantage of being kind to its tyres was a serious handicap when it came to generating decent temperatures in the wet. Both Button and Barrichello struggled like mad, but third and fourth places kept them at the head of both championships.

McLaren
Heikki Kovalainen, P5
Lewis Hamilton, P6
Kovalainen was McLaren’s lead driver, and his fifth place finish was well deserved after a canny single-stop strategy and some peerless driving enabled him to make significant progress. Hamilton was fantastic in the early stages and he climbed as high as fourth, but his push-on style took its toll on his tyres. Subsequently he admitted to making too many mistakes, but his was a typically determined run that netted sixth, helping to give McLaren seven valuable points.

Toyota
Timo Glock, P7
Jarno Trulli, Retired lap 18, accident with Kubica
A bump with Heidfeld on lap 13 delayed Glock, but despite a few off-course moments the German charged his way up to seventh place in the closing stages to add to Toyota’s constructors’ championship score. Trulli fell back quickly after the start, and was taken out when Kubica aquaplaned heavily into the back of his TF109 on lap 18.

Toro Rosso
Sebastien Buemi, P8
Sebastien Bourdais, P11
Buemi drove another excellent race and stayed cool under heavy pressure from the likes of Alonso. He also passed Raikkonen and Hamilton! He was also lucky to get away with his heavy shunt into Vettel when they came across a slowing Trulli while running under the safety car. Thankfully the Toro Rosso is a strong car and so is the Red Bull. All he needed was a new front wing on the STR4. Bourdais had a couple of spins which prevented him from finishing better than 11th.

Renault
Fernando Alonso, P9
Nelson Piquet, P16
As expected, Alonso was the first to refuel, on lap seven before the safety car had even come in! That dropped the Spaniard to the back of the field and he spent the afternoon trying to recover ground. His pressure on Buemi paid off and he was in contention for minor points when he spun late in the race and had to be content with ninth. Piquet had a terrible afternoon, two big spins each requiring a new nose. He finished an unhappy 16th.

Ferrari
Kimi Raikkonen, P10
Felipe Massa, Retired on lap 21, electrical
Ferrari went home without any points for the third race in succession, but they were unlucky this time. Massa drove really hard in the opening stages and had climbed to a promising third place by the 21st lap when his F60 simply ground to a halt with an electronic failure. Raikkonen fared a little worse in the initial going but was fourth by the time of his first stop on lap 27. Unfortunately that dropped him down the field, and he was never able to recover to better than 10th.

BMW Sauber
Nick Heidfeld, P12
Robert Kubica, P13
Heidfeld made a good start but soon ran wide on the lake in Turn 16 and lost places. Then he had a collision with Glock in Turn 14 on lap 13 which damaged his car. Later still, he was hit by one of Sutil’s wheels when the Force India driver crashed on lap 51 and lost four places in rapid succession. Kubica had that shunt with Trulli on lap 18, and later had to stop for another front wing when the replacement worked loose and lost him downforce. Altogether, a day to forget for BMW Sauber.

Force India
Giancarlo Fisichella, P14
Adrian Sutil, P17, Retired lap 51, accident damage
Fisichella was Vijay Mallya’s sole finisher in 14th after numerous excursions as his Bridgestones grained. Sutil gambled on an early fuel stop on lap four and another on 19 and had worked ahead of Hamilton for sixth within sight of the finish before losing it on lap 51 and crashing heavily enough to remove both front wheels.

Williams
Nico Rosberg, P15
Kazuki Nakajima, Retired lap 44, transmission
Yet again, Williams showed great potential and came away with zero. Rosberg complained of water drops on his visor which made visibility even more difficult in the tricky conditions. With 15 laps to go he desperately tried intermediates, but that gamble was negated when it began to rain again. Nakajima’s afternoon of spinning or running off-course was brought to an end by transmission problems.

source:www.formula1.com

Adrian Sutil put in an excellent wet weather performance for Force India in Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix, running as high as sixth - ahead of world champion Lewis Hamilton - before aquaplaning caught him out and pitched him into the tyre wall with less than six laps to go.

Sutil had started with a light fuel load, but the team changed strategy in the early laps behind the safety car by bringing him in and giving him more fuel. Once the race finally got going he pitted again on lap 19 and filled up to run to the flag in what was in effect a one-stop strategy. Running a very heavy car and keeping his wet tyres alive for such a long stint was a huge challenge, as he explains…

Q: You had a fantastic race in the wet in Monaco last year, and another one here, but sadly both ended in retirement. What are your feelings about today?
Adrian Sutil: Our performance was really very good and we should all be very proud of this race. It was a risk to go on one-stop, because I stopped very early. I was very light at the beginning and then under the safety car we went into the pits and just filled it up. We knew it would have been tight on the tyres, but the grip in the corners was enough to stay in a good position, but with the aquaplaning on the straights it was sometimes hard to keep it on the circuit. You never knew what was going to happen because the car went to the left or the right. With six laps to go I hit another patch of water and ended up in the wall. It was very disappointing.

Q: That set of tyres had to do a lot of laps. How did they look when you stopped?
AS: They were still OK, but the profile goes down and down. We're talking about a few millimetres, but it is still enough to cause a lot of problems with the water. I got a lot of understeer, and the traction went down of course, but after 30 laps that's how it is.

Q: Was it fun taking on the McLarens in an equal fight?
AS: Yes it was good! I made a good pass on Kovalainen when he went out of the pits, so I could take his position. Then I was behind Lewis, and in the end he was behind me. It was nice to just race the guys in the front there. We had really good pace, so that was promising.

Q: In Monaco you had the reigning world champion behind you when you retired, and you did this time as well!
AS: That's true. Maybe it's a little bit of bad luck then! It's just a little co-incidence, but it's nice to race the world champions of course, when we don't have the fastest car in the field right now.

Q: Since Monaco there have been several wet races and potential opportunities, but luck hasn't been on your side. Was it good to finally have another chance to show what you can do?
AS: This was very nice, I'm pleased that it happened like this. We could have done a safe run, changed tyres, and maybe we would have been in the back. But that's not the way we want it to go, we had to take a risk because we know that we're good in the wet. Of course we were unlucky and it wasn't possible to bring it home, but sometimes it's just bad luck if you hit a patch of water. We couldn't do anything about it.

Q: You filled up quite early. How close was it going to be on fuel?
AS: We were on the limit, but it was definitely enough, we just checked it. I tried to save a lot of fuel during the race. I knew it was going to be a long way to the end. In the last 10 laps I was attacking again, because we didn't need to save the fuel anymore.

Q: We're unlikely to have a wet race in Bahrain next week. Any thoughts on going there?
AS: I think there we'll have seriously dry conditions! We'll get a few updates on the car which will help us get a better performance in qualifying. But again it's going to be difficult. We're at the back of the field right now, and we have to take our chances, like we did here, and try to move on. Development is going on, and we're getting new upgrades for the next few races, hopefully it's enough to progress.

source:www.formula1.com

Monday, 20 April 2009

Spanish rider explains knee progress and reveals lingering elbow pain.

Sebastian Vettel put himself on pole position for the first time since Monza last year in a gripping qualifying session in Shanghai on Saturday afternoon, giving Red Bull Racing their maiden P1 grid slot.

The German's sole flying lap of Q3 - a 1m 36.184s - was enough to take the honours from team mate Mark Webber, whose 1m 36.466s had kept him ahead of championship leader Jenson Button who had taken his Brawn round in 1m 36.532s.

In the dying moments of Q3, however, Fernando Alonso pushed his Renault between the two Red Bulls with 1m 36.381s, as Rubens Barrichello pushed Brawn team mate Button down to fifth with 1m 36.493s.

Now we await the fuel weights to figure out who really was fast and who, if anyone, was just grandstanding.

Jarno Trulli, much fancied before qualifying, was sixth for Toyota on 1m 36.835s, ahead of fuel-heavy Nico Rosberg on 1m 37.397s in the Williams, Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen on 1m 38.089s, McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, who only got one run for his 1m 38.595, and Sebastien Buemi who put his Toro Rosso 10th with 1m 39.321s.

Q2 had surprisingly accounted for four fancied stars. Nick Heidfeld could not better 11th with 1m 35.975s for BMW Sauber, together with the McLarens the only car that will go into the race with KERS. Heikki Kovalainen was next up for the Woking team on 1m 36.032s ahead of Felipe Massa’s Ferrari on 1m 36.033s and Timo Glock’s Toyota on 1m 36.066s. Glock is set to drop five grid places thanks to a gearbox change. Once again, the times were incredibly closed. Kazuki Nakajima was 15th with 1m 36.193s for Williams.

Sebastien Bourdais was the fastest faller in Q1, lapping his Toro Rosso in 1m 36.906s for 16th. Nelson Piquet had another unhappy ride for Renault for 17th on 1m 36.908s, which left him ahead of a disappointed Robert Kubica whose BMW Sauber was left on 1m 36.966s. At the back were the Force Indias of Adrian Sutil and Giancarlo Fisichella, evenly matched on 1m 37.669s and 1m 37.672s.

source: www.formula1.com

Friday, 17 April 2009

Fiat Yamaha’s World Champion on shortlist of six for prestigious prize.

A1 Team Ireland boss Mark Gallagher believes the 25-second penalty it was awarded after the Feature race on Sunday could prove pivotal in this season’s championship chase.

Ireland lost the lead of the championship in the stewards’ room on Sunday night, when it was awarded a 25-second penalty for passing the Australian car of John Martin under safety car conditions at the second restart of the race.

The infringement, which ultimately dropped them three places in the race from second to fifth, took the edge of what had been one of the best performances of Carroll’s A1GP career, fighting back from 15th after a jump-start penalty to score a medal finish.

It meant Ireland only scored seven points for the race rather than 13, and the championship battle has tightened up immensely.

Instead of being four points in the lead, Ireland is now two points behind reigning champion Switzerland. Even though the latter currently has four points to lose as part of the new for 2008/09 dropped scores rules, with a maximum of 54 points still available the title race is still wide open.

Gallagher believes those six points, aligned with the extra two points Portugal gained as a result of Ireland’s demotion, could be critical in determining the overall title winner this season.

“Adam drove brilliantly in what was possibly one of the most perfect drives anyone has seen to recover from the initial drive-through penalty,” Gallagher said in a statement released in the wake of the penalty.

“The safety car restart was a mess, and we were penalised. The stewards have a hard job to do, so we accept their verdict even if we find the outcome extremely frustrating. We aim to win this title.

“If we don’t I suspect we will look back at today’s outcome as being pivotal. For now, though, it’s history. Roll on Brands Hatch.”

Carroll also gave reasons as to why he didn’t think he deserved either penalty.

“In the Feature Race I knew the car had rolled a little on the grid but I definitely did not start until the lights went out,” he said.

“After we got the drive-through penalty I just put my head down and we climbed back to second – so I am very disappointed we got a 25-second penalty.

“What happened at the second safety car restart was that everyone in front started to brake, slow and fan out – Australia pulled across suddenly, and slowed, and I did the safest thing which was to keep going. If we’d all hit the brakes there’d have been a motorway-style accident.