Formula 1 News

2008 European GP (Valencia), race: Team quotes 

Christian Horner: “A disastrous race. David got involved in an incident in the first lap, which damaged his car and Mark, who was on a one stop strategy, was hoping for a safety car that never appeared. He didn’t have enough pace, particularly after his pit stop. It’s our most disappointing race of the year. Congratulations to Sebastian Vettel who drove very well today and demonstrated what the chassis is capable of.”

Flavio Briatore: “It’s a weekend to forget. Our objective remains to fight for fourth place in the championship and we must now stay focussed for the races to come and continue with our efforts to grow stronger.”

Patrick Head: “With the reliability of the cars these days, one point is what you can expect from starting 9th and 11th on the grid. Kazuki went into anti-stall at the start which lost him a lot of places. He then had to pit for a new front wing which put paid to what would have been a one stop race. Nico squeezed everything he could out of the car today. Unfortunately, we missed out on seventh place with him by a few fractions of a second in his second pit-stop. We now have to return to the factory to find those few tenths.”

Mike Gascoyne: “Although it was disappointing not to get two cars to the finish, both drivers drove excellent races, with good pace showing we’d made a clear step forward. Adrian was honest enough to admit he made a mistake, but until that point he was having a very good race. We had put one car on one stop and the other on two to cover all bases in case of a safety car, which we were expecting for this race, and had he finished, Adrian on his two stops would have been able to finish just behind Giancarlo. Overall it’s been a very positive weekend for the team.”

Ross Brawn: “Jenson got a good start and was able to make up three places during the first lap, however the midfield was quite close today and with a heavy fuel load he was unable to progress through the field. Starting Rubens from the pit lane was the right decision as he benefited from the melée at Turn 2 and ended up being further up the field than he would otherwise have been. Contrary to expectation though there was relatively low attrition with only three cars failing to finish and no safety cars, which meant there were no real opportunities to take advantage of. Fundamentally we have improved the car over the August break and we saw clear signs of that progress in free practice. We didn’t make the most of that when it counted this weekend and we suffered in qualifying and the race as a result. So our first priority will be to understand where we failed and make sure we have a more robust approach for Spa and beyond. We have a three-day test in Monza next week where we will focus on getting the most out of our recent developments.”

Franz Tost: “All weekend, the team has performed excellently. We ended up with both our drivers finishing where they started in sixth and tenth places, which is a solid result as all the top teams apart from Ferrari had both their cars finish. Vettel had a good start considering he was on the dirty side of the track, but a touch with Raikkonen left him with some vibration from the front left wheel and his second stint he had a bit of graining. Bourdais also drove a good race and also performed well through the weekend. We have shown that our performance is improving from race to race and so we are looking forward to Spa and Monza. I am convinced that both of these races, especially Monza will suit our package. For Scuderia Toro Rosso and our Red Bull parent company this has been a really successful weekend.”

Stefano Domenicali: “Felipe has had an extraordinary weekend. Yesterday he was very quick in qualifying and today he drove in impeccable style, without putting a foot wrong to take what was a very well deserved win after the disappointment of Budapest. I want to compliment him and the whole team who have worked so hard in preparing for this event. Unfortunately, once again, we have suffered with a reliability problem, this time on Kimi’s car, which lost us precious points. Now we have to find out what happened in yet another engine failure and then decide how to react. Clearly what happened is serious and we will have to do all in our power to make up for the ground we have lost through reliability problems in the coming races. Now we must continue to push to the maximum to develop the car and improve reliability in order to be as well prepared as possible for the forthcoming races. We still have two test sessions, at Monza and then Jerez and a lot of hard days work in the factory. Finally, I want to say a few words about Piero Timpini, our mechanic unfortunately injured in Kimi’s second pit stop: his first words were to say sorry, as though the incident was his fault: it is thanks to the passion, dedication and professionalism, that these guys show on a daily basis for Ferrari how special is our team.”

Norbert Haug: “I am quite satisfied. Lewis leads the Drivers’ World Championship, six points ahead of Felipe and 13 ahead of Kimi. No other team scored more points than we did today; we reduced the gap in the constructors’ and extended the lead in the drivers’ rankings. Congratulations to Felipe and Ferrari on their strong race and victory. The first grand prix here in Valencia was a great premiere – thank you to the organisers and to Bernie; this grand prix most certainly set an example. The most positive element was that the boxes containing our spare parts were kept closed all weekend – we didn’t need to fit a single replacement part throughout a race weekend that everybody thought might be full of crashes. We will now continue to work hard in order to be well prepared for the final third of the season, which will begin with back-to-back races at Spa and Monza, two particularly challenging circuits that will put maximum stress on the engines.”

Willy Rampf: “This was a race without too much excitement. Our most difficult moment was when Robert radioed he had a problem. On the telemetry data we could see that his car lost downforce, which was due to a plastic bag stuck to the floor of the car. During the first pit stop we removed it, and after this, everything was fine again. At the start Robert almost overtook Lewis Hamilton, but finally it didn’t work out. He then drove a good and consistent race, and he finished in third. Nick started from eighth, hence we expected him to score championship points. However, his pace was simply too slow. Of course we are happy about Robert’s podium finish, but overall we expected to score more points today.”

Vijay Mallya: “I think this weekend has been one of our most competitive to date, with strong performances in practice and qualifying, and now a very close race showing we have made a step forward and now are racing with the other teams in front. We’ve got to keep our heads down and keep going in that direction and the results will start to come.”

Tadashi Yamashina: “This has turned into one of those good weekends. After qualifying, everybody was a bit disappointed but today went much better due to excellent teamwork. After Jarno missed Saturday’s practice session, the crew put Timo’s set-up into Jarno’s car and he delivered a very good performance and a very smooth race to 5th place today. Timo was not feeling well but he made an excellent start, managed his tyres well and put in a huge effort to complete this race with the best result. I’m very happy that we are confirming our good pace. Now we will push to keep these results coming, with a particular eye on the Japanese Grand Prix later in the season.”

Luca Baldisserri: “A great performance from Felipe all weekend long. He was fantastic and deserves all our praise. Unfortunately, yet again, we were not reliable, both from a technical point of view and in how we operated on the track, given what happened during Raikkonen’s pit stop and then the failure of his engine, which initial investigations seem to point at a similar failure to the one Felipe experienced in Hungary. Fortunately, Pietro Timpini, the mechanic operating the refueling, injured at Kimi’s second stop, got away with just a small fracture to the left foot and it is not particularly serious. Today we have seen two sides of the coin. We have a great potential, from both the team and the car, capable of putting us in front of everyone else, but if not all elements are operating at their optimum, then we are throwing away precious points that could cost us dear. We must work to remedy these problems and that’s what we will do starting in the days that follow.”

Pat Symonds: “It’s very disappointing to leave this wonderful new track with no points. We are particularly sorry not to have had a better race with Fernando for his second home Grand Prix, but we must now move forward and think of the next race.”

Ron Dennis: “We saw another extremely solid Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team performance today, the result of which was a very useful clutch of championship points, but in truth we lost the chance of outright victory yesterday in qualifying. In my view it’s pretty clear that if Lewis had qualified with the same level of fuel as Felipe, he’d probably have been able to control the race from the front. But the nature of the circuit dictated that it was always going to be difficult for him to overtake today – and, that being the case, we opted fairly early on to take the championship-strategic option of settling for second place. Following on from his victory in Hungary, Heikki also drove very strongly and helped bolster our points total in the constructors’ championship. He responded well to the pressure applied by Kimi and thoroughly deserved his fourth place.”

Fabrice Lom: “A poor result, we were off the pace. After qualifying we didn’t really have any opportunity to bet on, so we finished where we qualified. We have poor pace and we just have to work.”

Mario Theissen: “First of all a big compliment to the organisers of the event for such a good first race. The atmosphere in the city and at the circuit around the harbour is just fantastic. From now on Valencia will be one of the season’s highlights. Certainly we enjoyed being back on the podium, with it being the fifth time this year for Robert. He drove a strong race. During the early laps he had some trouble as a plastic bag was stuck on his car and affected its handling. Apart from this both cars ran trouble free and the pit stops went well. Starting from eighth was not an ideal situation for Nick. We were hoping he would improve one or two places at the start, but in the heat of the moment he unfortunately lost a position and then the race was basically over for him.”