Formula 1 News

2010 Turkish GP, qualifying: Team quotes 

Sam Michael: “Today’s result is clearly not where we want to be. We’re going through the data to look for the main differences to our competitors, but the obvious target is to bring more performance to the car for the forthcoming races. The track engineers will now concentrate on getting a good start tomorrow with a view to getting into the points.”

Giorgio Ascanelli: “We can be reasonably satisfied, because we have worked hard over the past couple of weeks and our car has progressed. However, it was clear this afternoon that Sauber has also worked hard and progressed more than us. The cars ran reliably and generally, we have done a good job, but we did not get the most out of our package this afternoon, because we treated yesterday’s free practice more like a test session, to evaluate some new parts, rather than optimising the car to suit the characteristics of this track. Therefore we did not get everything right today and the verdict of the qualifying time sheet is the correct one in our case.”

Ross Brawn: “A good qualifying performance from the team today after a lot of hard work here at the track and back at the factory on the latest developments for our car. Michael and Nico have been very evenly matched throughout the weekend and have worked well together to ensure that we have been able to get the new parts functioning and extract the maximum performance. Fifth and sixth positions on the grid gives us the potential to have a strong race tomorrow and we look forward to seeing what Nico and Michael can achieve. We’ve seen just how challenging the Istanbul Park track can be with turn eight catching out many drivers over the course of the day and Michael was no exception but thankfully there is no damage done.”

Norbert Haug: “That was a step in the right direction with Michael achieving P5, less than a tenth of a second behind P3, and Nico posting the sixth fastest time, less than two-tenths behind P3. Having said that, we are very aware that we are still almost six-tenths behind the superb pole time of Mark Webber and Red Bull Racing. However our speed compared to the front looks better than at the last ‘normal’ race track that we competed on in Barcelona. The step forward since then has only been possible through hard work, dedication and our aggressive development process. Thank you and well done to everybody in our team. We are not yet where we want to be but we are heading in the right direction.”

Vijay Mallya: “It’s been a difficult weekend with various issues to contend with, but it’s tomorrow that counts. Adrian is still in a very good position, on the clean side of the track and able to run new tyres, and he has scored points from further down the field before. Tonio also has the use of our new SRW device and should be able to make the most of it on the longer straight here. So, overall, we can remain positive and look to make the most of whatever comes our way.”

Peter Sauber: “Looking at our performance, it’s obvious we are back on track. This is a great achievement for the drivers and the team. Kamui’s P9 in Q2 in particular is a fantastic result. Looking at who was behind him in Q2, he can really be proud of his lap. Congratulations to everybody in the team.”

James Key: “That was a good day for the team. We made some good progress in the areas we knew we needed to improve from yesterday, which seemed to work pretty well. In the morning session Pedro was much happier with the balance of his car, and that was reflected in the lap times. We still had some work to do with Kamui’s car, however, we did a few changes between FP3 and qualifying which also paid off. It’s great to be back in Q3 which is what we hoped for. Kamui did a great job, as he put in an excellent lap and really picked up his pace in qualifying. It was also a very good session from Pedro, but it was a great shame he couldn’t make it to Q3, because by rights he could have been there. He had a set of new options left, which sadly Kamui didn’t, so his lap was compromised. But both drivers showed a strong performance, and we can look forward to a good race tomorrow.”

Colin Kolles: “I am pleased with the times of Bruno Senna. In qualifying he improved from the morning session. I was hoping for the cars to be a bit higher. Things are looking good, Karun Chandhok and Bruno Senna kept their cars out of trouble which is a good step towards a safe race.”

Martin Whitmarsh: “Both our drivers have performed really well so far this weekend, yesterday as well as today. They’ve quietly got on with the job in hand, and today they both drove excellent qualifying laps despite the fact that our cars lacked a little bit of pace in the all-important Turn Eight compared with the Red Bulls. Lewis’s lap, which split the Red Bulls to land him a front-row grid slot for tomorrow’s race, was particularly satisfying. But Jenson, too, whose final qualifying run was compromised by the deployment of yellow flags, is also in a very strong position. Both he and Lewis are very combative racers who know how to make up positions, and we think our car will have good race pace tomorrow. As a result, I think the 2010 Turkish Grand Prix could present a very exciting spectacle for the fans.”

Eric Boullier: “To see both cars make it through to the top ten is an excellent result for the team and puts us in a good position for the race tomorrow. Both cars have run perfectly all weekend and the developments we have brought to this race have continued to add good performance to the car. Robert’s seventh place continues his strong run of qualifying performances and it’s great to see Vitaly join him in Q3 for the first time. He has been close to Robert’s pace all weekend and has not put a foot wrong in any of the sessions. We know that the car has good race pace here so we are hopeful of seeing both cars bring home points tomorrow.”

Alan Permane: “Overall it has been an excellent day: the drivers are happy with their cars and both free practice and qualifying have been trouble-free sessions for us. One of the big decisions today was to determine which would be the best tyre for qualifying because it was very close between the soft and the hard compound. In the end the soft was slightly quicker and so that’s the one we concentrated on for Q3. Robert put in a good lap to qualify seventh and it’s great to see Vitaly reach Q3 for the first time and qualify in ninth place. For the race tomorrow we are targeting good points finishes with both cars.”

Stefano Domenicali: “These are certainly not the positions from which we would have liked to start the eight hundredth Grand Prix in the history of the Scuderia, but we have to be honest and admit that today, our performance did not live up to our expectations. We have to react immediately, starting from tomorrow’s race, when we will try to bring home as many points as possible. Then we must accelerate the development of our car to be competitive at every type of circuit. Today, Felipe did the maximum, using all the potential available from his car and the tyres. Fernando did not have a perfect Q2 and missed the cut for the final part of qualifying: when the gaps are so close, it takes very little to be in or out.”

Chris Dyer: “It was a very frustrating qualifying for us: we definitely expected a better result than this. The F10 was not quick enough to be competitive in qualifying, while, at least from what we could see yesterday, over a distance, the situation seems to be better. Tomorrow, we face an uphill race, but we must not take anything for granted and try to bring both cars home in the points. Unfortunately, both drivers will start from the dirty side of the track, which is a definite disadvantage. Felipe did a great job, managing to get into Q3 and getting every last possible fraction of performance out of the car. Fernando was right on the cut after his first run in Q2 and at the start of his second, he did not get a perfect lap and then on the next lap, the tyres were no longer at their best.”

Mike Gascoyne: “I’m pleased with our performance in qualifying this afternoon. There was a question mark from this morning whether to run the prime or option tyres – we felt the car was more stable on the primes and that decision paid dividends with us being only 3.2seconds away from the Red Bulls who used the same tyres in Q1- that shows just how much progress we’ve made as a team from the start of the season, and that’s very satisfying. So – a good solid performance today and we’ll look forward to the race tomorrow where we want to get both our cars to the finish line.”

Tony Fernandes: “All in all today’s been another good day and it proves to me that our future is very bright. To be honest I was starting to dream about Q2, and while we may still be a little bit off that we’re clearly getting closer and closer, and thinking back to where we started, that’s incredible. We need to work on giving Jarno more confidence in the car, and perhaps today we could have got more from Heikki’s tyres, but I think there’s still more to come from the 2010 car – maybe even another 0.5 seconds. Tomorrow will be all about getting two cars home, and I know our team has the experience and strength to do that. Today we were just 3.2 seconds off the pace of the Red Bulls in Q1 and if you cast your mind back 10 short weeks to Bahrain you can see just how far we’ve come. There we were over five seconds away from the outright Q1 pace and anyone in the sport will tell you what an achievement it is to find nearly two seconds in just seven races. We were also just 2.4 seconds off Ferrari, celebrating their 800th race in Turkey, which is pretty spectacular for a team who are only seven races old – I think that shows to all those who expressed doubts about our participation that they were wrong. We’re also now in a position to turn our attention to the 2011 car, but we’re still here and fighting hard for this season – I want, in the nicest possible way, to take this fight to my mentors Frank Williams and Patrick Head and their team, from whom I’ve learnt an awful lot over the last few years, and compete with them and the likes of Toro Rosso and Sauber, and today’s yet another example of how we really can dream of doing just that. I’m now off to order a kebab for Jarno and Heikki. Well, maybe a kebab pizza for Jarno, and a reindeer kebab for Heikki, if anyone in Istanbul can find them one…..”

Nick Wirth: “A very encouraging day. After a detailed analysis of yesterday’s running, a strong team engineering effort with a lot of clear input from both drivers yielded the improvement that I was looking for. Timo was much happier with the car today and it’s clear that the development parts that we brought here are working again. It’s a bit unfortunate that Timo didn’t manage to complete his last qualifying run as we believed it was possible to get in front of at least one of the Lotus cars. We’ve closed in on them since Barcelona and we normally have a strong race pace in comparison, so the objective is to fight for every opportunity and get both cars to the finish. We’re all very sorry that Lucas’ day has been blighted by an issue with the engine that we fitted to his car last night, which had already completed two Grands Prix. The power loss from this engine is the sole reason that Lucas is so far behind Timo and having discussed the issue with Cosworth we have no other option but to change the engine for the race tomorrow.”

Christian Horner: “Another great performance by Mark today for his third consecutive pole and the team’s seventh of the year, which is a great achievement. It was difficult for Sebastian who, having been the quickest car during Q1 and Q2, experienced a car problem in the last part of qualifying. We need to understand what it was, as it cost him quite a bit of time. However to salvage third place is still excellent. I also have to say congratulations to Cengiz, one of our drivers, who delivered some last minute parts to Mark Webber’s car just in time for the start of the session. So, three very fast drivers today.”

Fabrice Lom: “Another impressive performance from Mark, who claimed his third pole in a row with the same engine – so we are really happy with our three pole engine! Our focus tomorrow is now to make it a three-win engine. It was a shame for Sebastian who I think had the opportunity to claim pole position also today. Engine-wise, everything went smoothly, much better than yesterday when we had an engine failure on Mark’s car. It wasn’t a worrying one, but it’s never good to have a failure during a race weekend, so we apologise to Mark for that. Let’s hope we have a smooth day again tomorrow.”