2015 Formula 1 British Grand Prix

British Grand Prix – Silverstone, 5 July 2015

Posted: 05.07.2015
Source: Ferrari

Maurizio Arrivabene: “Overall I can’t be happy with this weekend: on an all-dry race, the result would have been much different. I feel happy because once again Seb made the perfect call to come into the pits, and then drove superbly to open the gap to the Williams cars. Also, I am pleased with a very good race strategy. We need to stay humble and not brag ourselves, because today third place came courtesy of a great drive by Seb and a great strategy-but we also need a great car. The strategy guys do a wonderful job, but when it rains, it’s the driver who has the final call to the pits. In the case of Kimi, whose strategy was identical to Seb’s, he thought it better to come in. If it had rained harder, maybe he could have won the race. But we must be honest and acknowledge that Williams was stronger than us today”.

Kimi Raikkonen: “In the early part of the race we were stuck behind Hulkenberg’s Force India, they were too fast on the straight and in the places you could pass, while we lacked some speed. It’s a pity because the handling of the car was good through the whole race and the behavior was definitely better than yesterday. When it started raining heavily, the track became very slippery, especially in Turns 7 and 8; so I took the decision to come in the pits for Intermediate, but then the rain stopped. Probably I made the call three or four laps too early. But in general, this kind of track is not ideal for us, and this is something we have to work on.”

Sebastian Vettel: “I had a really bad start, I nearly didn’t get off the line and lost positions. At the restart I made up a position, but I lost two as a consequence. It didn’t seem to come together at this point, a bit like the whole weekend for us, but then we were able to turn it around. We recovered through strategy, mostly by being very aggressive. I was in touch with the team all the time, it was not easy to take the right decision with the weather. But we did a great call to pit just in the perfect lap, made up a lot of ground and finished on the podium. I’m sorry for the people that got wet, but the rain helped us today! It was in the end a podium finish that we deserved, as we made the right call at the right time. Williams did a small step forward, for us I think we just didn’t find the rhythm at this weekend. There is plenty of things we have to learn and understand quickly. We are not in favour of these hard tyres, but it is the same for everyone, so no excuses allowed. If you look at the gap to the first two cars, it was bigger than normal, so it is up to us to come back for Hungary.”

British GP – Vettel fights his way to the podium, Raikkonen eighth

Posted: 05.07.2015
Source: Ferrari

In tricky conditions, Seb claims a well deserved third place

Silverstone, 5 July – The British Grand Prix started under summer skies, but eventually delivered a typical English day, with rain arriving unexpectedly for the final third of the race. When the rain came, Raikkonen had been lying fifth and switched to Intermediate tyres on lap 38, while Vettel came in four laps later. It was enough to make the difference when it came to tyre management, given that the rain intensified just as Sebastian made his stop. Thanks to a great strategy, Vettel managed to jump the two cars ahead to go from sixth to third place, thus returning to the podium after a two race absence. Raikkonen was forced to make a further stop because his tyres were degrading and he ended up eighth. The race was won by Lewis Hamilton for Mercedes.

British Grand Prix – Silverstone, 4 July 2015

Posted: 04.07.2015
Source: Ferrari

Kimi Raikkonen: “It was not an easy qualifying, with the strong wind the handling was not ideal and it was very tricky for everybody, because the conditions kept changing from run to run and from corner to corner. We know that when is windy it’s not very easy for us, we improved our car on that side but here it was still difficult to get the lap right, putting all the sectors together. Obviously we can’t be happy for fifth and sixth position, it’s a bit disappointing, but we tried our best and hopefully tomorrow we’ll do better. I don’t think we’re slipping back, it’s just the different conditions we had today. In the race we’ll see what is going to happen, we’ll push to gain some positions”.

Sebastian Vettel: “It was more difficult than we expected so we’ll have to have a look at that, but clearly it’s not ‘clean’ from my side. I struggled a bit to find the right balance. Tomorrow could be a different story, because our race pace should be fine. Today was not the best day. Hopefully tomorrow will be an exciting race, we can do plenty of things, we have the pace. I know that is difficult to pass, especially the Williams as they have a good straightline speed, but we’ll see. Maybe we can find something for tomorrow. For sure it’s not the best starting position. In Q3 we were not happy with either run. The out lap was not great, I nearly crashed with Felipe in last attempt, I think there was a bit of confusion because Nico was going so slow…nobody to blame though. In the end I made a mistake in the final lap, but in general, we were not quick enough.”

British GP – All-red third row

Posted: 04.07.2015
Source: Ferrari

Fifth and sixth places for Ferrari in qualifying at Silverstone

Silverstone, 4 July – A large crowd was treated to a very exciting qualifying session for the British Grand Prix this Saturday afternoon. In front of around 100,000 spectators, the Scuderia ended up with Kimi Raikkonen fifth in 1.33.379 and sixth with Sebastian Vettel, who did a 1.33.547. On their last set of Medium tyres, neither Ferrari man managed to improve on the times posted on their first set of new tyres, but it was enough to lock down the third row of the grid for tomorrow’s race. Pole went to Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes with a 1.32.248.

British Grand Prix – Kimi confirms pace on Mediums

Posted: 04.07.2015
Source: Ferrari

Raikkonen and Vettel third and fourth in final free practice

Silverstone, 4 July –The Ferraris of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel followed home the Mercedes duo in qualifying simulation runs at Silverstone circuit this morning. Temperatures had dropped to more usual levels for this time of year, thanks to the rain that fell overnight and a strong wind which affected the final hour of free practice. Kimi did a 1.33.692, beaten only by Lewis Hamilton (1.32.917) and Nico Rosberg (1.33.469.) In the other SF15-T, Sebastian Vettel was fourth with a 1.33.918.

British Grand Prix – Silverstone, 3 July 2015

Posted: 03.07.2015
Source: Ferrari

Kimi Raikkonen: “Today we tried to do the maximum in the practice and it looks good, but it’s only Friday. It was not an easy day, anyway we learned something. We still have to improve and try to make it a bit more straightforward. We have no idea what the others were doing in the long run, we were focused on our session. The medium compound seems to be pretty ok, while the hard one is more difficult. For some reason I struggled a bit with that, but I don’t know if it was down to that set in particular or if the compound itself is more tricky here.”

Sebastian Vettel: “We didn’t have any issues with the car and, more or less, we got through everything we wanted to do. Still I’m not entirely happy with the car yet. Some of the things we tried  were good and others were not so good. Now we have to make sure to have only the best things in the  car tomorrow. Then I hope we can do a step forward. This track is a lot about finding the rhythm. About the tyres, I can say that it is only Friday, and not everybody was able to get everything out of both compounds. Anything can happen tomorrow and our main opponents will certainly be very strong, but if we can confirm today’s result, that would be good”

British GP – Quick at a quick track

Posted: 03.07.2015
Source: Ferrari

Raikkonen and Vettel finish second and third in FP2

Silverstone, 3 July – The Ferrari duo of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel were front runners this Friday at Silverstone, come the end of the first two free practice sessions, which marked the start of the ninth round of the Formula 1 World Championship. Raikkonen was third this afternoon with a 1.34.502 on his qualifying simulation using the Medium tyres, just ahead of Vettel who did a 1.34.522, both men running the softer of the two compounds brought to England by Pirelli. Having been quickest this morning, Nico Rosberg was again fastest for Mercedes with a 1.34.155.

British GP – The action begins at Silverstone

Posted: 03.07.2015
Source: Ferrari

Kimi fourth and Seb sixth in first free practice

Silverstone, 3 July – The Ferraris were fourth and sixth fastest in the first free practice session at Silverstone, the historic home of the British Grand Prix. The Finn posted a 1.35.588, to end up behind the lead trio of the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg (1.34.274)  his team-mate Lewis Hamilton (1.34.344,) and Max Verstappen in the Toro Rosso (1.35.530.) In the other SF15-T, Sebastian Vettel was sixth with a 1.35.739. Apart from the usual tyre programme, running two sets of Hard tyres each, the two Ferrari men shared the tasks of aerodynamic testing and set-up work.

British GP – “Stepping out the game”

Posted: 02.07.2015
Source: Ferrari

Vettel confident but still a lot to do

“Our target at the beginning of the season was to close the gap to the Mercedes, and try to win a couple of races. We succeded already in most of the things, we are here to win but we know that it is  very difficult to challenge them in the shape they are now. We need to become quicker and stronger in  all areas, and to do that, we have to work very hard. Unfortunately, things don’t happen overnight,
then we need some time. The test we had last week was difficult due to the weather conditions.

We would have loved to have more consistent running in the same conditions, but everybody lost a bit of  time and couldn’t finish the programme. Anyway a lot of stuff was done and it was important for the engine to keep running and do some mileage. We are pretty happy with what we could get out of the  test. I hope I can have a fight with Mercedes on track, because this would mean we are doing very  well. It would be nice, but as I said in the beginning we have to keep our feet on the ground.

We know the gap is still there, but we’ll try our best to have a clean weekend. Tire combination will be interesting here, I think that’s one thing we have to look out for. We have to work and be focused on ourselves, every race we’ll try to do more steps”.

British GP – “We have the tools to improve”

Posted: 02.07.2015
Source: Ferrari

Kimi sees the way up despite difficulties

“So far, the season has not been ideal and we haven’t got the results we expected, but the most important thing now for me is to try and have good races. Compared to last year, it hasn’t been a disaster, we are in the fourth place in the Championship and second as a team and we have all the tools to do better.

After a bad race in Austria we hope to have a good weekend here: I like this place, there’s a lot of tradition in motor racing. Maybe I enjoyed more the original layout, it was more flowing, similar to Monza or Spa, but it is always a nice place to come to. Now it’s too early to say what will happen, so far we have been more or less the same in every track, so I don’t expect here to be anything less than that. Here it’s often quite windy and this can make it tricky for everybody. We have the speed and all the tools to avoid mistakes. If we got rid of all the small issues, we could have good results.”

British Grand Prix – Gutierrez: “It’s even more fun in the rain”

Posted: 01.07.2015
Source: Ferrari

A unique combination of corners

Maranello, 1 July – For Esteban Gutierrez, Scuderia Ferrari’s third driver, England’s Silverstone circuit is on his list of favourites. “It’s one of the tracks I like best, because it features a unique combination of corners. Becketts for example has been the inspiration for many sections at various other circuits. It’s also my favourite part of the circuit: you arrive at the corner after Copse, accelerating flat out and there is no room for error. “I’ve got fond memories of this track, as I had good results in all the categories in which I raced here. It’s true the weather can be tricky, but in my opinion, if it rains it makes driving here even more fun. Managing tyre temperatures is one of the most difficult aspects, because the weather can change unexpectedly and it’s not easy to keep them consistent. The first world championship began in England, so of course there are a lot of fans here. They arrive well prepared and they are very loyal to the teams they support and it’s an amazing sight to see all the camp sites around the circuit. I myself usually sleep in a camper van at Silverstone, because there’s a very special atmosphere and I reckon that’s the best way to experience it.”

British Grand Prix – Working through the summer

Posted: 30.06.2015
Source: Ferrari

A mix of humility and determination

Maranello, 30 June – As we come up to the British Grand Prix, Alberto Antonini, head of the Motor Sport Press Office, looks ahead to the weekend at the English track and addresses the topic of possible changes within the Scuderia driver line-up, one of the most traditional of summer rumours. “This isn’t an easy Grand Prix, not that any of them is easy, but our aim is tackle it with the right mix of humility and determination. We need to work calmly and those who love this team are well aware what we mean by that. It’s a home race for most of our competitors, it’s a demanding track but we will knuckle down and do all in our power to achieve what is possible and even what is impossible to bring home the result we deserve. We are totally aware that this will be a demanding summer, with tricky races presenting us with all sorts of different demands. We continue to work on bringing developments to each race, because we aim to close the gap which currently separates us from our competitors, keeping in mind the fact that, at the last two races, our actual results on track did not live up to our potential. As for all the rumours doing the rounds, it’s nice to have something to read on the beach and it’s been the norm at this point in the season to talk about a bit of everything, but the truth of the matter within the team couldn’t be more straightforward. There are two seats and at the moment, they are both taken. We are sure many a driver would love to drive for Ferrari, but at the moment, the situation is clear: we have two nominated race drivers.”