Formula 1 2018 Emirates Spanish Grand Prix

Spanish Grand Prix – Montmeló 13 May

Posted: 13.05.2018
Source: Ferrari

Maurizio Arrivabene: “In many ways, this is a weekend in which nothing went right. Now, calmly and with accuracy, we need to analyse the reasons, and they are various, which prevented us from exploiting the potential we demonstrated in the previous races. Then we will prepare for the upcoming Monaco Grand Prix, in a professional, determined and confident manner.”

Sebastian Vettel: “Our tires didn’t last as long as for the others, so we couldn’t follow the same strategy. We had to stop again and we obviously lost two positions, and also a bit of time during the pit-stop itself. But staying out was not an option today. We had problems finding the right balance of the car and we were struggling with the front tires. Maybe the changes for this weekend had a bad impact on us, worse than the one the others had. So, I am happy to go back to ‘normal’ tires in Monaco as we seemed to struggle a little bit more than the others. Today we just didn’t have the right pace, Mercedes was faster than us and we hadn’t many chances. We tried our best, but something was missing and we need to improve on this. During the whole weekend it has been tough to find the right balance on these new tires. But I see no reason for not being optimistic for the next race.”

Kimi Raikkonen: “My race was going pretty ok today, I was in a decent position and the speed was good. I was running smoothly and saving the tires. Everything could have been alright, but unfortunately it did not happen. At one point I started losing power; I managed to drive around but obviously not at full speed anymore, so I drove back to the garage. We don’t know more than that about the issue we had, we need to take the car back to the factory and check what happened. Looking at the Championship, this result is far from ideal, and I’m pretty disappointed. There is nothing we could have done differently today, but we need to try and keep pushing.”

Spanish Grand Prix – An uphill battle of a race

Posted: 13.05.2018
Source: Ferrari

Seb fourth, Kimi retires from Spanish GP

Montmelò, 13 May – Sebastian Vettel’s fourth place was the sole reward for Scuderia Ferrari after an uphill battle at the Spanish Grand Prix. Kimi Raikkonen was forced to retire after a loss of power.

This was the story of the race: the sun was playing hide-and-seek with the clouds before the start, after a night with lots of rain. At the getaway Seb went straight on the attack from third place on the grid and passed Bottas, while Kimi stayed in fourth place. The safety car came out on lap 1 when Grosjean spun off and triggered a string of collisions.

The race restarted at the end of the sixth lap in the same positions. Another 12 laps passed before the team made an early call to bring Seb into the pits to change onto the Medium tyres. Bottas reacted two laps later but despite facing traffic – and benefiting from a tow from Magnussen – Vettel managed to stay ahead of the Mercedes as it came out of the pits.

Meanwhile further back, Kimi reported a problem over the radio and the No.7 car suddenly slowed and crawled back to the pits. He had suffered a loss of power, the same problem that put paid to Ocon on the 40th lap, bringing out the virtual safety car.

Seb came into the pits to put on another set of Medium tyres. The move came because he had been having problems with the tyres; but there was a problem with the right rear and on the exit the No.5 car ended up behind both Bottas and Verstappen, whose car had suffered damage to the front wing after earlier contact.

“You can push right to the flag,” was Ricky Adami’s advice to his driver. But it’s not easy. Making it past the 50th lap, Seb went for it and lowered his lap times, but without managing to get past his rival. Even if by the end he was only seven tenths of a second away from the podium.

Spanish Grand Prix – “Not a bad place to start from”

Posted: 12.05.2018
Source: Ferrari

Seb, and Kimi reflect on “different” qualifying session

Montmelò, May 12 – Today’s qualifying session ended up with Scuderia Ferrari drivers Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen occupying third and fourth slot on the grid respectively. After making the cut into Q3 with Soft tyres, which are less prone to degradation in the race, both opted for the same compound (classified as Option, versus the “Quali” Supersoft) for their final run in Q3-a choice also made by other drivers today.

“Overall, I think it was a smooth session”, said Seb. “The car was fine and we didn’t have much to do. We were quite ok this morning, trying to find the right direction. It was straightforward in qualifying and then in Q3 during my first run I locked up a little bit in Turn 1, so my first sector was already slow. I tried to recover and fight for pole, but it was not enough. I didn’t have a great feeling on the tires, which have been different the whole weekend. Even if they look the same, they are harder. However, it’s the same for everyone. Obviously, I am not entirely happy, but we expected Mercedes to be very strong here. P3 is not a bad place to start from. Tomorrow we’ll focus on the start first, and then we’ll see. It will be a long race and the tires will be challenging, too. Even if the start doesn’t go in our favor, I think we always have a strong car to keep fighting. I think tomorrow it will be an interesting race and we’ll be close; the same as happened in the last couple of races. I’m looking forward to the Spanish Grand Prix and hope the people will enjoy it.”

“It was a tricky qualifying, not the ideal one”, was Kimi’s comment. “In Q3, on my first attempt with the Supersofts, I made a mistake in turn 1 and went wide; obviously this affected my lap. At that point, I was in a position where I had nothing to lose, so we decided to try something else. The Soft tires felt pretty good in Q2 so we decided to use them in my last run. In the end we managed to do a decent job, but obviously we are not satisfied with the result. It’s difficult to predict what will happen in the race and it’s a bit of an unknown for me, considering I couldn’t do the long runs yesterday. We’ll try to make a good start and see how the race pans out”.

Spanish Grand Prix – Scuderia Ferrari on the second row

Posted: 12.05.2018
Source: Ferrari

Vettel ahead of Raikkonen

Montmelò, 12 May –Come the end of today’s qualifying on the Spanish track, there was an all-Ferrari second row for the start of the Spanish Grand Prix, which gets underway at 15h10 tomorrow. Sebastian secured third place thanks to a lap in 1’16”305, while team-mate Kimi Raikkonen was right behind him with a best lap of 1’16”612. Both drivers ran Soft and Supersoft tyres, setting their qualifying time on the more robust compound.

Spanish Grand Prix – Final free practice in Montmelò

Posted: 12.05.2018
Source: Ferrari

Ferrari 3rd and 4th fastest

Montmelo, 12 May – Ferrari finished third and fourth fastest in the final hour of free practice. Sebastian Vettel’s best time was a 1’17”550, while team-mate Kimi Raikkonen posted a 1’17”581. Scuderia Ferrari opted to run Supersoft tyres for both drivers, with Kimi Raikkonen also going out on the Mediums. The session was red flagged right at the end, after Brendon Hartley crashed in his Toro Rosso. Qualifying gets underway at 15h00.

Spanish Grand Prix – “We should be stronger tomorrow”

Posted: 11.05.2018
Source: Ferrari

Seb praises “car you can trust” while Kimi has “not the most straightforward Friday”

Montmelò, May 11 – It was a Friday of mixed fortunes for Scuderia Ferrari drivers Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen: while Seb managed to complete his daily routine, setting encouraging times in the final long run on Soft tires, Kimi had to coast back to the pits after being radioed to stop the engine because of an apparent malfunction. Gusty winds affected both sessions and the track felt obviously very different from winter testing, with temperatures around the 30 degree mark.

“Everything we put on the car seems to work and that’s important,” said Seb. “I think the biggest change that has been made is on the tires, which seem to be quite different. I don’t think they are better than before. As for the changes you saw with the rearview mirrors, it is no big deal. Before, it was quite difficult for us to look at the cars behind. Now they are in a better position and I can see a little bit better below the rear wing. If you trust your car, there is no reason to try to push over the limit at this stage. Let’s hope we have the same trust as in Baku where I could get everything out of the car when I had to. Today it was quite slippery and gusty and it was a mixed day. We can still work on the car and I think we should be stronger tomorrow”.

“Today the session was a bit messy” Kimi commented “but overall I think it was not too bad. The wind made it a bit tricky, but we know that, at this time of year, it can be like that. The tarmac was the same as we had in testing, but obviously the weather conditions are different. We all know this track very well but every time we come here it’s like starting from zero. We tried different things and learned from them and it was pretty ok most of the times. Maybe it was not the most straightforward Friday, but I think that more or less we know what we should do. At one point we had some issues and I was told by the team to stop the car. We still don’t know what happened, but we’ll figure it out. In the evening we’ll have some work to do; we’ll go through everything and understand. Tomorrow morning we might get a better idea and know where everybody is. I’m sure it is going to be close”.

Spanish Grand Prix – Montmelò, Ferrari fourth and sixth

Posted: 11.05.2018
Source: Ferrari

Two compounds used in free practice

Barcelona, 11 May –The Scuderia Ferrari drivers finished the second free practice session of the day at the Catalunya circuit in fourth and sixth places. Sebastian Vettel posted a best time of 1’18”585, while Kimi Raikkonen’s fastest lap was a 1’18”829. The Finn’s programme was interrupted by a Power Unit malfunction which was spotted on the telemetry, but he managed to get his SF71H back to the pits. Both drivers used the Soft and Supersoft tyres this afternoon.

Spanish Grand Prix – FP1 completed in Spain

Posted: 11.05.2018
Source: Ferrari

New aero parts on the SF71H

Montmelo, 11 May – The fifth round of the 2018 Championship, the Spanish Grand Prix, has got underway with the first free practice session at the Catalyuna Circuit, which also hosted pre-season testing. Scuderia Ferrari brought new aero parts to try on both SF71Hs. Sebastian Vettel was third fastest in 1”19”098, while Kimi Raikkonen posted a 1’19”499 to go fifth in the session. Both drivers ran the Soft and Supersoft tyres during the 90 minutes of practice. The second session gets underway at 15h00.

Spanish Grand Prix – “Maximize everything”

Posted: 10.05.2018
Source: Ferrari

Kimi and Seb take nothing for granted ahead of Spanish challenge

Montmelò, May 10 – Formula One is back in Europe on the track which has hosted all winter testing over the last three years. Scuderia Ferrari drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel are well aware though that things will be different this weekend, even if temperatures are not as high as one might expect for May in Catalunya. As is customary for this race, quite a few development parts have appeared on the two SF71H cars and the whole team is gearing up for the upcoming challenge.

“It’s hard to know what will happen this weekend”, Kimi comments, “ it depends on many things. Obviously, everybody has done a lot of testing on this track, but the conditions are totally different at this time of the year. So far we have been strong and fast everywhere; we expect to be at least up there in the fight. We’ll do our normal stuff and later in the weekend we’ll see if it is enough. Qualifying is important here as it’s hard to overtake on this circuit; but in the end, it’s not that much different from most of the places we race in. After all, in last year’s race we have seen quite a lot of overtaking, so we’ll see how things turn out this year and how the tires wor . We know roughly where we are and what we are doing and we also know that the result is not always a given, whoever is the strongest. We keep working and improving. It’s pretty close between the top three teams; avoiding any mistake and issues, you give yourself a better chance to be on top in the end”.

“At the beginning of the season you don’t know how strong you can be,” adds Sebastian, “but I think that so far we can be happy. We have been very competitive and we’ve had a chance to fight for the win during most of the races so far. Having said that, there are still many races to go, so it is pointless to talk about what will happen at the end of the Championship. Right now I think it is important to maximize everything in the race. It is natural that we want to win, so if you get the best result every weekend and are in a position to fight for the Championship, then it will be good news. But we cannot say too much before. I believe that small things can make the difference. We’ll keep working on updates and see what they can bring”.

Spanish Grand Prix – The place for surprises

Posted: 08.05.2018
Source: Ferrari

A well known track but now it all starts from scratch

Because of its location, characteristics and climate, the Catalunya Circuit is today the traditional training ground for Formula 1. For the past three years it has been the sole venue for winter testing and it will host two more days of in-season testing on the Tuesday and Wednesday following this weekend’s Grand Prix. For some time now, it is also the venue that kicks off the European season, characterised by the arrival of the mobile hospitality units, still erroneously referred to as “motorhomes” and the fact that cars and equipment all travel by land. The trucks leave Maranello on the Tuesday evening before the race and take around 12 hours to reach the track to the north of Barcelona. In contrast to the races outside Europe, the SF71Hs travel virtually fully assembled, having been rebuilt at the factory rather than the track.

All the drivers claim to know the Montmelo track like the back of their hand, however, not everything can be taken for granted this time, given that winter testing was held in extremely cold conditions and now, in May, the weather will be very different. Furthermore, the track was completely resurfaced at the start of the year, losing some of the roughness for which it was famous and therefore there will be much to learn about the 2018 Medium, Soft and Super Soft compounds in the hotter weather. At the moment, a 2017-style heatwave is not expected, but air temperature, especially on Friday, should comfortably exceed the 20 degree mark.

The Catalan track provides a veritable “workout” for chassis, aerodynamics and indeed the drivers, given that turns like 3 and 9 are now taken flat-out or almost. It’s a track that has everything, but offers few passing opportunities. For those who have the time, Barcelona is around 20 kilometres away with all the attractions of a Mediterranean city. The F1 workers can console themselves with the robust and tasty food, with literary references to Montalban, the writer who inspired the most famous of Andrea Camilleri’s characters…