Formula 1 Grosser Preis von Österreich 2015

Austrian Grand Prix Spielberg, 21st June 2015

Posted: 21.06.2015
Source: Ferrari

Maurizio Arrivabene: “Which positives can we take from this weekend? Not many, but certainly once more we are aware that Sebastian was the big asset we could get this year, together with a team which is fully committed and now is said to be the second force in the championship. But I’d like us to be the first, and that means we have to commit ourselves beyond what’s possible. We must use whatever we have available and try to get as close as we can to our main competitors, taking advantage of their mistakes. Also, as per the time we lost during Seb’s unfortunate pit stop, we must work with humbleness: because, even if everything had gone well, that wouldn’t have been enough to beat both Mercedes on track. But this only prods us to never give up”.

Kimi Raikkonen: “I don’t know exactly what happened before the crash, I  had some wheelspin in an unusual place. I was  at a quite high speed, suddenly went left and end up there. I did not see anything coming, everything happened very quickly. Unfortunately at that time my race was over, it has been a poor weekend, now we have to think about next one.”

Sebastian Vettel: “The issue during the pit-stop is something that can happen: I had a problem, but generally the guys are the quickest on the pit lane so there’s nobody to blame. We are a team and when you push to the limit these things can occur. I would have preferred to get the trophy for third place of course, but we’ll come back next year with the same objective. The car was very good, I think we made another step ahead and we had a great pace. This is a very short lap so there’s not so much to create, but in the next races there are more high speed corners and we can better show that we’re a bit closer even if today’s result doesn’t show so well. In the last part of the race I’ve tried to stay close to Felipe, but he was very quick on the straights. Today was a bit disappointing because we’ve lost the podium, but I’m sure tomorrow it will be better and we’ll focus on the next race: the team in Maranello is very committed to this and they’re all working hard.”

Austrian Grand Prix – A complicated afternoon

Posted: 21.06.2015
Source: Ferrari

Spielberg, 21 June –This afternoon’s Austrian Grand Prix was a difficult race for Scuderia Ferrari. Kimi Raikkonen was involved in a frightening accident with Fernando Alonso on the opening lap, luckily with neither driver sustaining any injury. Sebastian Vettel was also out of luck: a problem with the left rear wheel nut at his pit stop complicated his race, as his stop was inevitably too long and he rejoined in fourth place. From then on the German chased down Felipe Massa, but despite gradually closing on the Brazilian, the bottom step of the podium eluded him and he had to settle for fourth.

Austrian Grand Prix – A complicated afternoon

Posted: 21.06.2015
Source: Ferrari

Spielberg, 21 June –This afternoon’s Austrian Grand Prix was a difficult race for Scuderia Ferrari. Kimi Raikkonen was involved in a frightening accident with Fernando Alonso on the opening lap, luckily with neither driver sustaining any injury. Sebastian Vettel was also out of luck: a problem with the left rear wheel nut at his pit stop complicated his race, as his stop was inevitably too long and he rejoined in fourth place. From then on the German chased down Felipe Massa, but despite gradually closing on the Brazilian, the bottom step of the podium eluded him and he had to settle for fourth.

Austrian Grand Prix Spielberg, 20 June 2015

Posted: 20.06.2015
Source: Ferrari

Kimi Raikkonen “It has been a very bad Saturday and this result will not help us tomorrow. When I went out for my last run in Q1, the team informed me that I could do three timed laps, but then the plan was changed and I did not get the information. Therefore we missed one lap completely and I was knocked out. The point is that I was sent out too late and that cost us a lot. Obviously my starting position is not ideal; we should have been much higher up, I’m sure we could have fought at the front. Tomorrow we should have the speed we need, but you never know what happens in the race. In the first lap it will be better to stay away of problems because there is a much bigger chance of something happening in the first few corners. There is a long straight, but also two corners which can be tricky if you happen to be in the middle of the pack. Then we’ll try to maximize our result. Until now it has been a pretty good weekend, the car is handling well: we’ll try to do our best and see what we can do”.

Sebastian Vettel: “We didn’t deserve the pole position today, but tomorrow is a different day. We have a very good car, we’re very competitive, I feel very good in the car and the pace is good as well. We’ve proven that we can be quick in every session, even if yesterday they have been short ones. For the race we’re not the favorite, but we’ll push hard and try to put some pressure on the Mercedes. I would have loved to split them on the grid, but the gap is still too much at the moment. The position on the grid is great anyway and the race will be long. Normally between Saturday and Sunday we’re able to close the gap a bit, so hopefully the same will happen tomorrow. I believe here it’s important to have the confidence under braking, the two left handed turns in the second and third sector are quite tricky, you need to be happy with the car you’ve got and I am. Strategy for tomorrow has to be defined yet: number of pit stop and maybe safety car can change it, we’ll see. A big thanks to the guy in the garage for the work they did overnight!”

Austrian Grand Prix – Bittersweet qualifying

Posted: 20.06.2015
Source: Ferrari

Sebastian third, Kimi down the back

Spielberg, 20 June – Qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix left Scuderia Ferrari with mixed feelings. The variable track conditions in Q1 left Kimi Raikkonen unable to post a good timed lap and so the Ferrari man had to settle for the eighteenth fastest time. Sebastian Vettel will start from third on the grid having lapped in 1.08.810, beaten only by the Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton (1.08.455) and Nico Rosberg (1.08.655.)

Austrian Grand Prix – Rain halves the programme

Posted: 20.06.2015
Source: Ferrari

Spielberg, 20 June –Sebastian Vettel was quickest in the third free practice session for the Austrian Grand Prix, which was hit by rain around halfway through, which meant not many laps were completed.

Neither Ferrari driver managed a qualifying simulation, having to abort their run on Supersoft tyres. The German did a 1.09.994 in his SF15-T on the Softs, before going out again a few minutes before the end of the session running intermediate tyres in the wet. Kimi Raikkonen was third in 1.10.177, eventually going out for five laps on the Wet tyres.

Austrian Grand Prix Spielberg, 19th June 2015

Posted: 19.06.2015
Source: Ferrari

Kimi Raikkonen: “It has been a good day of work, but it’s only Friday and it’s difficult to know where we are compared to our opponents: because of the layout of the track here all the cars are closer to each other. Unfortunately I could only run one lap with the Supersoft: I was going a bit fast and I ran wide, then I destroyed the right front tire by locking it. It was a pity, I would have preferred to do the long run with this compound. I did it with the Soft compound and even if I was a bit stuck in traffic it was more or less ok. Now we have to wait and see what happens tomorrow. We have to make sure that everything works well, then start from there and do a good job over the weekend.”

Sebastian Vettel: “In the afternoon session we had a problem with the gearbox as one of the sensors went to the alert mode and we had to slow down. Obviously now we’ll have to take a close look at it: we don’t know what’s the problem yet, but it seems to be unrelated to the one we had this morning. It’s always better if it happens in free practice rather than in qualifying or in the race, but we have to look into it and make sure it’s not happening again. In terms of feeling with the track, the lap is short and you just need to get into the rhythm. Unfortunately we didn’t get as many laps as we wanted, but that’s what it is. Overall the pace looks fine, we’ve taken a lot of information from this session, which is good. We know that we have a good car and we think we are competitive, let’s see what’s happening overnight. We have to make sure that we stay with Mercedes as much as we can, it should be an interesting qualifying tomorrow.”

Austrian Grand Prix – Seb and Kimi in top three

Posted: 19.06.2015
Source: Ferrari

Vettel fastest, Raikkonen third

Spielberg, 19 June –In the second free practice session for the Austrian Grand Prix, the team concentrated on long runs looking ahead to the race. The weather forecast for Sunday is currently very different to the conditions expected for qualifying and this means it will be very complicated to select the best set-up, but the team acquired a lot of useful data. Come the end of this afternoon’s 90 minute session, Sebastian Vettel was fastest with a 1.09.600. He stopped running 15 minutes before the end so the team could carry out some checks on his car. Behind the German came Nico Rosberg, who did a 1.09.611 in the Mercedes, while in the other SF15-T, Kimi Raikkonen was third with a 1.09.860.

Austrian Grand Prix – Kimi third, technical problem for Sebastian

Posted: 19.06.2015
Source: Ferrari

Spielberg, 19 June – Mixed fortunes for the Scuderia Ferrari drivers in the first free practice session for the Austrian Grand Prix, eighth round of the World Championship here at the Red Bull Ring.

Kimi Raikkonen had a trouble-free time, finishing third fastest with a 1.11.028, while Sebastian Vettel was sidelined after just four laps, with a transmission problem. Fastest was Nico Rosberg, who posted a 1.10.401 ahead of his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton (1.10.709.)

Austrian Grand Prix – Improving week by week

Posted: 18.06.2015
Source: Ferrari

Sebastian has faith in development

Spielberg, 18 June – “I like to come to Austria. Maybe our weekend is a little busier than normal, but the atmosphere is fantastic, with the mountain landscape and all the people around. The food is good, maybe they should be working a bit on the weather… As for the race here, we know it’s not easy to fill the gap with the cars in front, but we had a very good pace in Canada, especially in the second half of the race. Mercedes are still the favorite here and the gap is still there, but we’re obviously trying to improve week by week so hopefully we can be a bit closer. We’re confident that there won’t be other reliability issues. I would like to congratulate with Nico Hulkenberg for his win at Le Mans, it’s great, it’s a big achievement for him. We’re all a bit jealous about him making it at his first attempt… I am joking of course, he’s been great.”

Austrian Grand Prix – We know where we want to be

Posted: 18.06.2015
Source: Ferrari

Kimi analyses the challenges of Austrian GP

Spielberg, 18 June – “This track has a different layout from the last one we raced on in Montreal, and the conditions are different; tomorrow we’ll be on track and see where we are. The weather, as we saw in the last race, can play a big role if the conditions keep changing is not ideal and it can limit our running, but let’s wait and see. The result we had in Canada was not a disaster, but obviously we want to do better; the upgraded engine worked as we expected but, as package goes, we are still lacking the speed needed to compete with the Mercedes. Overall we have improved a lot from last year and even during this year, but the other teams are also improving. We know where we want to be, the team is going in the right direction but we know that we cannot change things from one day to the other. So we keep doing our best.”

Support from the fans

Posted: 16.06.2015
Source: Ferrari

Maranello, 17 June –“The Spielberg circuit has a lot of history behind it, it’s not very modern, but that makes it interesting.” That’s what Esteban Gutierrez, Scuderia Ferrari’s third driver, has to say on the subject of the Austrian circuit, which has provided plenty of excitement for Formula One fans. “The track features several quick corners: in general, it’s not very hard on the brakes, apart from turn 2, because you tackle it going uphill and you need to brake quite sharply. The section I particularly like is the one from turns 4 to 5, because they are quick left handers. Then you come to the final sector, where again there’s a hairpin that you need to accelerate through at the end of a long straight and a parabolic corner, which makes this track special and different to those we find at other circuits around the world. Even though this is the home race for one of our competitors, there are always a lot of Ferrari flags flying from the grandstands with fans cheering for our drivers. The atmosphere is very nice and welcoming towards Formula One and that’s a good sign.”

Back to Europe

Posted: 16.06.2015
Source: Ferrari

Maranello, 16 June –Formula 1 returns to Europe after its trip to Canada and Riccardo Adami, Sebastian Vettel’s race engineer analyses aspects of the Austrian race.

“Spielberg is a historic circuit, which staged races up to 2003, before returning to the calendar last year. While Canada features long straights, with heavy braking points and in effect no fast corners, here, the first two sectors do require some hard braking, whereas the final one has some very fast corners, taken at around 180 km/h in fifth gear. This obviously requires a different set-up to the one used at the last race.

“The Austrian track is very short and it’s difficult to overtake here, therefore we will be aiming for maximum performance in qualifying. One can also try to put one’s competitors under pressure by means of strategy, making the most of the two compounds (Soft and Supersoft) which means focusing on this aspect during long runs in Friday practice. Furthermore, our development programme on the car is ongoing, because we want to improve the characteristics of the SF15-T as soon as possible. We have updates planned for this race and others over the course of the season. I have known Sebastian for many years and I can say that his character has remained the same: ever since he was a youngster, he’s been very professional and he has matured over the years. When I renewed my acquaintance with him at Ferrari, I found he has become more aware of his abilities. He is definitely capable of making a major contribution to the team, building a very efficient group around him.”