FIA Formula 1 World Championship 2016 – Round 10 – Formula 1 British Grand Prix

British Grand Prix – Silverstone Circuit 10 July

Posted: 10.07.2016
Source: Ferrari

Maurizio Arrivabene: “We knew, coming here, that it would not be an easy track for us-but if you want to be on top, there must be no ‘difficult’ ones. This is a circuit which, power unit aside, puts a premium on other factors which we were lacking here. It’s not the first time it happens, but perhaps it was much more apparent this weekend. In these conditions, we opted for a very aggressive strategy, pitting in for Intermediates after the initial Safety Car stint. Unfortunately, this choice did not pay off because of the Virtual Safety Car which came out immediately afterwards. But to be honest, the best we could have done was to gain one position in the race. Our drivers did a solid job, despite being hampered and somewhat frustrated by the technical issues we are aware of. Now we must turn the page, look ahead to Hungary and capitalize on the hard lesson we learned here.”

Kimi Raikkonen: “In the first part of the race the conditions were quite tricky, the visibility in some places was very poor and I had very low grip on the Wet tires, but I tried to go as fast as I could and I went wide a few times. Once we got the Medium tires the situation improved a little bit, but it was not easy. Since the beginning of the weekend we had realized that this would have been a difficult weekend. Today we tried to do our maximum but we had not enough speed to fight against the guys in front. In these kind of conditions we need more downforce and more grip, I’m sure in Hungary it will be much easier for us. Next races it will be a different story, I don’t expect us to have similar issues, obviously you never know, but I expect that we go back to normal.”

Sebastian Vettel: “Today it was a tough day, but we trust our team and trust our car, so there is no reason to panic and to turn the world upside down. The call to come into the pits was absolutely right, but then the spin didn’t help, and all my advantage was gone again. The penalty in the end didn’t make a difference, it was not on purpose that I was trying to squeeze Felipe. Actually I was going out myself, and I was surprised how little grip there was, going side by side with him. In the end it was a racing incident. Now we need to understand where we lost something. We have a lot of things to learn from a weekend like this. Clearly today we weren’t as competitive as in other races, but at least we recovered some points. And this was the only race of the year where we weren’t able to beat the Red Bulls in terms of race pace. Things may look different in two weeks’ time, but that shouldn’t be an excuse. We need to go forward and understand why we made a step back this time around.”

British Grand Prix – Kimi fifth at Silverstone

Posted: 10.07.2016
Source: Ferrari

Raikkonen comes home fifth, with Vettel ninth

Silverstone, 10 July – Starting from fifth on the grid, Kimi Raikkonen finished the British Grand Prix in the same position. Today’s race at Silverstone started behind the Safety Car because of a heavy shower just prior to the start. At around one third distance, the track was again dry enough for slick tyres and it stayed that way to the chequered flag. Vettel came home ninth, despite a five second time penalty. Standing on the top step of the podium was Lewis Hamilton, who won for Mercedes.

British GP – Silverstone Circuit, 9 July

Posted: 09.07.2016
Source: Ferrari

Kimi Raikkonen: “Fifth and sixth is not what we want, we are not happy with where we finished today, but this is the best we could achieve. We know our limits on this track and where we struggle, the circuit layout and the conditions don’t make it very easy for us and we are a bit stuck with the things we can do. This afternoon the car felt the best it has been in the whole weekend, but obviously we were not fast enough. In Q2 I made it very difficult for myself, I spun at the start of my run with the first new set, and then locked the front wheel on the next one. At my last attempt I was able to make it through to Q3, but these things shouldn’t happen. Race conditions are always different and can change a lot here, usually we are stronger in the race and hopefully tomorrow will be the same. We’ll try to make a good start, make the tires work and take the right decisions”.

Sebastian Vettel“I’m not happy with my lap, the car was better than this morning. I was in a very good lap but I lost the car at Stowe in the first run, trying a bit too hard, then in the second one I went wide in Turn 1 and lost the car from there. On this track it seems we are a bit behind, I think we have done good steps in the past, but probably not enough, also compared to other people, so I think there’s a lot of catching up for us to do. We need to make the car quicker, to put more downforce in it, make it more efficient at the same time, and add a bit of power. Replacing the gearbox is something we have to accept, and we did accept it going into the session. It’s not something that is in your head when you start a race, I look forward for a good one tomorrow, the pace is there, we don’t belong where we start the race, and that’s why I’m quite sure we can make good progress. I hope for a good start, a good first lap and then we’ll see. Maybe we’ll have some rain, anyway we need to keep our head down, keep calm and just go racing and enjoy”.

British GP – Fifth and sixth for the Scuderia

Posted: 09.07.2016
Source: Ferrari

Raikkonen one place ahead of Vettel in qualifying

Silverstone, 9 July – In the final qualifying shoot-out for the British Grand Prix, at Silverstone circuit, Kimi Raikkonen was fifth fastest with a time of 1.30.881, one place ahead of Sebastian Vettel, sixth in 1.31.490. However, Vettel must take a five place penalty following a gearbox change and will therefore start from eleventh on the grid. Starting from pole will be Lewis Hamilton for Mercedes, having set a best time of 1.29.287.

British GP – Saturday free practice, an uncertain outcome

Posted: 09.07.2016
Source: Ferrari

Rain and a red flag cloud the picture

Silverstone, 9 July –The third free practice session at Silverstone got underway on a damp track, with rain having already affected the earlier qualifying session for GP3. Ferrari was fifth on the time sheet courtesy of Sebastian Vettel with a time of 1.32.049, while in the other SF16-H, Kimi Raikkonen did a 1.32.833, which earned him ninth place. Having switched from Intermediate tyres to Mediums, the Ferrari men had to wait a while before using the Softs, because of  a red flag after Ericsson crashed his Sauber into the barriers at the exit of Stowe corner. Once the barrier was repaired, Sebastian and Kimi went back out for a qualifying simulation, just as light rain had begun to fall again on some parts of the circuit. Sebastian then aborted his second run. Topping the time sheet was the Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton (1.30.904) and Nico Rosberg (1.30.967.)

British Grand Prix – Silverstone Circuit 8 July

Posted: 08.07.2016
Source: Ferrari

Kimi Raikkonen: I’m really happy for the renewal of my contract, I’m happy to be here now and to stay for next year. It’s nice to know that the team believes in me and I believe in them. Now we can put all the effort in the racing and try to achieve better results. On the track it has been a tricky day, conditions were not very easy, there was quite a lot of wind in some places and this was not helping. We are not very happy of where we finished today, but since this morning we have been improving things. We have been working in the right direction all day and I’m sure we can do even better for tomorrow.

Sebastian Vettel: I think it was a bit of mixed conditions this afternoon: it was quite windy, and at the beginning it was not so good. I believe the long run was sort of OK, but we need to have a look and do some comparisons to know where we are. We know that we have lot of work ahead of us for tomorrow to improve the car but, as a baseline for today, we understood and learned quite a lot of things. As for the Halo device I tested this morning, it has quite a lot of impact in terms of visibility.

British Grand Prix – Race simulation

Posted: 08.07.2016
Source: Ferrari

Long run tests as Seb goes 4th and Kimi 5th

Silverstone, 8 July – Sebastian Vettel was once again fourth in the second free practice session in a time of 1.32.570, followed by team-mate Kimi Raikkonen (1.32.736) in fifth place. In sunny conditions at Silverstone, temperatures were higher than in the morning session, thus asking more from the Hard and Soft tyres used by Kimi and the Medium and Soft chosen by Sebastian. The programme focused on set-up and then, in the second half, on a race simulation. Quickest was the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton (1.31.660,) ahead of the two Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo (1.32.051) and Max Verstappen (1.32.286.)

British Grand Prix – Vettel tries the Halo

Posted: 08.07.2016
Source: Ferrari

Ferrari tests the head protector, with drivers 4^th and 6^th fastest

Silverstone, 8 July –The two Ferraris were fourth and sixth fastest come the end of the first free practice session for the British Grand Prix. This historic round of the calendar is in its 67^th year. Strong winds kept the rain away from the track, so the session was run entirely in the dry. The programme involved the usual work to find the set-up best suited to the track, as well as trying some new aerodynamic components. Sebastian Vettel started out on the Hard tyres, before switching to the Softs on his SF16-H. For his installation lap his car was fitted with an updated version of the Halo prototype – the tubular structure designed to improve driver head protection in the cockpit – which had already been tried by Kimi Raikkonen at the Barcelona track during the second winter test. The Finn was sixth fastest in 1.33.039, starting his day on Medium tyres before switching to the Softs, while Vettel did a 1.32.501. Fastest was the Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton (1.31.654) and Nico Rosberg (1.31.687.)

British Grand Prix – “This is the best team in F1”

Posted: 07.07.2016
Source: Ferrari

Kimi still “happy” with Ferrari at his 100th race in red

“It’s always nice to come back to Silverstone, this place has a lot of history and I enjoy the circuit. The weather can be very tricky but there’s always been very good racing. Our approach to the weekend is the same as any other race, from tomorrow we’ll start to go through our program and see where we are. This is my 100th race with Ferrari, it doesn’t sound like a lot but it’s quite a few years. This is the best team in F1, together we won a title in 2007, we had good years and some difficult ones. I’m really happy to be part of Ferrari, the atmosphere is fantastic, we are always pushing each other forward and hopefully we’ll get the team back where it belongs. It’s still a long season to go, we’ll face every race trying to maximize the result. We’ll see where we end up at the end of the year but I’m sure we can win races this year, we’ll keep fighting until is possible.”

British Grand Prix – “We are on the right track”

Posted: 07.07.2016
Source: Ferrari

Seb says “no point to look back now”

“We still have a lot of races ahead of us and we keep focusing on each one of them, on a race-by-race basis. There is no point now in going into details of what happened last Sunday in Austria, I did not finish the race and that’s it, but up to the point when I had the tyre failure, things weren’t looking bad at all, and with a fresher set of tyres we would have had some good opportunities towards the end of the race. We are not yet where we want to be but we are on the right track. My goal when I arrived in Ferrari was beeing part of the Ferrari team and get back to the top. Now nothing has changed, it’s a great, ambitious target trying to reach it as soon as possible, that’s what we’re trying to do, and I’m convinced that we can get it as the progress we’ve done in the last one and a half year, I think it has been phenomenal.”

British Grand Prix – Where Past meets Present

Posted: 05.07.2016
Source: Ferrari

Kimi, Dave Greenwood and a lot of Silverstone memories

Maranello, July 5th – For its tenth round, the Formula One World Championship will set up camp at Silverstone Circuit. That’s where it all started back in 1950, with the first ever Grand Prix of the series. Over these years, the Northamptonshire track has been changed many times in design and maybe the likes of Kimi Raikkonen and his race engineer, Dave Greenwood, have a penchant for the older layout.
“I prefer the old one, actually” says Kimi. “I think it was better in terms of flowing and more complete, how it was supposed to be and used to be. It is quite fast now with the new layout. There are some slow corners, but the old layout was more flowing, while now the new part doesn’t fit so well. It’s not bad, it allows more overtaking, but if I could chose I would chose the old one. I had quite good races there in the past, I’ve been on the podium a few times. I enjoy the circuit and hopefully we can win again.”
Race Engineer Dave Greenwood, too, has a lot of fond memories of Silverstone: “It was one of the first circuits that I attended as a youngster and spectator. The circuit itself nowadays, it’s obviously changed quite considerably and the addition of the Wellington Straight has obviously lengthened the track, but it still retains quite a lot of its traits in terms of good aero-efficiency, what you need. In recent years we’ve also seen the circuit has become more of a rear-limited circuit than a front-limited, and in general the balance of the wear has been quite consistent across the tires. To that end strategy ends up being quite interesting. The weather of course can also play an interesting part in the strategy and obviously in last year’s race we did see how crucial it was halfway through the race. So, we’ll wait and see what happens this year.”