South Korea: The Race Viewed from the Pits

Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel – Winner

Mark Webber – 2nd

Christian Horner, Team Principal: « It’s a phenomenal result for the team. It’s our first one-two finish of the season and a great performance. Both drivers had an excellent race. Sebastian had a better start and then he and Mark went side by side down the straight to Turn 3, but they gave each other enough room.

After that, it was about managing the tires and executing a good race strategy, which we did with both cars to achieve our first one-two of 2012. The last ten days have been very positive, and it is important to continue building on this momentum for the last four races.

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Ferrari

Fernando Alonso – 3rd

Felipe Massa – 4th

Stefano Domenicali, Team Director: « The result this afternoon was an excellent team effort, and anyone who thinks that losing the championship lead will discourage us is making a big mistake. We knew this would be a challenging weekend in every aspect. We were able to work very well, trying to get the most out of the package we had while avoiding even the slightest mistake. Fernando had a great race at a particularly crucial point of the season when the stakes are particularly high: third place is very important for the rest of the championship. He was brave and, at the same time, wise during the first lap, which is crucial in determining the final outcome. Felipe continued the momentum from his superb race in Suzuka; he was also aggressive in the first lap and at key moments, such as when he overtook Hamilton. Regarding his future, as my friend Laura Pausini would say: « Wait and see… » « Let’s wait and see », editor’s note. Clearly, at the moment, Red Bull seems unbeatable in everyone’s eyes, but I remember people saying the same thing about McLaren on Saturday afternoon in Singapore: the tide turns quickly this year. It is also clear that we need to take a step forward in performance to match Red Bull’s improvements. We know we will have to work day and night to succeed. There are four races until the end of a fantastic and very uncertain season: we are not going to sleep, not even for a second, be sure of that! »

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Lotus

Kimi Räikkönen – 5th

Romain Grosjean – 7th

Eric Boullier, Team Director: « We knew we wouldn’t be fighting for victory today and Kimi’s fifth place is the maximum we could achieve. We scored a good handful of points for the Constructors’ Championship, and even though third place is moving further away, we are not giving up. It was great to see Romain drive very skillfully despite the pressure he was under. I believe he is learning from his experiences, and it will make him even stronger. Kimi’s race was impressive as usual. His battle with Lewis [Hamilton] was first-class, and if he hadn’t been held up for so long, he might have had a chance to be closer to the leading pack. Both of our cars will be equipped with Coanda exhausts in India, and that should help us in our battle. »

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Force India

Nico Hülkenberg – 6th

**Paul di Resta** – 12th

Robert Fernley, Vice-President of the team: Another strong day for us with Nico who fought hard and showed the pace he was capable of. The race-long battle with Grosjean put Nico under constant pressure, but he kept a cool head and came out on top. I think Nico’s overtaking on Hamilton and Grosjean was incredible and definitely the highlight of the race. With Paul, we made a strategic decision to cover the potential one-stop strategies of the Williams and Sauber, but it quickly became apparent that two stops were the way to go. As a result, Paul’s strategy was compromised, and it was difficult for him to reach the points. However, he fought with Pérez in the final moments to prevent Sauber from taking the last point. We leave Korea with eight important points: we are close to Sauber and have good momentum as we approach our home race in two weeks.

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Toro Rosso

Jean-Eric Vergne – 8th

Daniel Ricciardo – 9th

Franz Tost, Team Director: « We are doing as well as in Belgium where we also finished eighth and ninth with Jean-Eric and Daniel in that order. We are definitely improving in this second part of the season and it’s the third time in the last four races that we’ve finished in the points.

I would classify this race as our best performance of the year. We improved the car from Friday, adopting very effective setups on both cars, which allowed us to perform well in Q1 on Saturday before encountering difficulties in Q2. However, this afternoon, both drivers were able to show the car’s true level of performance, combined with a good strategy: both were on two stops, with Daniel on Super Soft tires and Jean-Eric on Soft tires.

Towards the end of the race, Daniel, who had climbed to eighth place from twenty-first on the grid due to a penalty for a gearbox change, told us on the radio that his car was pulling to the left, which allowed Jean-Eric to pass him in the final laps. We were assisted in our battle with Hamilton by the fact that his car was slowed down after he caught some Astroturf [synthetic grass placed outside some curbs, ed.] on the edge of the track.

It was a very solid performance from the whole team, as shown by the fact that our drivers overtook less than six cars, more than any other team did this afternoon. Now, we can look forward to continuing this positive momentum in a fortnight, in India.

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McLaren

Lewis Hamilton – 10th

Jenson Button – Retired due to collision

Martin Whitmarsh, Team Director: Lewis may have only scored one point in the championship this afternoon, but I am happy to say that it was probably the hardest and most heroically earned point in McLaren’s history. His car suffered an anti-roll bar failure very early on, which destroyed the car’s balance and made it impossible for him to preserve his tires. That he hung on, against all odds, fighting wheel to wheel with drivers whose cars were intact, was extremely strong.

Then, to make matters worse, he picked up a strip of astroturf which further compromised the car’s performance. However, although he was unable to get rid of it as it flapped in the airflow, he still managed to cling onto tenth place. Believe me, it was an epic, tumultuous, and majestic race.

Regarding Jenson, what can I say? He got off to a very good start and could have, I’m sure, had a great race this afternoon. But he didn’t have the chance to show what he could have done because he was taken out, hit from behind, through no fault of his own.

So, obviously, it hasn’t been a good day of work for McLaren. But racing is sometimes like that, and we will continue to fight. That’s what makes up the incredible team spirit of McLaren. That’s why McLaren has won a quarter of the Grand Prix it has participated in since the team joined the championship 46 years ago, and that’s why we will move heaven and earth to win the four races remaining this year. It won’t be easy, but I promise we will do everything we can.

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Sauber

Sergio Pérez – 11th

Kamui Kobayashi – Retired

Monisha Kalternborn, Team Principal: « It was a disappointing race for us, after having been able to improve consistently throughout the weekend. Kamui’s race was ruined after a few corners, and Sergio was unlucky at the first pit stop when he lost time due to a malfunction in our pit stop system. It’s really a shame because he had a great race and ultimately missed the last point by a few tenths of a second. »

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Mercedes

Michael Schumacher – 13th

Nico Rosberg – Retirement

Ross Brawn, Team Principal: « It was a tough race for us today. Nico was hit by Kobayashi in the first lap for the second time in a row, and losing him again due to another driver’s mistake was extremely disappointing. Michael did everything he could today, but we struggled to keep the tires up to temperature. There were parts of the race where the tires were working correctly, and we were more competitive, but too many periods where we struggled. We need to look at how to improve the situation, and we will continue to work to make progress during the last four races. »

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Williams

Pastor Maldonado – 14th

Bruno Senna – 15th

Mark Gillian, Chief Operations Engineer: « We employed different strategies, with clean races for both our cars, but in the end, our pace wasn’t good enough and we finished 14th with Pastor and 15th with Bruno just behind. We need to gather together and address some inconsistencies in our car’s performance ahead of the next race in India. »

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Caterham

Vitaly Petrov – 16th

Heikki Kovalainen – 17th

The Caterham team has not released statements from the team’s representatives.

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Marussia

Timo Glock – 18th

Charles Pic – 19th

John Booth, Team Director: « We enjoyed a great race today, in every sense of the word. As we said yesterday, we made the conscious decision to slightly compromise our qualifying laps to give ourselves the best chance today to fight with the Caterhams. Timo drove at his best performance level and we were particularly – and pleasantly – surprised by his pace in the first part of the race; we expected to be slightly further back than we were. We knew our best opportunity was to save our second set of super softs for the last stint, even though the second stint was also a pleasant surprise. Indeed, we kept up with the pace of the two cars in front of us, and the perfect stops to fit the super softs forced Caterham to make a stop that allowed us to battle with Kovalainen for many laps, trying to overtake in the DRS zone.

The race was difficult for Charles, who started from the back due to his penalty, and once again, we are sorry for him that this happened, especially after seeing his strong performance in qualifying yesterday. Ultimately, being stuck behind the HRTs and unable to get the tires up to temperature, added to the low track temperature, cost him dearly. That said, free from traffic in the final stint, he managed to produce a very good pace.

It has been said many times already, but today it really was a demonstration of how the absence of KERS handicapped us. Having said that, we are still pleased with our overall development strategy, which was to focus on improving aerodynamics this year. Taking our performance in the second and first sectors, it proves that this is a very sensible path for us.

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HRT

Narain Karthikeyan – 20th

Pedro de la Rosa – Abandon

Luis Perez-Sala, Team Principal: We knew it wouldn’t be an easy race, but we went for it. Narain, after his bad luck in qualifying yesterday, completed an impeccable race today, while Pedro had a race to forget. But there was no alternative for safety reasons. After the Japanese Grand Prix, where we made progress, this weekend we were unable to fight with our direct rivals. It’s been tough, but in two weeks, we’ll have another opportunity to continue to progress as we have shown so far.

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