China: The Race Seen from the Pits

Mercedes AMG

Nico Rosberg – Winner

Michael Schumacher – Abandon

Ross Brawn, Team Director:

« It’s a very special day and a historic day. I am so happy for Nico, he has deserved this first victory many times and now it’s done. I am excited to see how he will evolve now that he has this first victory under his belt.

Michael was having a great race in second position but was forced to retire after his pit stop. However, he is the first to say that we win and lose as a team, and his performances this season prove that he is also capable of reaching the podium.

Sincere congratulations to our entire team here at the track, in Brackley and Brixworth, they have put a lot of effort into this project. I also have to thank our colleagues at Mercedes-Benz in Stuttgart and around the world, their support has been unwavering and we are proud to offer them this first victory in 57 years. I was one year old when Juan Manuel Fangio won at Monza in 1955 but this victory is something I will remember and savor for a long time.

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McLaren-Mercedes

Jenson Button – 2nd

Lewis Hamilton – 4th

Martin Whitmarsh, Team Director:

« Nico drove really well today, so I would like to congratulate him on winning his first Grand Prix victory. Congratulations also to Mercedes, who managed their tires this afternoon better than we thought. As for Jenson and Lewis, they both drove well too with a 3-stop strategy that required them to attack constantly. It’s never easy, and they inevitably lost some time on the track with their overtaking maneuvers, but they managed it, and I’m sure the show on television was great.

It was a tough race, but our result allows us to get on the podium, we’ve increased our lead in the constructors’ championship while Lewis and Jenson are ahead in the drivers’ standings. Would Jenson have been able to beat Nico if his last stop had gone well? Well, he obviously would have lost less time in the pit lane and would have returned to the track with a clear path ahead of him, but frankly, it was Nico’s day and we couldn’t have beaten him. So for his 111th start, Nico deserved to win today.

We have contested 3 Grand Prix races this year and they have been won by 3 different drivers and by 3 different teams. The performance difference between the best cars is very minimal. It seems we are going to have a great season.

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Red Bull Racing

Mark Webber – 4th

Sebastian Vettel – 5th

Christian Horner, Team Principal:

It was a lively and packed race. Ultimately, looking at where we started and where we were after the first lap, we faced difficult strategic decisions. We were the first to stop, with Mark, which was very aggressive. We also stopped early with Sebastian and put our eggs in different baskets at that moment: Mark on a three-stop strategy and Sebastian on a two-stop strategy, and the race began to unfold.

Our race pace was quite solid, and we were on par with the McLarens. Unfortunately, the front left tire on Sebastian’s car started to weaken, probably behind Kimi [Räikkönen], and he didn’t have enough tires left to finish the race. Nevertheless, after being 15th on the first lap, 5th place is still a solid result. Mark also had a long final stint. He had a great battle with Lewis; we got him ahead on track, but he just lost his place towards the end. However, we leave with big points.

Congratulations to Nico Rosberg and Mercedes on their Grand Prix victory.

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Lotus F1 Team

Romain Grosjean – 6th

Kimi Räikkönen – 14th

Eric Boullier, Team Director:

« It’s another frustration for us because we are really very close to a great result. With 12 laps to go, we had one car in second position and the other in fifth, with no more stops to make. Unfortunately, our strategy turned out to be a bit too aggressive. As soon as we realized that some cars were on a three-stop strategy, it became clear that we had a chance to get on the podium. But we hadn’t anticipated that the tires would wear out to that extent. The strategy worked for Romain, not for Kimi.

The positive notes from the weekend are that we continue to show good performance in both qualifying and the race, and that Kimi is capable of competing for the podium. Furthermore, Romain finished the race for the first time and did so in style. A slightly slow pit stop and a small mistake in the battle with Mark [Webber], which took him wide into the marbles, cost him two places. But he came back well afterwards and his pace was very consistent.

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Williams

Bruno Senna – 7th

Pastor Maldonado – 8th

Laurent Debout, Engine Manager:

« We are all thrilled with this double points finish today, something we have been promising since the start of the season. Pastor’s performance to maintain his eighth place was superb to see, he’s a real fighter, while Bruno kept his cool, did the job, and did what was asked of him.

Earning points through merit and fair play shows that the chassis-engine package has really been working well so far this season.

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Ferrari

Fernando Alonso – 9th

Felipe Massa – 13th

Pat Fry, Technical Director:

« It was definitely an interesting race for the spectators but very frustrating for us. Traffic was the key factor in this race, which was easily predictable given where our cars started on the grid.

We adopted different strategies, particularly in light of the fact that Felipe could choose which type of tires to fit at the start of the race [editor’s note: since he qualified beyond the top ten]. Seeing where we found ourselves after the third stop with Fernando – battling with Hamilton –, I think the decision was the right one, but we will carefully analyze the course of the race to understand if we could have done something differently.

Clearly, today, we paid a heavy price due to our lack of top speed on a circuit like this one. The result does not reflect the true potential of the car in race configuration, but we have to deal with it. We lack performance, we know it, but there’s no point in beating ourselves up: we need to focus our efforts on improving the car’s performance.

Next week in Bahrain, we won’t have any significant developments, so we can’t hope for a miracle: we must try to make the most of what we have. I’d like to end on a positive note by complimenting the mechanics who once again did a great job during the stops, as the times can attest.

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Sauber F1

Kamui Kobayashi – 10th

Sergio Pérez – 11th

Giampaolo Dall’Ara – Head of Track Engineers

« This is clearly not the race we were hoping for, so we are disappointed. A number of factors did not go in the desired direction. First, Kamui had an average start, then his tires wore out faster than expected, and he had to pit earlier than planned. Then he found himself in traffic.

Initially, we had developed a three-stop strategy for our two cars, but we didn’t want Sergio to face the same issue and switched to a two-stop for him, which was a good strategy. However, he then lost time during the first stop due to a clutch problem, which cost him two positions, and finally, we thought overtaking would be easier for our cars, but it wasn’t. All these factors led to a disappointing result.

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Sahara Force India

Paul di Resta – 12th

Nico Hülkenberg – 15th

Robert Fernley, Deputy Director

« We have always felt that we would need a bit of luck to score points here. Paul was in the pack for most of the race, fighting to be in the top 10, which shows just how tight it was today. Nico’s race was compromised by damage to the front wing, but we take positives from our race pace compared to our rivals and hope we can continue to close the gap quickly. »

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Scuderia Toro Rosso

Jean-Eric Vergne – 16th

Daniel Ricciardo – 17th

Franz Tost – Team Principal

« As Jean-Eric hadn’t had a very good qualifying session, we decided to make changes to the settings of his single-seater under Parc Fermé conditions, which of course meant starting from the pit lane.

Today, the tires were the key for everyone, and we saw that they could produce exciting races. In our case, we opted for different strategies for our two drivers, with Daniel using three sets of tires [two stops] and Jean-Eric four [three stops].

However, we have lacked rhythm since the beginning of the weekend and we have not been able to progress up the hierarchy, with our two cars finishing 16th and 17th. We ran our two cars with different configurations today, and we will now have to carefully analyze the data collected to produce the best possible settings for the Bahrain race next weekend, where I think we can achieve a better result.

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Caterham F1

Vitaly Petrov – 18th

Heikki Kovalainen – 23rd

Mark Smith – Technical Director

« Today’s race was rather difficult, but I am thrilled with how our two drivers kept attacking regardless, and I think we learned some useful lessons here in China. We decided to start both our cars on the Soft tires, and our pace in the early laps was good. Both our drivers switched to Mediums at the second stop, and we were able to easily pull ahead of the cars behind, but then when Heikki stopped on lap 30, he felt a problem at the rear of the car as he left the pits, so he had to do a slow lap and came back in again.

Vitaly had an afternoon without problems and was able to achieve good times, staying within the leader’s lap until the last lap, and with each race, he is gaining more and more confidence in the car and with the team. We have another difficult week ahead of us, so we will do our best to take advantage of the conditions awaiting us in Bahrain, and we hope to get back to where we should be.

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Marussia

Timo Glock – 19th

Charles Pic – 20th

John Booth, Director of the team:

« We are naturally pleased with how things have gone for us here in Shanghai. Bringing both cars to the finish for the third consecutive race is very encouraging, as is the car’s pace, which is improving with each race. We are also delighted to retain 10th place in the constructors’ championship after the third Grand Prix, which is a source of motivation for the team, the drivers, and our partners.

There are so many things we can be satisfied with, but we must stay focused because there is a lot of work to do, real potential in the car, and some areas where we need to improve as a team.

We can be proud of the progress we’ve made in such a short time. The upcoming races also promise to be exciting, now that Timo has a car he can work with, and we are eagerly looking forward to seeing how Charles will perform on circuits he knows better.

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HRT

Pedro de la Rosa – 21st

Narain Karthikeyan – 22nd

Luis Perez-Sala, Team Director:

« We are satisfied because we achieved the objectives set for this Grand Prix. The main goal was to finish the race with both cars, but many things improved in the race compared to Malaysia. The pace of both drivers was good, and the tire changes went well. It was good for us that it wasn’t too hot, and there is no doubt that we still have many things to improve, but I am very happy with the work done by the drivers and the rest of the team. I congratulate them, but we don’t have time to rest because there are only a few days before the Bahrain Grand Prix, and it won’t be easy. »

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The race, lap by lap