Europe: The Race Seen from the Pits
After a spectacular and action-packed European Grand Prix, team officials are taking stock of their respective performances in the race, starting with Ferrari with which Fernando Alonso claimed his second victory of the season, thus ending an incredible series of 7 different winners in 7 races.
Ferrari
Fernando Alonso – Winner
Felipe Massa – 16th
Stefano Domenicali, Team Director: « We are very happy with this victory but we won’t let it go to our heads. Yesterday, we said that the qualifying result did not reflect our potential and I think today’s performance has proved us right.
It’s unfortunate for Felipe who really had several instances of bad luck, first with debris that ruined the balance of his car, then the safety car that came out right after he pitted, and finally the accident with Kobayashi: he had started off well and had everything in hand to achieve a really good result.
Fernando was spectacular in the attack he demonstrated and in the way he managed his mechanics and the tires. We can say that this weekend was very special for him and the victory was truly emotional for him and the whole team.
Today, some of our rivals faced reliability issues and this reminds us that this aspect is crucial for success: in such a tight season, not scoring points is costly in the standings. We said it from the start: these twenty-five points will certainly not make us complacent. We are clearly aware that things can change in the blink of an eye and we must continue working to improve the car’s performance because we are still not at the level we want.
Lotus
Kimi Räikkönen – 2nd
Romain Grosjean – Retirement
Eric Boullier, Team Director: It’s a good result for the team and for Kimi. The second place brings big points, and we don’t lose too much ground on the teams ahead of us in the constructors’ championship. The flip side was Romain’s disappointing day because he was in a good position to at least finish on the podium. That’s racing, and we will work closely with our partners to ensure that such a failure does not happen again in the future. Both our drivers and the team performed very well this weekend, and we have shown that if we qualify well, we can fight for the win.
Mercedes
Michael Schumacher – 3rd
Nico Rosberg – 6th
Ross Brawn, Team Principal: Congratulations to Michael and the team for this fantastic and well-deserved podium. Michael demonstrated today that if we provide him with the opportunities, he can achieve a good result. And well done to Nico as well. He was in a tricky position at one point but came back and delivered big points to the team today. The start of the race was difficult for us, and our initial strategy didn’t work because the tires behaved differently from what we had anticipated. So, we had to react, and we did it well by delaying our pit stops as much as possible so that our drivers had fresh tires at the end of the race. It was an exciting race finish, and I am proud of our two drivers, everyone here in Valencia, and everyone working at our factories in Brackley and Brixworth.
Red Bull
Mark Webber – 4th
Sebastian Vettel – Retirement
Christian Horner, Team Principal: « It was a cruelly disappointing race for Sebastian, who had done everything right. He seemed to be comfortably in control of the race until, unfortunately, during the safety car period, we discovered an issue with the alternator that forced him to retire. We need to get the car back to fully understand the failure, which we will analyze together with Renault, as it seemed similar to the one Grosjean encountered today. Mark had a huge race and the strategy worked well. He started on the Medium tires before switching to the Softs and was able to pass cars that had tire issues towards the end, so it was a good recovery from him and he drove well. Others also had their share of bad luck today. We’ve extended our lead in the Constructors’ Championship, and Mark’s recovery was very strong. »
Force India
Nico Hülkenberg – 5th
Paul di Resta – 7th
Vijay Mallya, Team Principal: « A very commendable race today, and I am delighted to see our two cars finish in 5th and 7th places, our best result of the season and Nico (Hülkenberg)’s best result in Formula 1. It has been like a roller coaster with many twists and turns, but I feel that we are leaving with the points we deserve given our level of performance this weekend. Both of our drivers fought hard, stayed out of trouble, and executed their strategies beautifully. Paul made a good recovery after losing time during the safety car period, and Nico had to run most of the race without KERS, so it’s an excellent performance from him. Today’s result sets us up perfectly for Silverstone, and in two weeks, we will be determined to continue this positive momentum at our home race. »
McLaren
Jenson Button – 8th
Lewis Hamilton – 19th
Martin Whitmarsh, Team Director: « I think we have to describe the 2012 European Grand Prix as an exciting race for the spectators, but a frustrating one for McLaren Mercedes. We would have clearly liked to score more points than we did today. But as I’ve said before, the comparative performances of the Formula 1 cars are extremely close this year, perhaps closer than ever before, and consequently, the races are very unpredictable this year.
That said, it goes without saying that everyone at McLaren is immensely eager for our home race, the British Grand Prix, at Silverstone, where we hope to put on a fantastic show and achieve an excellent result, in front of the most enthusiastic and knowledgeable fans in the world.
Sauber
Sergio Pérez – 9th
Kamui Kobayashi – Abandon
Peter Sauber, Team Director: From my point of view, it was a race of missed opportunities. Things didn’t go our way today and ultimately we have to be satisfied with the two points scored by Sergio. Kamui was unlucky when he was hit by Bruno Senna. He couldn’t capitalize on his strong performance during the qualifying.
Williams
Bruno Senna – 10th [after Pastor Maldonado’s penalty]
Pastor Maldonado – 12th [after penalty]
Mark Gillan, Chief Operations Engineer: « It was an action-packed race from which we should have come away with a strong haul of points, so it’s clearly disappointing to leave with only one point. As a team, we will thoroughly review the weekend and regroup with the aim of coming back stronger at Silverstone. »
Toro Rosso
Daniel Ricciardo – 11th [after Pastor Maldonado’s penalty]
Jean-Eric Vergne – Retired
Caterham
Vitaly Petrov – 13th
Heïkki Kovalainen – 14th
Mark Smith, Technical Director: « Our finishing positions today are a just reward for a very good performance from one end of the team to the other today. Without the contacts with Vergne and Ricciardo, we might have finished a few places higher, but we have to be pleased with how we reacted to the incidents on track, and the fact that we clearly made progress here. We have more new parts coming for Silverstone and if we continue in this way, we have an exciting second half of the season ahead of us. »
Marussia
Charles Pic – 15th
Timo Glock – Withdrawal
John Booth, Team Director: Charles did everything we could have asked of him today after carrying the weight of all our expectations on his shoulders. He delivered a determined race to ensure we are back in a more comfortable position between the Caterham and HRT teams. It’s obviously not the end of our battle, but it’s good to see we’ve turned a corner after Canada and are heading in the right direction again. It wasn’t a straightforward race, as we had to move Charles’s first stop forward for a nose change after a wing endplate was damaged. Nonetheless, we achieved a good result, and that’s the positive we’ll take away from here and use to motivate us for our home race, the British Grand Prix, in two weeks’ time. We have work to do with our new aerodynamic package for Silverstone, where we eagerly await Timo’s return to full fitness. He will have been bitterly disappointed to miss what was a positive performance for us today and also a great spectacle in the pack; we’ve seen a fantastic race this year in Valencia.
HRT
Pedro de la Rosa – 17th
Narain Karthikeyan – 18th
Luis-Perez Sala, Team Director: I am happy especially with what happened in Montreal: we were able to finish the race and both cars did not encounter any problem. We fought throughout the race to withstand wear and tear, and even if we finished far in the standings, I am very proud of the team. Both drivers raced very well and we didn’t have any issues in the pits. We are becoming more and more competitive over the races, but we must continue working to keep this momentum going.
Finally, I would like to congratulate Fernando Alonso on his very beautiful victory. He shows that starting from the 11th position, nothing is impossible.
