Malaysia: The Grand Prix from the Pits

Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton – Victory

Nico Rosberg – 2nd

Toto Wolff, Executive Director of the team: « We can’t do much better than a one-two finish – congratulations to everyone in the team, at Mercedes-Benz, and Petronas who have worked so hard to achieve this result. It was a well-controlled race from the first lap, and Lewis and Nico did a fantastic job in very demanding conditions. But we can’t rest on our laurels: we can still improve our package, and the race showed that our competitors were right behind us. This afternoon, we will savor this moment, but we all know that in business, if you’re not moving forward, you’re falling behind. So we will push hard to improve even more for the next race in Bahrain. »

– Read the drivers’ statements

Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel – 3rd

Daniel Ricciardo – Retirement

Christian Horner, Team Principal: « If we look at where we were a month ago, being on the podium with Sebastian in Malaysia on a dry track is an incredible performance. We knew we had some ground to make up against the Mercedes, so finishing as close as Sebastian did today is a very positive result. We still have a lot of work to do, we can start to realize the magnitude of the challenge.

It’s very unfortunate for Daniel who did everything right today, a great start, a great first lap, and a really impressive race start. He was unlucky during his pit stop. The left front tire wasn’t properly fixed and was released. This was considered a dangerous release and we were penalized. Then there was a break on the front wing, and we don’t know the cause yet. I think Daniel clearly demonstrated his potential and that his performance in Australia was not a fluke. It’s great to have two drivers pushing so much.

– Read the drivers’ statements

Ferrari

Fernando Alonso – 4th

Kimi Räikkönen – 12th

Stefano Domenicali, Team Principal: « We cannot be happy with the result, because even though on one hand we managed to secure 4th place which allows Fernando to remain third in the drivers’ championship, on the other hand, Kimi was unable to score points within his reach after the accident with Magnussen on the first lap.

Even though there have been improvements on the performance front, the gap with Mercedes is still significant and that should motivate the whole team, on the track, but especially in Maranello, to improve our car in all areas. We know which areas we need to work on and we must try to do so as quickly as possible. The championship has only just begun and we know how quickly things can change in Formula 1.

– Read the drivers’ statements

Force India

Nico Hülkenberg – 5th

Sergio Pérez – Non-starter

Vijay Mallia, Owner: « Nico’s fifth place today is a fantastic result for the team. He didn’t put a wheel wrong and managed the race perfectly to pull off a two-stop strategy. In the end, we didn’t have the necessary performance left in the hard tires to keep Alonso behind, but it’s encouraging to see us finish 36 seconds ahead of McLaren in sixth. We knew we would perform well in the hot conditions so it’s very satisfying to take 10 more points, but it’s a day of mixed fortunes with Checo [Perez] unable to start the race. It will be important to solve this issue before Bahrain because we had the speed to score good points with both cars today. In summary, I am very satisfied with our weekend’s performance and I am confident we can achieve something similar in Bahrain. »

– Read the drivers’ statements

McLaren

Jenson Button – 6th

Kevin Magnussen – 9th

**Eric Boullier, Racing Director:** Clearly, we hoped to leave Sepang with more than the 10 points we scored this afternoon. That being said, Jenson had a flawless race, moving up from P10 to P6 at the checkered flag. If his qualifying had gone better, perhaps he could have finished a little higher, but probably not much.

Kevin got off to a good start, but as he was trying to overtake Kimi’s Ferrari, the two cars made contact, causing a puncture for Kimi and the destruction of Kevin’s front wing. Kevin’s first stop was therefore earlier than expected to replace the front wing, which was further compounded by the penalty he received shortly after.

This type of race is like an initiation for a beginner, it’s inevitable and unsurprising, but Kevin’s reaction was impressive in two ways: firstly, he pulled himself together and drove like never before until late afternoon, making a strong comeback to finish ninth; and secondly, he immediately offered his sincerest apologies to the team during the cooldown lap, which wasn’t strictly necessary but was still good to hear.

Overall then, although we placed both cars in the points at the finish, we are far from satisfied; but we are working tirelessly to improve, and that is exactly what we are going to do. From here, we are going to Bahrain, and we hope to spice things up a bit by showing something better than during the race of our main shareholder, Mumtalakat.

– Read the drivers’ statements

Williams

Felipe Massa – 7th

Valtteri Bottas – 8th

Rod Nelson, Head of Track Engineering: Our goal this weekend was to get both cars into the points and I’m thrilled for the team and everyone at the factory who worked so hard on the FW36. The high temperatures made this race very challenging and we focused on managing tire degradation and the temperature of the car’s different components. We achieved this, and both drivers did a great job of managing the car and drove solidly, making good overtakes when necessary to move up the field. This weekend was mixed, but we remain hopeful of showcasing the car’s full potential next week in Bahrain.

– Read the drivers’ statements

Toro Rosso

Daniil Kvyat – 10th

Jean-Eric Vergne – Retirement

Franz Tost, Team Director: « Daniil had another good race, scoring a point again after Melbourne. He was able to withstand pressure from other drivers until the end of the track and defend his position, all without making a single mistake.

For JEV, after a very good performance in qualifying yesterday, he unfortunately encountered some issues right from the start of the race. Just after the start, during the first lap, he lost many positions when something went wrong with the power unit management.

– Read the drivers’ statements

Lotus

Romain Grosjean – 11th

Pastor Maldonado – Abandonment

Federico Gastaldi, Deputy Team Principal: « Today we made a big step forward compared to Melbourne, and every time we run the car, we can see that we are making progress. Romain had a solid race, bringing the car home and giving us a lot of good data to analyze and feedback that allows us to improve performance. He suffered a diffuser failure on lap 48 and consequently lost around one and a half seconds per lap. Considering that, he did a very good job to stay ahead of Kimi.

Pastor had a problem with the turbo’s air intake, which was evident from the start. Unfortunately, in addition to limiting performance, it could potentially damage the engine, so we had to make the difficult decision to retire it. Overall, we are optimistic that we can still make progress next weekend in Bahrain.

– Read the drivers’ statements

Caterham

Kamui Kobayashi – 13th

Marcus Ericsson – 14th

Cedrik Staudohar, Chief of Logistics Support at Renault Sport F1: « It was a laborious but pleasant race for us, with both cars finishing, which we really needed after two difficult weekends. Kamui did a superb job finishing in a good 13th place, and so did Marcus, completing his first full race in 14th position. We continued to modify Kamui’s settings during the race to give him more traction, energy, and fuel management for his power unit and allow him to fight on track, Marcus also had a good race, but it became a bit difficult towards the end when we encountered some issues with the ERS. We started losing power on both the MGU of Marcus’s car, but we managed to reach the checkered flag, which was very important. We are going to examine what happened and fix it for Bahrain. »

– déclarations à venir

Marussia

Max Chilton – 15th

Jules Bianchi – Retirement

John Booth, Team Principal: A difficult start for the team and the drivers due to the incredibly hot temperatures on the grid. The starts weren’t great, but both drivers tried to regain their positions during the first lap. Unfortunately for Jules, the puncture he had because of Vergne caused his accident with Maldonado, and he had to return to the pits to change tires and fit a new front wing. From that point, Jules wasn’t happy with his car, and we suspected more significant damage beyond what was apparent during the stop. We had no choice but to retire him due to the damage, as I’m sure his car would have been as reliable as Max’s.

For Max, at the beginning, he was following the two Caterhams. In the second stint, he didn’t have the pace to stay with Kobayashi, but he continued to fight with Ericsson. We were behind in the final stint, and even though we were able to follow him until the last corner, we didn’t manage to pass him. Overall, it’s a disappointing race performance-wise, but the lessons learned from another race for the power unit will keep us well-positioned to focus on Bahrain to try and further improve performance.

– Read the drivers’ statements

Sauber

Esteban Gutierrez – Abandon

Adrian Sutil – Retirement

Monisha Kaltenborn, Team Principal: « We saw during the free practice sessions that our measures to improve the car’s performance were working well. This proves that we are moving in the right direction. It’s clearly a very disappointing race result. However, it does not disrupt our development plan. »

– Lire les déclarations des pilotes