FIA F1 - GP Of Bahrain - Post-Race Comments

Bahrain, Apr. 22, 2012: Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg on his clashes with McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso; Williams’ Bruno Senna and Pastor Maldonado on their double DNF; McLaren’s Jenson Button on his late retirement; Ferrari’s Felipe Massa on scoring his first points of 2012; and Sebastian Vettel on climbing back on to the top step of the podium. All 24 drivers and senior team personnel report back on Sunday at Sakhir…

Sauber Sergio Perez (11th) “We knew this circuit would not be an easy one for us and we were just too slow today. We tried both strategies and split them between the cars but today there was nothing that could have really helped us. I had a lot of tyre degradation and due to a problem at the pit stop we lost a place and a point to Michael (Schumacher). He was very fast on the straights. I had no chance to get him. Next time we’ll do better again.”

Kamui Kobayashi (13th) “Well, for me the start was too slow. I had too much wheelspin and we will look into that. I started on a set of new medium compound tyres and we tried a two stop strategy but in the end it didn’t work out. The tyres degraded quicker than we hoped and I had to do three stops as well with the last one seven laps before the end. I can’t see anything that we could have actually done better in today’s race. Our problem was a general lack of speed and we will work hard to fix it.“

Giampaolo Dall’Ara, Sauber head of track engineering “The key point of the race was on lap one when we lost positions. The start was possibly not so good. That’s something we have to look into. From that point on we were unable to recover. With Sergio we had planned a three stop strategy, and we were a bit aggressive with the first stop, but the competition reacted, and we could not benefit. With Kamui we decided to go for a two stop strategy, but in the second stint degradation came earlier than expected, so we had to bring him in. Then the third stint was too long, so he had to make another pitstop. Altogether we were not strong enough today to recover from all that.”

Toro Rosso Jean-Eric Vergne (14th) “It’s the same pattern as in China, in that I manage to have a good pace in the race, but I’m slow in qualifying. We must find a solution to this, because if we can start further forward with the pace we have, then we should see a more positive result on Sunday. I gave it my all today, even though I started from far back. Now we have a bit of a break in terms of races, but we will have the test at Mugello where we must look carefully at what we can do, hoping to arrive in Barcelona with an even better car for the Spanish Grand Prix. As for myself, I need to analyse what is not working for me in qualifying. As a Frenchman, I have say I think it’s great that Romain is on the podium and I am super happy for him. It would be nice if I can end up with a car as competitive as his and fight with him for a podium place!”

Daniel Ricciardo (15th) “That was not what I was hoping for after starting from sixth on the grid. The opening lap changed my whole race. My initial launch off the line wasn’t great and after that I seemed to go backwards, which made for a very frustrating afternoon. The front wing damage also made matters worse. I had a good chance to have a strong race today, but losing all those places at the start cost me dear. I need to be hard on myself now and find out what I did wrong to make sure I don’t do it again. It was a race to forget.”

Franz Tost, Toro Rosso team principal “First of all, I want to thank His Royal Highness Prince Salman Bin Hamad Al Khalifa Crown Prince, the FIA, its President Jean Todt as well as Bernie Ecclestone and the organisers, especially their Chairman Zayed R. Alzayani for their work in ensuring this race took place. From our perspective, we encountered no problems, neither at the race track nor in Manama. On the race track today, we started with Daniel Ricciardo in sixth place on the grid, but failed to finish in the points. He had some problems at the start, losing several places and making contact with another car – at the moment we are not sure which one. This meant he had to come in for a new nose section and after that, his race was compromised as he lost too much time, eventually finishing fifteenth. Having started from seventeenth, after 57 laps, Jean-Eric finished one place ahead of his team-mate, having produced some acceptable lap times. Daniel’s performance in qualifying was the only highlight in a weekend that did not live up to our expectations.”

Caterham Vitaly Petrov (16th) “That was a really interesting race, particularly at the start when there was a lot of overtaking and it was good to be right in the middle of the early battles. We made some very good pitstops, quicker than in China and good enough to help me stay out ahead of Ricciardo who I had a good battle with for quite a lot of the race. It was only towards the end when we had to let the leaders pass that we started losing a bit of time but today’s performance shows again how strong we can be on Sundays. This has been a good weekend all round and a great way to end the first four flyaway races. We have a couple of weeks now until the next race in Spain and we’ll head there feeling very positive about how we keep progressing.”

Heikki Kovalainen (17th) “I had a good start but then had contact with a car behind in turn 10 which caused a rear left puncture. We pitted immediately and from then on it was basically about putting in as strong a race as I could. I passed Glock quickly and pulled out a good gap to him and then went after my team mate and Ricciardo. It’s obviously a bit frustrating to have had the puncture on the first lap, but we can take a number of positives from this weekend, particularly from the pace we showed in qualifying and from the way we were able to look after the tyres, so overall it’s been pretty good.”

Mike Gascoyne, Caterham chief technical officer “We can be pleased with today’s performance from both cars. Despite the puncture Heikki suffered on the first lap he put in a very strong drive all afternoon and Vitaly was also racing Ricciardo hard for most of the afternoon. This shows we are definitely making progress, and our qualifying performance yesterday gives us good reason to look forward to the European season which starts in two weeks in Barcelona. We have a number of updates planned for the next few races, and more to come throughout the season, so we will aim to keep building on this type of performance and keep edging closer to the teams ahead."

Mark Smith, Caterham technical director “We can be pleased with today’s performance from both cars. Despite the puncture Heikki suffered on the first lap he put in a very strong drive all afternoon and Vitaly was also racing Ricciardo hard for most of the afternoon. This shows we are definitely making progress, and our qualifying performance yesterday gives us good reason to look forward to the European season which starts in two weeks in Barcelona. We have a number of updates planned for the next few races, and more to come throughout the season, so we will aim to keep building on this type of performance and keep edging closer to the teams ahead."

Thierry Salvi, Renault track support to Caterham "I think that was a pretty good day for the whole team. Both cars showed good pace throughout the race and both Vitaly and Heikki were able to take advantage of the engine maps we gave them to easily pull away from the cars behind. Vitaly had a good fight with the Toro Rosso and did well to manage his tyre degradation, so this is another step in the right direction.”

HRT Pedro de la Rosa (20th) "It was a tough race, but we finished with both cars and that is positive for the team. The truth is that our rhythm wasn’t what we’d hoped for. We have to gain some speed per lap, more than anything because we want to be fighting our rivals on a consistent basis. In today’s race we didn’t have sufficient rhythm. Looking back it’s true that we’ve taken a giant stride but we can’t be satisfied with just that. We’ve improved a lot but we’re at the starting blocks, where we should have been in Australia. We’ve got very good individuals on board, a new workshop where we can build on a solid base, and that is the most positive thing. Now we want to get back to work on the car and try new things out. We’re really looking forward to Europe.”

Narain Karthikeyan (21st) "The start today was good, but then the first few laps were quite tough because there was dust everywhere. I settled behind Pedro but I think I pushed too hard in the first stint because my tyres were dead very quickly. After my first pitstop, I improved a lot and from there my lap times were consistent. We did a four-stop strategy, which I think went very well, and in the end we were only half a second behind Pedro at the checkered flag. My race performance was extremely good, I’d say it was my best Grand Prix so far this season, so I’m very happy about that.”

Luis Perez-Sala, HRT team principal "We passed another stern test here in Bahrain with the high temperatures and I’m very satisfied with how everything went. We met our targets again and I want to thank the team once more for its excellent job. Perhaps the negative side was that we wore the tyres out a lot and that’s why we had to do a four-stop strategy. We tried to go for three with Pedro but he finished right on the limit so maybe it wasn’t the best choice. Reliability was also good and the team is working well. We can say that we are already at the standard with which we finished last year. From here we must progress.”