2014 Belgian Grand Prix Race Press Conference

DRIVERS

1 – Daniel RICCIARDO (Red Bull Racing)

2 – Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)

3 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Williams)
 

 Yeah, I think obviously back home there is a huge following, but this is nearly as many Australian flag as there were in Melbourne. It’s impressive, a lot of Aussies or at least Aussie fans out this weekend, so thank you very much.

Yeah, definitely a bit different. When you lead the race, I guess, for that long it’s more about composure, just looking at your lap times, just trying to be as consistent as possible and once I heard Rosberg came in for a third stop we knew he was going to be quick at the end, I just had to try to keep the lap times up and keep it clean.

Well, I got a good run on Lewis and tried to go around the outside and yeah, we just touched in the end, unfortunately, so that hurt both of our races. From a team point of view of course that’s very disappointing. And yeah, that’s the way it is.

I haven’t seen it yet. It wouldn't be good of me if I would comment now. I need to look at it on TV and then I can comment afterwards.

I was pretty confident, yeah, because we had very good race speed, as you saw at the end there, but unfortunately it didn’t work out for us today.

Yeah, why not? The team has done such a good job, we are definitely on the right way: another podium, the fourth one in my career and the fourth one this season. We are still chasing for the highest step but for now, for this season, if we keep like this, it’s OK because it’s the future that matters.

I think this season it’s going to be difficult. We definitely need to be lucky to achieve that. Mercedes is really strong and even on a track like this Red Bull was really, really quick, we couldn’t really challenge Ricciardo, so we have still work to do but we are on the right way.

The first thing obviously that you hope everything holds together. You hope mechanically everything gets you to the finish line. Then it’s just trying to hit your marks and keep consistent but always the last few laps the chequered flag can’t come quick enough. 

Yeah, I guess so. You dream of… there’s definitely a few on the calendar that stand out more than others and Spa is one of them, but to be honest any win is special in Formula One. Yeah, the first part of the race: we had pretty good pace. On lap one I actually had the inside of Alonso at five but then I locked up and went off so he got me back and then we were able to get in front a few laps later. And then Seb, looked like he just dropped a wheel on the astroturf exit of Turn 10 and obviously with the rain overnight and this morning it was still a bit slippery, so I was able to get him and then I think Nico came in for a front wing change and we were able to get into the lead and then the pace was pretty good. We were happy with what we were doing and the consistency was there and we were making the tyres last. Yeah, it was just really up to me at the end to stay consistent and stay focused. Yeah, it was good fun.

To be honest I’m not in a position to comment on it at all because I haven’t seen it and, in the heat of the moment… I need to see it on TV before I say an opinion or anything as such. Of course very, very disappointing from the team’s perspective, for sure, because we could have done a lot better than just finish in second place, y’know, with the car that we have, because our car is really… has been very, very special this weekend.

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Yeah. It was, again, a really nice race, nice to be in it. Obviously yesterday the weather played a role in the qualifying and we knew that in the dry we would have better pace than in the wet, so we were really hopeful for today. I have to say that we are little bit surprised by the pace of Red Bull and Mercedes. They were quite a bit far away. Of course our race was a bit compromised after the poor start. I was quite a long time stuck behind some other cars and couldn’t really go at the pace we had. But yeah, had some good overtakes. We had good pitstops and good strategy by the team and that allowed us to come up a few places and again to the podium. 

First of all, I haven’t heard it myself from the people that you have mentioned but of course I respect and I will respect their opinion. I myself, I don’t have an opinion yet because I haven’t seen it on the TV. All I know is that I was faster and I gave it a go. The inside was blocked so I gave it a go around the outside. Of course it is very, very disappointing from a team’s point of view.

As I said, I respect the opinion of the British spectators. They definitely were not happy, so that doesn’t feel good. That’s very clear.

I see good things, obviously good things ahead. If we can collect maximum points around here, y’know it gives us a bit more hope for the circuits that are going to come later in the season: Singapore, Suzuka, just a couple to mention. Obviously it’s great. We’re really motivated right now. It’s been a really good day for us on a track we didn’t expect to get maximum points from, so yeah, it’ll keep us smiling for a while. At the same time we’ll stay grounded. Monza we know will be tricky again but obviously the package we brought here was pretty racy, so, try and take something from here to Monza and then I think, as I said, Singapore and Suzuka will be pretty good for us.

I think it was a nice and fair fight. First I nearly had a go into Turn Five but wasn’t really quite as close, so then I just had to wait for a couple of laps to really prepare for it, then went for it and it was nice, clean racing with him. So, yeah, really enjoyed it.

It was a big piece of... I don’t know what it was and it just got stuck right in front of me, it was flapping in front of my eyes which made it difficult and I couldn’t get rid of it either. I tried, because it was just stuck on the front but then after a while it came loose but it was really difficult to see at that time. Sometimes I couldn’t even see where I was going because  it was in the wrong place so that was not good.

Yup, we pretty much came here with a low downforce setting. We knew it would maybe affect us a bit in the second sector but we believe the car has a good base of downforce to sort of get through the second sector good enough and then what we lose naturally on the straights, running this type of wing, was something that put us back in with a fighting chance for sector one and two. Yeah, I guess on TV you could see by the images that the rear wing was pretty simple, there wasn’t much to it but obviously it was a good package here and we’ll see if the Monza wing can get any smaller – I don’t know, otherwise we’ll just run with DRS open all the time!

Yeah, I’m confident that we can, yes. It is always going to be an intense battle, that’s clear, it was clear from the onset and there will always be difficult moments and just as we did after Hungary, we had a discussion and moved on. I’m sure again we are going to have to discuss today for sure and we’ll review it and then we’ll move on.

No. My strategy was all over the place because of the various things happening so completely changed everything.

If I’m within fifty coming into Abu Dhabi then yeah, but there’s still a few races to go. While it’s still mathematically possible, yeah, we’ll keep fighting. Today was a big day for that. To come and steal some points on a circuit where let’s say we weren’t supposed to is nice but I think what’s important, looking ahead, is to capitalise on the circuits that we should be strong on and if we can take maximum points, let’s say, at a couple of those then it’s never over.

I can’t agree with any of your impressions that you’ve got this weekend. We had a very good discussion after Hungary and it was reviewed and clarified who did what, what was wrong, what was right and then we adapted our agreement to move forward. And that was really behind us. To be honest, I was very relaxed this weekend and just looking forward to it, because with this awesome car that I have at the moment, it’s such a pleasure to go to a track like Spa where I know that I can be on pole on Saturday and win the race if I do a good job. I was very much with that frame of mind, not thinking about the championship either, just really this race, wanting to win here in Spa with the Silver Arrow and that was it for the weekend.

Yeah, obviously for me it’s great, it’s what I wanted to achieve, to get some race wins. To have three in twelve races I think has exceeded a few expectations. Let’s say the in-team battle has gone really well. Obviously I’ve showed speed throughout qualifying and also races now. I’ve demonstrated good racecraft and good consistency so I think let’s say the team has been really pleased and I’ve been pleased so we’re in a good place. I’m enjoying it more than ever. Each race that goes on I’m having more and more fun so yeah, just having a good time.

I’m sorry, I don’t want to go into more details. It’s not a good idea. You asked what was agreed and things like that.

Not in specific detail but of course the battle between us is something that we have discussed many many times, yes of course, and the guidelines from the team... we know what they are and they’re quite clear. In fact it wasn’t that specific to Hungary at all, just generally, of course, it’s been discussed, yeah. Especially after Bahrain, for example. That was a discussion topic.

I don’t know. I haven’t seen it. I’m sorry, I don’t want to... I need to watch it on TV before I... because really, when you’re in the moment, it’s very difficult now, afterwards, with where I was sitting, to comment.

Language

English

Category : F1