F1 News: 2024 Dutch GP Friday Team Reps Press Conference
Four F1 Team Representatives met with the media on Friday to answer questions ahead of the 2024 Dutch GP at the Zandvoort circuit.
TEAM REPRESENTATIVES:
James VOWLES (Williams),
Andrea STELLA (McLaren),
Mike KRACK (Aston Martin)
Ayao KOMATSU (Haas)
Q: James, can we start with you? You got your man – Carlos Sainz. What got the deal over the line?
James VOWLES: I’m glad you added Carlos to it. I was confused by the statement before that point. But I think what got it there eventually is that from the very beginning, it was the same message all the way through with Carlos. So all the way back to ‘23, really. Here’s where we are. Here’s the really bad bits of it. But here’s the good bits of it. And here’s what will come online. And I think across a period of about eight months, he could start to see what we were talking about and what was translating, what was happening behind the scenes. It was longer than I expected, but it was a rewarding journey. It’s one at the end of it where I really do believe in this partnership and I’m confident that it’s a very good driver line-up for us in 2025 and something that will propel us forward.
Q: As you say, it is a very good driver line-up. Does that put increased pressure on Williams 2.0 to deliver a good car next year?
JV: You’ve upgraded the version number. Yes, but that’s the whole point behind it. I mean, not just a good driver line-up. I think I have… the best combination or their best drivers on the grid. There’s no politics between them. They’re both incredibly fierce competitors but they develop the team. They are leaders at the same time and that will put pressure on the organization. But that’s the whole intent behind it. It’s been many years since we’ve really had two drivers fighting at the front and you need that to reinvigorate the energy back into the team. When you’ve got two drivers fighting for the same millisecond, and I’ve been there quite a bit in my career, everything just shuffles upwards as a result of it. So, minute details around even just diff maps, how you get data out, how you use it, how quickly you get upgrades to the car, they migrate and change because you have a driving force behind it. So it’s a good thing, not a bad thing.
Q: And how do you think Alex will react to having a driver of Carlos’ quality next to him?
JV: I think with Alex, you haven’t seen him fully challenged to the level where he will move forward. Like any elite athlete, you have to have someone that moves the bar beyond where you thought it was set in the sand, and then it pushes you forward again. And not in a dramatic way, without politics, but just, here’s where performance is, let’s go find it. And with Alex, you’ll see a very different reinvigorated individual as the result of it. So I think you’re going to see a better Alex as a result.
Q: What about this weekend? You’re running a heavily revised car. What are you expecting?
JV: I mean, we’ve got another update coming fairly soon as well. This is all actually from quite a while ago, designed, but it’s good performance coming over the next sort of three races or so. It should here – in a midfield that is as tight as it is – it should just give us a little bit more of an opportunity to certainly be in the points. And I mean, this weekend specifically is quite challenging out there. You’ve got gusts up to 80 kilometers an hour. Generally, 40 is your normal wind speed, which is more adapted to kite surfing than it is running a Formula 1 car. So it’s not as easy in these conditions to evaluate how good that upgrade is, but we’ll do it based on the timing sheets. Now, we were good here last year. So the proof of the pudding isn’t one race. It is how it actually performs across the next two, three races.
Q: Well, best of luck this weekend and over those races. Thank you, James. Andrea, let’s come to you. And while we’re talking upgrades, you’ve got a lot that’s new on your car as well. What are you expecting from them?
Andrea STELLA: Well, we’ve been able to deliver another substantial upgrade, which is nowhere near as large as the one that we took to Miami, but it should be hopefully noticeable in terms of aerodynamic efficiency of the car. We took our time after Miami to see in development and convince ourselves that we needed to press the green light and deliver parts trackside. Also nowadays you have limitations in terms of cost, so you just can’t bring everything to test at track side, you need to be diligent. So we are definitely interested in seeing how the car will respond to these novelties. There will be a few more in the coming races and hopefully this will help us improve the performance of the car overall and keep competing for good results in the race.
Q: And do both drivers have the same specification of car this weekend?
AS: They will have the same specification this weekend. They were split in P1 so that we could understand the effect of the new parts.
Q: So Andrea, how do you view the next 10 races? I mean, a lot of people think that you are the car to beat. Are you the team to beat this year?
AS: I think there’s been a bit of overstatement about the performance of the car. This could have been because we have been competitive on many Fridays and I thought that this was more the result of the good work in terms of preparation that the team do and being ready straight away for a race weekend. And then we see that Red Bull, Mercedes, they kind of resolve their issues and become competitive on Saturday or on a Sunday. I think this was very apparent in Austria. On Friday, we were just a few milliseconds off Verstappen. On Saturday, he was four tenths ahead of everybody. And in the race, he was the fastest car. So I think we should be a little careful in thinking that McLaren goes to the races and has the fastest car, and separate it from like, ‘oh, we are exploiting the car. We are getting the most out of it and therefore, we are readily competitive’. Said that, we are pleased with what we’ve been able to achieve in terms of competitiveness of the car. And like I said before, I hope that these extra developments and upgrades will give us the possibility to retain this competitive position. Because in fairness, since Miami, we had not brought much lap time to the car itself.
Q: Now, you’re P2 in both world championships. Can I ask you about Lando and a comment that he made yesterday in which he said, in the opening half of this season, he hasn’t been driving like a world champion. Now, you’ve worked with many of the great drivers of the modern era, Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso, to name two. What do you make of Lando’s comments?
LN: The first thing I make of his comment is that it kind of confirms his style. You know, he’s quite self-critical. He tends to look occasionally at the half-empty part of the glass. In reality, I think he definitely has the potential of a world champion, and he’s performing at world championship level. If we compare against perfection, then definitely we have opportunities. But I like that we compare ourselves against perfection because this is what we need to do. I’ve been very encouraged that every little opportunity has been actually analyzed in a great level of detail. Lando has always been very open and transparent, like he does with the public, definitely with the team, and we are together in trying to nail and polish all the possible situations in which we need to be better at delivering according to the potential. Definitely World Championship material. Like in everything, Lando, Oscar, the entire team, every single opportunity to improve needs to be attacked with determination to improve.
Q: Can you give us one area where you think he could still improve? when you compare him to a Fernando or a Michael Schumacher?
AS: I don’t think. in terms of driving itself, speed, consistency in the race, we are not far at all. I think, if anything, this year there’s been more of the opportunities coming in some specific racing situations, like the start, the first lap. Sometimes we have lost some time in the race, just in this initial phase of the of the event, of the race, and then we kind of recovered thanks to the pace that we had later on. So it’s quite specific and we’ve definitely been working on trying to improve it.
Q: Andrea, thank you very much for that. Mike, let’s come to you now. Fernando was on the podium here last year and so far the weather conditions seem similar. Just how happy are you with the car and what is your potential this weekend?
Mike KRACK: Yeah, good memories from last year. Indeed, we finished second here. The conditions were difficult. But I think we were a little bit more competitive on a general basis last year than we are this year. So that does not mean we will not try to seize any opportunity that might come. I think it will be a bit more stable in terms of weather probably on Sunday than it was last year. But that does not mean that we will not try. I think we have shown in the past that if opportunities come, normally we are there. So that’s what we’re going to try.
Q: And how do you view the situation in the World Championship? You’re P5, you’re 39 points ahead of VCARB. Is that enough of a gap to lock that in, to allow you to focus on next year’s car from now on?
MK: I wish we could say that but I think you must not do predictions like that because first of all you need to respect your competitors and I recall two years ago we were after the summer break P9, more than 30 points behind P6, and we finished on the same score. So I think Formula 1 is not the discipline where you should relax and say, ‘we’re going to finish here’ because it will come different. So we cannot rest and think about the future.
Q: Can we talk about Adrian Newey now? Newey to Aston Martin seemed to gain some momentum over the summer break. How much momentum?
MK: I was on holiday over the summer break, so I cannot really comment on that. But you keep asking me that question, and again, I can only repeat what we have said. We are becoming a more and more attractive team. We have great infrastructure developing, so again, we are honored to be put together with that name.
Q: How would he fit in to your management structure if he were to come? Because you’ve got a technical director. You’ve got all of those senior positions filled already.
MK: Yeah, I think Formula 1 these days is so broad. It is not like you have to make huge changes. I think there was a time where there was a team that had seven technical directors in the past, so I think we are very far from that. I think someone like that, you have to make any kind of effort to integrate and adjust your structure to get the best out of it.
Q: Mike, thank you very much for that. Ayao, coming to you now. First up, can we deal with some news that broke this morning? What’s the situation with Uralkali and the arbitration ruling?
Ayao KOMATSU: So obviously arbitration ruling was made and then we accepted it. We’re not disputing it whatsoever. And then it’s a complicated process to transfer the funds across. And then we’re working on it and it’s been taking longer than I would like. But yeah, we are fully focused on making it across as soon as possible.
Q: OK, thank you for that. Let’s talk on track. How do you view the next ten races? How much more potential is there in the current car?
AK: It’s quite difficult to say. Obviously, in our last two races, we couldn’t score points. Like Budapest, even Friday to Sunday, our performance was different. And in Spa, I expected us to be a bit more competitive than we really were. So in other years, we can predict much more clearly where we’re going to be at each race. But this year, I find it a bit more difficult, to be honest. So it’s difficult to say exactly what we can achieve in the next 10 races. But we are really focused on every single race, bringing the parts, trying to get the maximum out of it for the condition.
Q: What do you need at Zandvoort? You were quick in Austria, you were quick at Silverstone. Is there any of that that translates to this racetrack?
AK: Yeah, I think it does. Our weakness is the medium-speed corners, but not just the speed range in terms of the type of the corner, duration of the corner as well. So I think we’ve seen a little bit of that in FP1. But I think we made a decent start, but we still are not happy with the balance of the car. So we need to keep working on that. And they’ve got new parts here as well. So again, trying to understand it, trying to get the best out of it.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Scott Mitchell-Malm – The Race) Mike, just to follow up something you said in response to the question about Adrian Newey. You mentioned the team becoming more attractive. I wondered, since you’ve joined, how you’ve seen the team grow? Do you feel that the team is now in a place or getting to a place where it can make the most of someone like Adrian versus a few years ago where it was smaller and perhaps a bit less powerful than the top teams in Formula 1?
MK: Yeah, I think, you know, when I joined, I went into the old brick house of the former Jordan factory. And if you pass from the A43 into Silverstone, you see that this has massively changed. So from that point of view, it’s a completely different structure. It’s a different team. the headcount has almost doubled since. So I think this makes you per se not attractive, but this paired with the ambition and everything that goes into these buildings, I think makes us very attractive for the future.
Q: (Nicolo Arnerich – Formula Uno Analisi Technica) Why did you want to invest in the shark inlets, which are very similar to Red Bull that you introduced during this race, while other teams didn’t want to invest in this kind of solution? Maybe because Red Bull and Ferrari didn’t have so much advantage from this kind of solution. So, why did you want to invest on it?
JV: So fundamentally, the aerodynamic direction you see is not dictated so much by what you see from competitors, but rather what in our wind tunnel and our circumstances and our models is producing performance more than anything else. What I can reveal is the development of these was done before any observation of it came to the track for Red Bull. It takes quite a while to effectively produce the components that you’re seeing today. It will get better and better in time, but it’s one of the weaknesses we’re harbouring at the moment. So it isn’t in response to another team, but it is in response to, in our wind tunnel, it is producing performance. Nothing more complicated than that.
Q: (Bas de Wit– NOS Sports) I had a question for Mike, if I may. Last year’s final moments in the race must have been pretty exciting and maybe quite nerve-wracking from your perspective, with Fernando in the tail of Max. Could you bring us back to that moment at the pit wall and which decisions you made at that time and how you managed your own nerves and spirit?
MK: You mean last year? Yes. It was not as nerve-wracking as you might think, because we were hunting the leader and we were not hunted by someone behind. So that is always a much more comfortable position to be in. I felt that everything was under control, both from the pit wall, but also from mission control and from the driver. It was under control in terms of communication. It was quite calm and controlled. Then we had this big shower at the end, again where you have to survive these kind of conditions and I think it was a masterpiece in driving in the first place that brought us into this position and yeah it led us to the podium. But this is all in the past. We are now in the now and we cannot rest on the any of these laurels and have to try and score as many points as possible this weekend.
Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) Andrea, Lando yesterday said that he’s making too many mistakes. Do you think that perhaps he’s struggling to deal with the pressure of fighting for this world championship? And do you at McLaren think that Lando can actually win the world championship this year or at least take Max to the wire?
AS: I think I replied to this question before. Lando is definitely world championship material. He performs already at levels that I’ve seen in the past in some of the great champions I have the luck to work with. He is on a journey like the entire team is. And if we compare against perfections, then we do see some opportunities. I mentioned before some of the opportunities coming in the first lap, for instance, and trying to find the balance between being aggressive or simply like staying away from situation or accidents. We definitely have something to clean on the start itself, which is not only driver, it’s also a team responsibility. And then I think he had a couple of situations in the races in which he might have taken some of the responsibility, but I think it was the team responsibility. Like if I think Canada, a case in which we didn’t pit Lando for the late Safety Car before the pit entry, or if I think about Silverstone and the final stint, that’s the team responsibility. If the team had operated at higher standards, then Lando would have more points in the championship, and definitely as a team we kind of appreciate that. he puts some of the pressure on himself, or he raises his hand and says, like, it was on me, but… I think I have enough experience to say, mate, don’t worry, that’s on the team. Keep doing the good job. Keep working to improve on your own opportunities. But definitely we as a team have quite a lot of work to do as well.
Q: Andrea, second part of Phil’s question. Can he win the World Championship?
AS: So he can win world championships. That’s a statement that’s capital letters. In terms of this year’s championships, certainly we don’t give up. Numerically, from a driver’s championship point of view, it looks like there’s a big gap to fill. And we are chasing Max Verstappen, so definitely he’s not going to make it easy for us. But we are excited to be in this position. And definitely Lando is not in this position because somebody helped him. Lando is in this position because he performs very strongly. And that’s something that we should acknowledge and realize in terms of his achievements, not only in terms of the one, two, three opportunities in a season in which he could have done better. Because this is normal. And this is normal for every world champion in every season.
Q: (Adam Cooper – Adam Cooper F1) A question for all four of you. Jonathan Wheatley is joining your Piranha Club next year. Just wanted your thoughts on him as a person and also the fact that you guys are all part of this trend. we’ve seen recently of engineers becoming team bosses. He’s come from a different direction. He’s worked his way up, chief mechanic, sporting director with a different skill set. So just wanted your thoughts on that and also if you’ve got any advice for him?
JV: I mean, first and foremost, congratulations to him. It’s something I know that he wanted, and he’s done a brilliant job within Red Bull. He’s been part of the success that they’ve had there. You look at the areas that he’s responsible for, which is the operation of the race car track side, the race team, the pit stops, and you can see the diligence he applies to that area. They are class leaders, and that’s not by chance. That’s through hard work and applying diligence to it. In terms of the background people come from, I’ve said this already. The leadership skills are the important bits that come out of it. We all have different sets of skills around the table. I think, as you pointed out here, certainly there’s an engineering background to it. But there’s far better engineers than I am within an organization. That’s not what I bring to it. I bring a good understanding of how to run a business fundamentally, but not to the expertise of some of the other team principals. But it’s the communication and leadership that really comes through. And in that regard, I can only adjudicate by what he’s done at Red Bull. I think he’s got a good foundation to work from and wish him all the best in that regard.
AK: Yeah, I don’t know him that well, but of course I was at Enstone, then Jonathan was there before me at Enstone, so I’ve heard indirectly from the people who worked for him how good he was. And then, like James said, what he achieved at Red Bull is amazing. So, yeah, I’m really happy that he’s got this opportunity. I’m sure he will do a really good job.
Q: (Jon Noble – Motorsport.com) To Andrea. Before the summer, as Zak Brown suggested, there could be some discussions during the break about whether Lando perhaps needed a bit of extra help for the championship and maybe even making him number one and pushing him. Were there any discussions on that front? And what is the stance for the rest of the season regarding him and Oscar racing?
AS: I think when it comes to these conversations about being the number one, I don’t think that’s a good way of approaching racing. For us, we’d rather approach racing from fairness, integrity, and then see what comes, what sheds from this kind of approach. It’s ten races to go. I think for Lando to realistically be in condition to chase the World Championship, he needs to keep performing at a very high level. He needs to keep being fast. And then you gain your ranks on track. And if you gain your ranks, if you gain your merits on track by being fast, by being competitive, then we will evaluate, always led by integrity and fairness, whether on some occasions we need the team to take a certain direction in a 50-50 decision, or if we want to have a conversation with Oscar and say, like, ‘Oscar, would you be available to do this to support Lando chasing the World Championship?’, but it will always have to be a conversation before the race. Nobody should be surprised. We all should be in agreement because ultimately we chase and we are in the quest for a driver’s World Championship as a team. There’s nobody that goes his own way, and then the others will have to follow. So that’s our style, which is I don’t think it can be necessarily and simply summarized in like. we elect a number one, and then we work accordingly. I would like to keep this more articulated as a team, and then be more on a case-by-case situation.
Q: (Niamh Lewis – ESPN) Question for all of you, or who wants to answer. Kind of on well-being and how you look after fitness and nutrition of all your team members with so many races, so much traveling, and every weekend being so packed. So do the teams have any kind of policies on how people can manage it? And also, do you feel like you have to lead by example in terms of looking after yourselves physically and mentally?
MK: You mentioned lead by example. I think this applies not only to looking after yourself, but in any kind of things you do for the team and with the team. You cannot expect people to come at 7.30 in the morning if you come at 9.30 in the morning. You cannot expect people to be open and transparent if you are not. So I think that is a general principle. that applies not only to nutrition or to partying or whatever in life, but I think that applies to any kind of leader of a team. If you are not leading by example, you cannot ask your people to do things if you do not do them yourself.
AS: Yeah, I think with 24 races and more in general with the demand of Formula 1, managing fatigue is a very important part of Formula 1 business. And this is not only because of performance or well-being, but even health. Like, you need to look at this very holistically. And this is the reason why pretty much, I guess, all teams invest, invest money, invest even from an organization point of view. in having doctors trackside or at the factory, physiotherapists, and even the mental health, which is a topic that definitely McLaren will be very supportive in terms of a general team and awareness from this point of view. So definitely we have investments, because like I say, it’s health, it’s well-being, and it’s performance. If you are not well-rested, you’re not going to do a good job when you are trackside.
Q: (Madeline Coleman – The Athletic) A question for James. Obviously, with Carlos coming in, Logan is looking for another seat or another opportunity for next season. Looking at his performance, what are some strengths that you’ve seen from him and what are some opportunities of where he can kind of improve?
JV: I mean, one of the strengths that’s underrated in his regard is he has a huge mental resilience. We just spoke about it a second ago. But he takes a punishment in the media, in the world, really, almost weekend on weekend. But when it comes the following weekend, he’s cleared his mind of that. And he’s here just to perform fundamentally. And he builds up to the weekend in the way it needs to be. And it’s not that he hasn’t progressed. If you look across the last 18 months, you can clearly see that from where he was to where he is now in terms of number of mistakes, proximity to Alex, where he’s qualifying and where he achieves, how many seconds behind he’s finishing now. It is all on the right journey. What he’s very good at doing now, which was a weakness beforehand, was building up into the weekend, fundamentally. So finding the limit, but approaching it from a bottom up perspective rather than top down. Because top down, when you make one mistake, you lose a session and you start to put yourself at risk. I think he’s matured a lot as a driver, his own words rather than mine, but he’s able to deal with the pressure and what comes at you much, much better as a result of it now. And he’s also using a lot more of the tools that are available to him both within the car and outside of the car within the engineering systems that we have, et cetera. So those are all good progresses. And what I would always ascertain is we have to remember that we have the top 20 drivers in the world fundamentally competing on a world stage. And he’s ending up something akin to a few tenths off. And that’s not a large amount. That still puts you in good stead for the remainder of the world. I’m impressed with, as I said, how, when things are difficult, he can reset himself and bring it back onto a world stage.
Q: (Carlo Platella – FormulaPassion.it) Andrea, after the race in Spa, you explained how you prefer a robust mentality when it comes to strategy because it’s more rewarding than making risky choices. Would you say you are using the same approach also with development?
AS: I don’t think it’s a one-to-one transfer of what could be a safe approach to strategy to what is a safe approach to development. We try and be considerate. Let’s say we think over the course of a season, a robust approach could be more rewarding than trying to gamble and go for the jackpot all the time. Like in particular, when we think about Belgium, we did consider the one-stop. But I wasn’t ready to sign it off, because if it doesn’t work, you may lose many points. It did work for Russell, but this is just an example of, like, unless you have evidence, data, and you can make a robust decision in terms of the outcome, then I think playing conservative is a good way of approaching the long-term outcome.