Friday – Team directors’ press conference

Andrew, let’s start with you. Firstly, who are Force India’s closest rivals, and where do you hope to be at the end of the season? In which position? Who are your targets?

Andrew Green: In the end, everyone on track is our rival. At the moment, we are aiming for sixth place, which is a realistic target for us. It’s going to be difficult. The cars in front of us are very, very competitive. So it’s going to be very demanding and we’ll have to push like crazy, as we always do. That’s the plan and we’ll see where we end up. So far, we’ve scored more points than we did last year at the same time and we’re quite happy with that. If we keep scoring more and more points each time, we’ll move up in the hierarchy. But there are teams ahead of us who have achieved great results and have reached the podium, which puts us behind them. The key is to do better and by the end of the season, we hope to be ahead. That’s the plan.

What about the developments? What developments do you envision for the future?

A. G.: It’s a delicate period. We brought our last major evolution to Silverstone. We couldn’t evaluate them because of the rain. Beyond that, it’s about optimizing what we have, knowing what we have, and making it work at its maximum. Development is now focused on next year. For a team of our size, we can’t afford to develop the car much further beyond this period of the year. So it’s really about optimizing what we have.

That was going to be the next question. When will you focus on next year’s development?

A. G.: It’s been done for a long time.

So most of the reflections on team design are focused on that?

A. G.: From now on, yes, that has changed.

Rémi, first of all, explain to us your role at Renault F1?

Rémi Taffin: Basically, I work on the track as the head of operations. I am responsible for everything related to the engines on the track. As you know, we supply engines to four teams. During a race weekend, I ensure there is coordination between these four teams to make sure Renault engines are well utilized in all the cars while trying to maintain the necessary confidentiality.

Obviously, the big topic here is mapping. Can you explain what this means and what advantage you gain when making a change? How is it done?

**R. T.:** We are not talking about big changes. We are talking about a continuous process, which obviously aims to optimize our package race after race. Engine mappings are part of this and that’s what we have been trying to do since the beginning of the year. When you talk about engine mapping, it’s something everyone in the pit lane does. So it’s not something unusual.

We’re talking about software… Someone referred to it as a « gadget ». Can you explain that to us?

R. T.: Let’s take the example of engine mapping that we were talking about. Basically, it’s about the torque that the engine can deliver over the weekend, for example here. And it’s here that you can adjust the most with Renault engines. It’s what determines the torque we have in the car.

When we talk about Red Bull, what performance change was caused by this modification?

R. T.: It is difficult to quantify, but let’s say we’re talking about hundredths of a second, not seconds or tenths of a second at all. We all know that we will work on every part of the car to gain hundredths. So that is part of our job.

Martin, obviously, you have had an evolution recently. But in what way have you been affected by the weather? We had rain at Silverstone, rain at Hockenheim, and we had rain here as well. How does this hinder your development?

Martin Whitmarsh: It’s obviously difficult since we no longer do tests. If you bring a whole set of modifications to a car, Friday morning is our only test session. If it’s wet, it hampers our tests. I think we have made progress and will continue to do so. We had a relatively large package of modifications in Germany and we have some here as well. We will do what we can. We have had a lot of rain during testing this season. It would be nice if we could have dry conditions so that the engineers can work more easily. But it’s the same for everyone. To varying degrees, everyone is trying to develop and improve their car, and that’s part of the challenge. Sometimes you have a lot of data and can move forward confidently. Sometimes, you have to make a decision with limited data. On one hand, it’s more interesting: engineers don’t like that, but it’s more interesting when you have to do a bit by chance.

You must be really happy with the way things went for Button in Germany and also with Lewis being the fastest in both sessions today.

M. W.: Yes, but you’re not happy until you score the maximum points. I think we’ve made progress. It’s very difficult to predict the championship this year. It’s dominated by the tires. Those who manage to make the tires work… You can work very hard on the car but if you don’t manage to make the tires work, you will have problems. We’ve seen this too often on our car and we’ve seen it on other cars. It’s a big challenge for everyone. I think it’s going to be a very interesting championship. Fernando and Ferrari deserve great credit for what they’ve done, but we’re still 430 on deck, and I’m sure that we, Red Bull, and all the other teams are doing our best to regain the advantage.

Jenson has had difficulties recently. You must be delighted with the way he bounced back in Germany.

**M. W:** Yes, obviously. When you are a racing driver and a racing driver for a team like McLaren or Ferrari, you’re observed a lot. It’s very different: you can be a rookie in other teams and feel pressure because you’re in Formula One. But I think if you’re with McLaren, no matter who you are, the same goes for Ferrari; every year, if you don’t qualify in the first two rows of the grid, there will be a lot of scrutiny and pressure that comes with it. I don’t think Jenson has lost his abilities, he had a very nice victory this year. He is very, very fit, very, very involved, and I was delighted to see him back in shape, and I’m sure he will be strong this week.

Toto, first of all, you have a new role at Williams. What does that mean?

Toto Wolff: Formally, I have a new title but, in fact, this position is not really new. I’ve been doing the same work for two months, since Adam’s departure. Basically, it’s about helping Frank manage the team on a daily basis.

You are an investor and have this new role. Where do you see the team in five years? What is your plan to take it even further?

T. W.: My approach has changed a bit. I was an investor before, which is the easiest because you can criticize and stick your nose everywhere. Now, I am officially an employee of the company, at least I work for the company. So I have to deliver results as well, I’m part of the team. Where do I see the team? When I arrived in 2009, I gave myself five years to make progress. Now, that was just a random period, it seemed right. We won a race this year, which came rather quickly, maybe earlier than anticipated but I think the team is on track from a technical standpoint and on track for the other commercial departments as well.

Through this commitment, you must also have an opinion on sports as a whole. How do you see sports progressing?

T. W.: Sport, Formula One, is still the largest global sports platform and it continues to grow. Its growth is strong and healthy. Obviously, you can always improve and optimize things, but it is a fantastic global platform and that’s what was behind my investment in a Formula One team.

Luis, the team seems to have progressed. How do you assess them?

Luis Perez-Sala: We are rather satisfied because the start of the season was very, very difficult. Having a car ready on time was almost an objective in itself. Since the first race where we did not qualify, we have made progress. We have a new headquarters in Madrid since April 1st. I would say that the team is working on getting accustomed to the races, and we still need to grow the team from a design and aerodynamic standpoint.

How is this growth happening? From an economic standpoint, is it easy to grow the team in this field?

L. P.-S.: The problem when you are tight financially (we probably have the smallest budget among Formula One teams) is that you need more time to grow because you can’t do what you want. You have to be cautious, but I think we have enough to be a good team and stay. That’s why we are here. We are trying to progress, but we have to be realistic. It’s going to take us time.

Is it easy for you to progress? Are you looking to recruit engineers and designers from all around the world? Is it easy to recruit people to come work in Madrid?

L. P.-S.: It’s not difficult. It’s one of the advantages of the crisis: you have more people on the market and we can find them. The problem is that it’s not easy to find the right people to work at HRT. Sometimes, it’s not easy to know who the key people are. But we’re here and we have a lot of interviews. Slowly, slowly, we’re growing. We’re hiring people. Even though we want to remain a small team, I think if we optimize our search, we can improve and be closer to the front ranks.

From our correspondent in Budapest