ウィスパリング同時通訳研究会コミュのFIA Team Principals' Press Conference Part-1: Austrian Grand Prix 2022

PART ONE - TEAM REPRESENTATIVES

Frédéric VASSEUR (Alfa Romeo), Franz TOST (AlphaTauri), Mike Krack (Aston Martin)

Q: Fred, we'll start with you. Can we start with the F1 Commission? It met yesterday in which various decisions were made. How pleased were you with the outcomes?

Frédéric VASSEUR: I think that you are speaking just about the cost cap? Not the other decisions. You know, the cost cap, for me was the best decision of the F1 over the last years and we have to consider also that the preoccupation and the view on the cost cap is completely different between the small teams and the big ones. I think that we found yesterday a compromise. It's a good compromise at the end, and nobody was happy and it's probably the best way to manage the deal. But in the other hand, I think that we have to keep in mind also that the big teams did a mega-big effort to come from more than $300million to $150million and I'm pleased with the outcome of the discussion.
Actually, let's go down the line. Mike, please can we get your thoughts on the F1 Commission meeting yesterday?

Mike KRACK: Yeah, as Fred said, we managed to have a compromise on the financial regulations, or on the cost cap discussion. There was a couple of other points on sporting, race weekend schedule is one that we'll see soon. And also we discussed about the porpoising technical directive. So, yeah, all in all, it was, I think, was a good discussion. I think, at the end of the day, would have been good if we had a bit more time, if we had not to rush too much through the agenda. And to be honest, I would wish that we do this not on the on the day where we have qualifying, or on track action, and allow more time, basically, because – I know what you think, Fred – but I think we… there was certain points where we had to really rush and where maybe one or two more loops would have been good, but okay, it is what it is. I think at the end of the day, we came away with a couple of decisions that were taken together to move the sport forward. So, all in all, yeah, compromise on financial but no compromise on others. So, all in all, it was okay.

Franz please?

Franz TOST: That was a good Formula 1 commission meeting, I'm pleased with the outcome because we found a good compromise. And as the others said… but sporting regulation, technical regulation, everything was more or less approved, and the rest, I think FIA will announce it and then you will know all the contents, which we decided yesterday.

Q: Fred, we'll come back to you now. Let's throw it back to Silverstone. Horrible accident for Zhou. Have you been impressed by how he's bounced back this week?

FV: Not just this week. I think that he came back to the garage, one hour after the crash when he was released from the medical centre and he had absolutely nothing. First question was about the stock of parts for Spielberg. For sure that if, a couple of days after, when you think about this, that you suggested incredible to have a so huge crash and to come back into the garage to have nothing, to be focused on the next one, it's unbelievable. But I think on this thanks to the FIA, thanks to the safety criteria… you know that I was the biggest fan of the Halo at the beginning, but I was wrong. Last week, between Zhou and the F2 crash, I think it was… thanks to the FIA.

Q: And what kind of a week of your mechanics had? How big a job was it to prepare a new chassis while completing the 1000-mile journey from Silverstone to the Red Bull Ring?

FV: For sure it was not just to repaint the car! No, it was massive. But we are ready to do this kind of exercise, to build up a new car. And sometimes it's even planned to do it between two races to change the chassis. It was for sure a big task but at the end of the day they are prepared to do it and it was not… I think we were much more focused on how Zhou will react and how we will be this weekend than how to rebuild the car.

Q: And was Zhou flat out from the first lap?

FV: You are not in his mind that when he's driving but as I told you, that the after the crash, he was always focused on the next one, that he was not thinking ‘that it was a so big crash’. And I think it's the right attitude now. I'm not in his mind when he's driving, but I'm pleased with the situation.

Q: Mike coming to you now. This is a tough period for your team. Can we talk about car performance? And what have been the issues with it?

MK: Yes, we can talk about it – we have to talk about it. Obviously, we all know we had not a very good start, then, I think the last races before Silverstone, we had tracks that were suiting the characteristic of the car. But now, the last two tracks, they have really shown again, a bit better picture of where we are standing. And we simply are not performing enough. We've seen it in Silverstone. We have seen it yesterday. And we need to find our way out there. We need to work ourselves out.

Q: But Mike, what are the issues with it? What are the drivers saying?

MK: Well, the drivers are mainly always complaining about grip and balance. So obviously, when you push it really hard – which I always think when you have a car that is not quick enough, you over push or you try to over push – so you have balance problems, but also we have had now sessions where to go faster, you need more grip. So, we struggled in high-speed, in all high-speed areas. In Canada, there was less of them, in Baku, there was less of them. Car is quite okay, I think, in the low-speed. And yeah, it's mainly low speed corners. But as soon as it goes high-speed, we are lacking.

Q: And how are the drivers coping with the current difficulties, especially Sebastian, a man who's enjoyed so much success.

MK: I think both drivers, we really have to say hats-off, how they cope with it, how constructive they still are with us. There is no bad word, nothing at all. We try to do this together, try to get out together, they give us very good feedback. And it would be easy for them to get frustrated but this is not what happens. Both Lance and Sebastian, they’re very constructive in all the meetings and you could not sense any lack of pushing or motivation from the current situation.

Q: So looking ahead, which tracks do you think will suit your car? Are you looking forward to Hungary? For example, if it's good through the low-speed?

MK: Yeah, well, you know, personally, I'm looking forward to all the tracks because I think it's the reason why we are all here. So there is not one track where I would say I don't want to go there because the car performance is bad. So, it's a challenge. We knew when we went to Silverstone, or when we came here, that is going to be tough but still you try to do the maximum and try to do as best as you can and move the car as far forward as possible. And if it doesn't work, as you expect, and you have to do harder next time.

Q: Franz, let's throw it back to Silverstone. A race that delivered little for AlphaTauri after the crash between your drivers. How did you, as team principal, deal with that situation after the race?

FT: Talk to the drivers. Of course, this was a nightmare for the team. Because drivers were in position seven and eight. And we knew that Silverstone is difficult for us therefore we really were in good positions. And then Yuki got little bit too impatient, tried to out-brake Pierre, lost the rear and crashed into him. And immediately after the race I called Yuki into my office and told him that this is absolutely no-go and that he has to be more disciplined and patient. This was not the first collision between teammates and will not be the last one – hopefully with us – but we saw this in history Formula 1 a couple of times but nevertheless, this in any way must be avoided.

Q: Helmut Marko has described Yuki as a ‘problem child’ in reference to his radio manner. How disruptive are comments like that for someone like Yuki?

FT: I like problem childs because these are the real good child who can make something out of it. I don't like the holy childs. Yuki made a mistake; he knows it and he will work on this. He is still in his development process. He is fast. He was also fast this weekend here. And he will do his way. It takes a little bit of time.

Q: Obviously difficult race at Silverstone. You're racing at home this weekend. How important is it for you to get a good result here?

FT: It's everywhere important to get a good result, has nothing to do with a home race, apart from this, all the race tracks are my home race. Anyway, I think that we are competitive here as well. Pierre is now starting from the 10th position. There is a big chance to score points. And Yuki is not far behind. I expect both cars within the first 10.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Scott Mitchell – The Race) Question to Mike, please. Just on the development of the car. As you've brought the upgrades has that shifted any of the problem areas? Change the balance, that kind of thing? Or has there been a core underlying issue with the car all through the season? And if so, are you surprised that the upgrades haven't helped with that? Thank you.

MK: Well, the upgrades have worked, have brought us a step forward. But a step that is not big enough. The basic problems that the car is having have not been solved.

Q: (Jon Noble – motorsport.com) To Fred. One of the key aspects of Zhou’s crash last week was the roll hoop failing. What's your investigation said about that, and have you given any consideration to strengthen it or changing the attachment to ensure in a repeat circumstance, it doesn't happen.

FV: It's still under investigation. And we'll share all the information about the crash with the FIA, we are already into the process of this. The first conclusion is that the crash was something like two times more than the load of the crash test. It means that… I don't know if you had a look on the tarmac, but we dig a groove into the tarmac for something like four or five centimetres deep. It means that at one stage, doesn't matter the level of the crash test, you can always find something a bit bigger and for sure, we'll have to take action. On our side and with the FIA, to see how we can improve the safety. But at the end of the day, I want to stay positive and to say that it was a big crash and nothing happened. And you can’t imagine also what could be the outcome if we don't have fuel on the car. You know that at one stage, I think that thanks to the safety decision, and that we had no fuel leak on the car, because this would have been from far the worst-case scenario.

Q: (Luke Smith – Autosport) Fred, following up on that with Zhou’s crash. Financially, can you put a figure on how much a crash like that will cost the team, and on the bigger picture, in terms of the budget cap and everything like that? How much of an impact does it have on development? Does it cause any rethink, at all?

FV: I don't want to come back on the discussion of yesterday. The big difference is that in this case, I don't have to deal with the cost cap, I have to deal with my own budget, because we are still below the cost cap. I won't go to the bank to make a loan to pay the parts; it means that I will have to find savings on the development, or on some other topic. But I will have to deal with and I will be able to deal with.

Q: (Aaron Deckers - Racing News 365) Question for Mike, you just refer to the meeting of yesterday. Can you tell us more about on which parts you wanted to talk more and why?

MK: I think it's more a general thing. We don't meet so often and then you have a tightly packed agenda in three hours. And a lot of stakeholders with their points and also valid arguments. And sometimes it's really also important to listen to what others are saying because you might also hear things that you did not have on the radar, or understand where a big team is coming from, where medium or small team is coming from. And if you rush through an agenda, then you don't have this time. So, that's my only point. I mean, it's not a drama. Don't get me wrong, but I think there are important decisions, and they should be made carefully.

Q: (Jon Noble – motorsport.com) To Mike. We’re now we're almost halfway through the season. You say these upgrades haven't delivered what you'd hoped. Are you at the point yet of thinking that maybe you need to do something totally different for ’23, and focus all efforts for next year, or are you still convinced you can develop this this car and lead it into your path into next year's challenger?

MK: It's a very tough call. Because obviously, you do not want to finish the year in the situation where we are now. But you also do not want to compromise next year. So, we have to really carefully evaluate what can we do at this point to move a little bit out of the situation where we are, without compromising next year's car. And there is a lot of discussions going on there, with our technical people and we need to really find the correct the correct balance.

Q: (Scott Mitchell – The Race) Just to follow up on that, please, Mike. When Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has talked about their concepts and what they can do for ’23, he said that they can't consider a completely different direction for ’23 because they haven't quite understood the exact problems on the ’22 car. Where are you in that? Do you understand where the core problems are for the car? Could you go in a different direction? Or do you still need to work out exactly what might be wrong with this year's car first?

MK: Yeah, I think I think our technical office has understood, and knows also what to do for the future. But then it's a matter of time and financial resource what you do now, but I think it is identified, yes.

Can we throw this topic of 2023 to the other two? Where are you at in terms of understanding the current car, and switching the programmes back at the factory to 2023. Franz, perhaps we'll start with you.

FT: I think we have a good understanding of the current car. And we have – or the engineers have – some really good ideas for next year's car. And we are going in the right direction.

FV: As Valtteri said couple of races ago, thanks to you, we already started the ’23 project. But I think one of the most important points today is to get the stability of the regulation. The cost cap can work and could work only if we have a kind of consistency that if you start to change the regulation each year, and you have to start from scratch, or almost, it makes no sense. And by the way, you can carryover some parts from ’22 to ’23 and perhaps the concept, or the aero concept, big word, but the aero concept of the car, but then I think it's more a matter of pace. If the pace is not there, the drivers, they will always complain about balance and level of grip. You don't have to take it in the opposite way on that.

Q: Fred, staying with you, Théo Pourchaire said last weekend that you're finding it difficult to find an FP1 session for him this year. What's the situation?

FV: No, no, we will find an FP1 because it's per regulation that you have to give an FP1 to the rookie but when we discuss about it, that if you consider when you have the F2 races, we have some event with the Sprint races. We will have some event with tyre testing. And you can’t imagine to give the rookie session to Singapore, even Suzuka will be difficult, even if I think that Max did it a couple of years ago. You don't have so many races until the end – but we'll find the solution, don’t worry. By regulation, it’s mandatory.

Q: (Adam Cooper - Motorsport.com) A question for all three of you. What are your thoughts on the porpoising TD being postponed from France to Belgium? Do you need that extra time to prepare for it? Because for example, Toto says he'd prefer to stick with the original timing.

FT: For us, it's OK, because so far, our car didn't have the problems with the porpoising we just put the ride height a little bit higher and that's it. You know, it being postponed gives the engineers more time to find a better, more efficient solution, therefore for me, it's OK.

MK: Yeah, I mean, we could live with both, either race 12 or race 14. Certainly, there is a reason why it was postponed. I think some explanations were given yesterday. So we're happy with either.

FV: I think we could postpone from to race 14 or even 16 or 18. I'm not really convinced that it's to the FIA to interfere into the setup of the car.

Q: (Matt Kew – Autosport) Franz, over the years, you've obviously built drivers up, sent them to Red Bull and had several of them come back down to Toro Rosso or back to AlphaTauri. Why do you think it's Pérez, a non-Red Bull junior that’s been the one to make it stick alongside Max?

FT: Ask Red Bull Racing, Dr Marko and Christian Horner.

Q: (Luke Smith – Autosport) Franz, on Yuki, you talked about his development and everything there. With Pierre you were quite quick to confirm that we'll be staying with the team for next season. Where do things stand for Yuki’s future? Do you need see a bit more from him before you can commit to next year or do you reckon that'll be a formality?

FT: If he continues like he did during the season, apart from crashing, I think that he has a good chance to stay with us. It depends on him. If he shows a good performance he will stay, if he doesn't show a good performance, he is out. Totally easy.