Canadian Qualifying Quotes I

 

Vettel took his sixth pole of the season

Red Bull
Sebastian Vettel (1st, Q3 – 1m 13.014s)
“I’m happy with that. I had a rough start yesterday morning, but thankfully the guys could fix the car and I had more practice in the afternoon, which is important here.

“All in all, I’m very happy. It’s obviously a big step we’ve made today, but the big task comes tomorrow. The conditions are likely to change and I’m sure we’ll see some rain – the question is when and how much. We’ll see, but P1 is the best position to start from.”

Mark Webber (4th, Q3 – 1m 13.429s)
“It was a good afternoon and I was happy with how we recovered. I couldn’t have got much more out of the car for qualifying today; I didn’t have KERS, which affected my performance. The guys did everything they could to get it ready after the problem we had this morning and we were confident that it was fixed, but on the formation lap it lapsed again.

“It’s a long Grand Prix tomorrow and there’s likely to be a bit of weather coming in, so it should be an interesting race.”

Christian Horner, Red Bull team principal
“It’s fantastic to get our first pole position in Montreal. It was a great performance by Sebastian again today, completing two laps in Q3 that were good enough for pole. The Ferrari’s have been very quick here and we expect them and McLaren to be a big challenge tomorrow.”

Ferrari
Fernando Alonso (2nd, Q3 – 1m 13.199s)
“It’s been a long time – since Singapore 2010 in fact – that I was last on the front row and I am pleased that Felipe is also right up close to me on the starting grid. It means the whole team has worked well, at the track and back home on trying to improve our car performance. It was important to show we can be competitive and we managed it.

“We will try to put the Red Bulls under pressure, right from the start, but we know McLaren will also be very strong, especially as their rear wing is possibly better adapted to the conditions in the case of a wet track.”

Felipe Massa (3rd, Q3 – 1m 13.217s)
“It’s been a great weekend so far: we have always been competitive and finally we will be able to start from a good grid position.

“I expect McLaren will be very strong tomorrow as will be the Red Bulls obviously. A podium would be a great result, fighting for the win would be even better. What will happen if it rains? That’s a good question, because this year we have never had a real opportunity to run in the wet. On top of that, at this track, the slightest slip up carries a very high price, therefore it’s important to be very careful.”

Stefano Domenicali, Ferrari team principal
“For the first time this year we managed to fight for the very top places on the grid, right down to the final second and, for once, the gap to pole position is reasonable. It’s our best qualifying of the season and it’s great to have both cars on the front two rows.”

McLaren have gambled on raceday rain

McLaren
Lewis Hamilton (5th, Q3 – 1m 13.565s)
“Personally, I was very happy with my lap: I don’t think I’ve ever driven a car as hard in my life as I did this afternoon. I was right on the ragged edge and I think I even touched the wall at one stage. But, even so, I managed only P5; that was all I could do.

“I hope our race pace will prove to be stronger tomorrow than our qualifying pace was today: we’re losing a couple of tenths along the back straight, which hurt us in qualifying. We’ve got a long seventh gear – a bit too long for qualifying perhaps – but that should be good for overtaking.”

 
Jenson Button (7th, Q3 – 1m 13.838s)
“We didn’t quite have the pace that we’d hoped for – and that’s a little frustrating. My last lap in Q3 was looking really good – but then I overdrove, started locking up and lost a bit of time.”

 
Martin Whitmarsh, McLaren team principal
“Perhaps our cars had a little bit too much downforce for today’s qualifying session, which was dry; but, if it rains tomorrow, which is what the weather forecast tells us it will probably do, then we should be in good shape.”

 
Mercedes GP
Nico Rosberg (6th, Q3 – 1m 13.814s)
“Generally we have made good progress this weekend and qualifying in sixth position was good for us today. It’s good to have saved a set of new options as well.”

Michael Schumacher (8th, Q3 – 1m 13.864s)
“We can be quite happy with today’s qualifying.

“We have developed our set-up in the right direction over the weekend, and the long runs looked quite good this morning, so we should be ok in the race.”

Renault
Nick Heidfeld (9th, Q3 – 1m 14.062s)
“I am extremely happy because I think I achieved the maximum I could have done today. We actually drove with more downforce than normal, as we were gambling a bit and hoping for wet conditions tomorrow.

“Obviously you always want to be higher up than P9 but being in the top ten is satisfying and we will try to improve on this tomorrow by securing a good pace and gaining some places.”

Vitaly Petrov (10th, Q3 – 1m 14.085s)
“The track temperatures were much lower than yesterday and it was very difficult to warm-up the tyres properly throughout qualifying. As a result, I was lacking grip out there and I lost a bit of time during my quickest lap.”

Force India
Paul di Resta (11th, Q2 – 1m 14.752s)
“We were very close to making it through to Q3 today, but in the end we had to settle for P11. Maybe the tyre strategy we opted for was not optimal for qualifying, but I’ve managed to save a set of new options for the race so hopefully that will help us tomorrow.

P11 is a good place to start from and it’s probably better to be on the clean side of the track. We’ve been competitive here since the start of the weekend and I’m sure we can have a good race tomorrow and hopefully score some points.”

Adrian Sutil (14th, Q2 – 1m 15.287s)
“It hasn’t been the easiest of weekends so far, but I was still hoping for a bit more from the qualifying session. Unfortunately I made a mistake in the hairpin on my last lap. I hit a bump under braking which caused the rear tyres to lock and I slid wide.”

Williams
Pastor Maldonado (12th, Q2 – 1m 15.043s)
“I got 100 percent out of the car this afternoon so I’m happy with my qualifying performance.

“Our pace is good and the field is very close. We are not too far from the points and, with overtaking possible here, there’s every chance we can have a good day tomorrow. I think it’s going to be an exciting race.”

Rubens Barrichello (16th, Q2 – 1m 15.361s)
“Unfortunately, we had with a problem with the front disc in Q2. It wasn’t coming up to temperature so the car was pulling to one side and eventually caused me to go off the track.

“We actually have a very good car that is capable of better things but there are overtaking opportunities here, and we have the pace, so there is every reason to be positive for a strong race.”

Williams reshuffle after worst start

Head and Williams founded the team in 1978

Mike Coughlan – the man at the centre of the 2007 spygate –scandal – has joined Williams as part of a massive shake-up following the team’s worst ever start to a Formula 1 season.

Technical director, Sam Michael, and chief aerodynamicist Jon Tomlinson, have resigned amid the changes and will leave the team at the end of the season.

Coughlan will join Williams in June as chief engineer and team co-founder and engineering director, Patrick Head, is set to retire at the end of the year.

 The appointment of Coughlan is likely to raise an eyebrow in the F1 paddock as he has been out of work since working for McLaren in 2007.

Coughlan was responsible for taking information from his former employers – Ferrari – and passing them onto his McLaren colleagues.

The team initially denied that anyone other than Coughlan had seen the material.

But they were later found guilty after Fernando Alonso threatened to turn whistleblower following a spat with Lewis Hamilton at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

 McLaren were excluded from the 2007 constructors championship and fined $100 million. Coughlan received a two-year ban from the sport.

But team owner, Sir Frank Williams, said he had no qualms about Coughlan’s past.

“Mike left F1 in 2007 because of conduct which he acknowledges was wrong and which he profoundly regrets,” he said.

“His two-year ban from the sport expired some time ago and Mike is now determined to prove himself again.

“Williams is delighted to be able to give him the opportunity to do this and we are very pleased to have one of the most talented and competitive engineers in the sport helping us to return to the front of the grid.”

The team have struggled all season with both pace and reliability.

Neither Rubens Barrichello nor Pastor Maldonado finished in the opening two Grand Prix and both finished outside the points in China. It is the worst start in the team’s 33-year history.

As The Chequered Flag reported two weeks ago, the team’s poor performance had seen their share-price plummet by over a quarter.

“Both Sam and Jon are talented and driven people who have worked hard for Williams over 10 and five years, respectively,” added Williams.

“Nonetheless, they have recognised that the team’s performance is not at the level that it needs to be and have resigned in order to give the team the opportunity to regroup and undertake the changes necessary to get back to the front of the grid.

“Both will continue to work in their present positions through until the end of the year to ensure that the team maintains focus and momentum during the 2011 season,” he said.

Michael joined Williams in 2001 and became technical director three years later as Head assumed the role of engineering director.

Williams’ stock falls yet further

Maldonado and Williams have struggled in 2011

The share price of the Williams team has dropped by 27% on the stock exchange following their worst start to a Formula 1 season in 33 years.

The team floated the company on the stock exchange last month after losing long-term sponsors RBS and Air Asia in recent years.

But the appalling start to their season has seen their value plummet. Neither car finished in the opening two races and Rubens Barrichello and Pastor Maldonado could only manage thirteenth and eighteenth respectively in China.

Over the past five years Williams has made total net losses of £31 million.

Speaking to the Guardian, sponsorship consultant Julian Cotttam said it will be tough for Williams to replace backers as its falling share price creates a poor image.

“I can’t see any motivation at all for a brand to align with a team that has made such a fundamentally flawed decision,” Cottam said

“I didn’t see why Patrick Head was so determined to offload his entire stock in the business at a time when Williams has had a long period without any great success on track.”

Williams is the second most successful constructor in F1 history – behind Ferrari – but they have not won a race since Juan-Pablo Montoya took the chequered flag at the Brazilian Grand Prix in 2004.