Formula 1 Abu Dhabi

This afternoon in Abu Dhabi the media attention was focused on the Thursday Press conference. Today's driver selection was, Valtteri Bottas, Romain Grosjean, Adrian Sutil, Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso.

A lot of the attention was of course on Sebastian Vettel after taking the drivers title back in India.
Question “Sebastian, your fourth world title of course. Tell us about the last four days. What have you been doing, how have you celebrated and what has the reaction been like?”

Sebastian Vettel: “Well, the reaction has been very positive. Obviously great relief when I crossed the line on Sunday, a great feeling. Sunday night, obviously the whole team still had to do the pack-up, but we had a little bit of fun in the hotel bar – quite spontaneous. Obviously, there's not a lot of time between the race in India and the race here, so the team is very busy. So we couldn't go completely made, but I had a time on Sunday night and then I had two days at home before coming here, again fairly quiet, not very spectacular. I just enjoyed the peace at home. I had some time for myself, back with my girlfriend as well. So, fairly quiet.”

Question “Probably history will remember this achievement as you in a strong team beating a very strong field of drivers – looking at the gentlemen sitting around you here. Is that how you see it?”

“I think that's the way it always has been. When Lewis won his title in 2008 he was with a strong team facing strong drivers, same for Fernando in 2005 and 2006, so yeah, even 20 or 30 years ago it has always been the name of the game. That's how people remember the past and one day will remember what we are doing now.”

Question “Sebastian, after winning so many races and four consecutive championships, do you think it will be harder again for you to lose?”

“To be honest, I'm not getting in the car and thinking that there's a guarantee that we will do well. Maybe that's a little bit the impression that you get from the outside; obviously since the summer break we've won all the races but we come here and there's absolutely no guarantee that we will do well, so we have to give it everything we have. Yes, we have a strong package so I think we have reason to be confident. I need the team, I think the team needs Mark and myself to push the car to the limit and to get some good results. There's no guarantee for what we've been doing the last couple of races to make it last.”

When the focus switched to Romain Grosjean, I found what he said rather fascinating. He has come on leaps and bounds, he is completely driver.

Question “Romain, really strong run of form at the moment. Was India your best performance yet in Formula One, do you think? How much more is there to come from you?”

“Hopefully two more places! It was certainly one of our best races. We misjudged our level of performance on the Saturday and we took the right decision about the strategy, how to go for the race. It was clearly not an easy one as I really had to first make the option tyre last and then try to make the prime tyre last for 47 laps. There were some quick cars around me, especially behind me, and yeah, just try to take care as much as we can of our tyres and do good driving. But I think Japan was a pretty good race. We had certainly a fantastic start and led the race from there, which was somehow easy to control in the first part. I think Red Bull was just a little bit too quick behind but when you watch the gap with Fernando who was P4, it was quite big, so I think those last four races have been pretty good: trying to improve myself every time, car is getting there and clearly the blue cars are still a little bit quicker than we are – but we try to push them as much as we can.”

Question “Let's cut to the chase: you're a completely different racing driver from 12 months ago. What's the key to the turnaround do you think?”

“I don't think there is any particular key to be honest. We like to put some things are changes but to me the work started a year ago and I'm improving myself day after day – or I'm trying to. The start of the season was poor. It's a bit of a shame when we look at what we are capable to do right now but then since we put back the car in place it has been getting better and better. I was a bit unlucky before Germany and then Germany things turn out to be well together and from there we had very, very good races and the car is doing well. Hopefully it's going to be the case until the end of the season.”

Romain's answer to Frederic Ferret's question, said a lot about Kimi's relationship with the Lotus team recently. Frederic from L'Equipe asked Romain, Fernando and Sebastian, “what do you think of Kimi as a man and as a driver?”

Romain: “As a man, I would say yeah, Kimi basically I don't know him. He is with me as he is with you. As a driver, he's a very good driver and he has been, until recently, a very good teammate. He's a quicker driver, he's a consistent driver and to me, having him to learn (from) and to improve myself has been pretty good. But yeah, I don't see him in different clothes to the ones we're wearing right now.”

Sebastian: “Well, I think I have huge respect for the fact that he loves what he's doing, he loves motor racing, any form of it. Obviously, I think Formula One gives him a lot of satisfaction to drive a Formula One car. He doesn't like the rest of it so much. On a personal level, he does talk to me. I don't know what I do differently. He's one of the most straightforward guys I've met so far and I respect a lot that he has always been very honest. Since I came into Formula One, he was ready to help, even gave me a lift a couple of times early on. I get along with him.”

Fernando: “Personally, I cannot say anything because I do not know him enough to speak about him personally. As a driver, he's a great champion, great talent, very very fast. He likes what he's doing. That's the best thing.”

Valtteri Bottas has put in some very strong performances this season, He seems to feel positive about the remaining races of this season. But unfortunately no news as yet on his future.

Questions “It's been obviously a difficult, challenging year for you. What sort of shape are Williams in going forward?”

“Yeah, it's been a challenging year. We've been learning a lot the whole year as a team. It's been very tough. So we're definitely I think going in a good direction, we're now very focussed for next year. What I've seen at the factory, the working at the factory is changing. We've got some new people and I've already seen some good things. I really think the future of Williams will be much better than what we've seen this year.”

Question “Not too many rumours about you, does that indicate that you're staying put for next year?”

“I think Claire Williams is tomorrow in the press conference so maybe you can ask her.”

Question “Valtteri, last four qualifying’s you have managed to beat your team mate. Have you found something new in your one lap performance?”

“The whole season I've been learning a lot and there are little things you're picking up all the time. In qualifying, it's been very tight this year – it's always like that – and every hundredth counts. I think after the August break, for sure I've also improved in qualifying. I think I can now maybe get a bit more out of the car more consistently than before. I feel more confident all the time, so maybe we can see that in the results.”

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