Comparing the 2015 drivers: Williams

Today we shall talk about the two Williams drivers Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa. 

Valtteri Bottas has been with the team for a few years. First he was the test driver / reserve driver and then for the past two years he has been one of the racing drivers. 

Felipe Massa joined Williams before last season so he should be used to the team by now.

OK guys.. I'll do this the same way as I've always done. So first the year, then the teammate and how the season went.

I'm gonna start with Felipe Massa because he got to Formula One first.

2002 - Nick Heidfeld. After Räikkönen got a seat at McLaren Peter Sauber signed Felipe Massa as Nick Heidfeld's teammate. Sauber said that Massa was even better than Räikkönen and was sure that everybody would see it. Unfortunately Massa didn't perform as good as Räikkönen a year before. Massa was 14th in the championship with 4 points. Heidfeld was 10th with 7.

2003 - Peter Sauber didn't want to continue Massa's contract because of "numerous mistakes" in 2002. Massa became Ferrari's test driver and later Sauber wanted him back for the 2004 season.

2004 - Giancarlo Fisichella. Massa had gotten better but this time he had a more experienced teammate against him. In the end Fisichella was higher up in the standings with 22 points and Massa had only 12.

2005 - Jaques Villeneuve. Now he had a former world champion driving with him. For the first time ever Massa was better than his teammate! The former world champion got 9 points and Massa got 11. This was not because of luck or bad luck. Massa was much better that season and got a seat at Ferrari for the next season.

2006 - Michael Schumacher. Schumi was fighting for the championship with Alonso. Massa was just the "junior teammate" who came to learn from the legend how it's done. Massa was 2nd in his first qulaifying with Ferrari right after Schumacher. Later on he started winning races and got better and better.

2007 - Kimi Räikkönen. The Iceman won his first race with Ferrari and 5 more races that same season. He also won the championship before Hamilton, Alonso and Massa. The brazilian said that 2008 was going to be his turn.

2008 - Kimi Räikkönen. This year Ferrari had a lot of technical problems. Massa retired 3 times and Räikkönen 5 times. Sometimes they had big problems even though they got to finish the race. Massa was more lucky than Räikkönen and was 2nd in the championship. It seemed for a while that he was the champion but Hamilton overtook Timo Glock on the last lap and won Massa by a single point. Anyways this was the second time he won his teammate in Formula One.

2009 - Kimi Räikkönen. This year the car was even worse. Räikkönen only won one single race for Ferrari and Massa had a serious accident in Hungary. He was replaced by Luca Badoer and later Giancarlo Fisichella who were not nearly as good as Massa. If you count Massa's, Badoer's and Fisichella's points together you get less points than Räikkönen got from the whole season.

2010 - Fernando Alonso. Alonso won him by 108 points with the new scoring system and was 2nd in the championship. He lost the championship in the last race when he got stuck behind Petrov. Massa was far behind in 6th place in the end of the season.

2011 - Fernando Alonso. Alonso's victory over Massa was even greater. 139 points more!

2012 - Fernando Alonso. Even more! 156 points, but Ferrari gave Felipe Massa one last chance to prove himself to the team.

2013 - Fernando Alonso. Alonso won Massa again very clearly which forced Ferrari to sign Kimi Räikkönen instead of Massa. They lost faith in him but wished him well.

2014 - Valtteri Bottas. I'll talk about him after I have compared Valtteri's previous teammates.

Here we go! It's Valtteri Bottas' turn. The list is very short because he has driven only two season's in Formula One (as a racing driver).

2013 - Pastor Maldonado. He was expected to be better than Bottas but it wasn't so. Bottas got 4 points and Maldonado got 1. According to the Williams team Bottas seamed to be a more mature driver than Maldonado even though he was a rookie. Bottas also got a P3 in the Canadian qualifying session which was a big surprise. Williams had an awful car in 2013.

2014 - Felipe Massa. He was also expected to be better than Bottas but he wasn't. He drove better than he did at Ferrari but it wasn't enough against Bottas. The points were 186-134 between them and Bottas took six podiums and Massa "only" three.

Last year I said: "People are not going to agree with me on this one but I really think that Bottas has a chance of being better than Massa in 2014". I was right and I am sure that he will beat Massa this year also. I like Massa but he has to do better in 2015 to beat Bottas. He is very though.

2014 German Grand Prix review

Hello there! I am sorry that I am writing the race review today and not yesterday. I have been a bit busy but now I have a little time so here goes.

The race was entertaining as usual. It was exciting that Hamilton started from the back and I was sure that he would be on the podium. He didn't let me down and overtook a lot of cars!

It's just a bit stupid with DRS because it's very easy to come from the back to the front. It's not that special anymore. I remember when Räikkönen started from the back in the 2005 Japanese GP and overtook Fisichella on the last lap and won the race. No KERS/ERS or DRS! just pure skills and a fast car.

Don't get me wrong I like to see overtakes but it's like comparing basketball and soccer. In basketball there's a lot of points very often and in soccer when you score it's more important cause it doesn't happen that often. DRS/ERS/KERS has made F1 like basketball. Maybe you got the picture?

I realized that overtaking isn't as cool as it used to be in 2012 (Abu Dhabi) when Sebastian Vettel started from the pits and was 3rd when the race was over. He had the best car with these new buttons you just push and then you are in front like that.

But now let's talk more about the actual race!

The start was a disaster for Felipe Massa who collided for the 3rd time this season on the first lap. Maybe it is bad luck or maybe he should start looking more in the mirrors? The man who hit him was Kevin Magnussen who has also hit Kimi Räikkönen about 3-4 times this season and every time with his front wing. This time it was also his front wing and tyre that touched Massa's car.

It was difficult to say who's fault it was because Massa couldn't see him coming and Magnussen was as close as he could be to the grass. The brazilian had to retire after sliding upside down for a few meters. 

Kimi Räikkönen had an ok race and was overtaking car after car also but had a lot of bad luck again. He got hit by at least these drivers: Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and his teammate Fernando Alonso. The worst part was when Vettel and Alonso hit him at the same time from both sides.

If I say one more thing about Kimi then it's this: WHY AREN'T THEY EVEN TRYING WITH HIM?! Kimi said that he must pit because the tyres are destroyed and they just respond calmly that he should continue. Then when he says several times "WE MUST PIT!" then they believe him. If Alonso would have said that they should pit they would have ran outside with flames coming out of their asses.

I can't believe that Kimi drove so well with Lotus and then with Ferrari it's like he is a terrible driver. What is going on?! Seriously! It's so weird that I can't understand this. This has been his worst season of his career. Let's move on..

Later we saw two pretty weird retirements. First of all Daniil Kvyat was on flames and was obviously not happy about it:

..and then we saw Adrian Sutil spinning on the main straight saying "something's wrong with the car".

Then I'm gonna talk about my new hero! Valtteri Bottas! what a driver! It was like nothing could stop him. Not even Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes!

Bottas has now scored in 10 races more than the whole Williams team in three seasons!
This has now lifted Williams to third position in the constructors championship. Ferrari doesn't like that! Better get Kimi's car to work now. At least he was happy with it in the last race even though he had a lot of bad luck again.

What else? Lewis Hamilton said before the German GP that Nico Rosberg is not German because he is half finnish and lives in Monaco. He obviously tried to make him nervous before his home race. Instead he made him more hungry to prove him wrong and to win the race.

I am going to say this again in this post: NICO ROSBERG WILL BE CHAMPION IN 2014!
I have a very strong feeling of this.


And then! Here are my predictions for the 2014 German GP and how it went:

Pole position: Nico Rosberg, Mercedes - CORRECT

The race:

1. Valtteri Bottas, Williams - WRONG. He was 2nd.
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes - WRONG. He was 1st.
3. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT

Fastest lap: Nico Rosberg, Mercedes - WRONG. It was the other Mercedes driven by Lewis Hamilton.

First to pit in the race: Jean-Eric Vergne, Toro Rosso - WRONG. Kevin Magnussen pitted after crashing with Felipe Massa.

Surprise: Jenson Button, McLaren - He will be very close to a podium finish - WRONG. It didn't go THAT well.

Remember to post your own predictions to our F1-4-LIFE PREDICTORS LEAGUE.

The rules:

POINTS:  1st - 3  2nd - 5  3rd - 10 

HOW IT WORKS: the aim of the game is simply predict who comes where in the race (top3). A total of 18 points can be won on a race day. If you get winner and and 3rd place right but 2nd wrong you get 13 points same if you get 1 correct. eg. 2nd you get 5 points. If a driver wins the race and you said he would come 2nd or 3rd no points would be awarded. Same if he came in another position, and you predicted that wrong. A table will be posted up every race weekend. The point scoring system will change once the cars become more competitive. Everyone will say a merc 1,2 so it won't be close or fun. 

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR PREDICTIONS: send an email to f14lifeblog@gmail.com or message the Facebook page to submit your predictions. You have until lights out to make them. If you submit them when the race has started they won't count. So be quick! like the Mercedes. 

THE PRIZE: the winner of the league will win themselves a admin place on the F1 4 LIFE page along side JT, AE & MW. If you don't want to be an admin you are welcome to participate anyway. We may also come up with some other prize if it helps. 

That's it for today and if you want to send me feedback then email me: f14lifeblog@gmail.com

2014 German Grand Prix preview

Hi there! It's time for some Grand Prix racing again this weekend and the event will take place at the legendary Hockenheim ring in Germany.

The track used to be a bit different and here you can see the difference:

I personally liked the old circuit more with the forrest part. I know it was mainly just driving straight but you could see a lot of overtaking there. Smaller teams that didn't do that good could get an advantage in Hockenheim too if they were fast on the straights. 

One of the fastest on the straights this year is Williams so they would have probably been the best on the older track. They might be pretty awesome on the new version of the track as well but Mercedes is very close and are hungry for more wins.

Sauber, McLaren, Force India and Ferrari are getting big updates and I am pretty sure that the other teams are not just sitting around so this could be a very interesting weekend! I am very sure! You will see something radical in my predictions as well ;) (the winner)

Before I reveal my predictions I would like to show you a few videos from the 2010 German GP to refresh your memory:





I hope something like this doesn't happen this year but I hope the weekend will be unforgettable anyways. 

Tell me what you think of that "scandal" below or on the facebook page or send me an email to f14lifeblog@gmail.com


Here are my predictions for the 2014 German GP:

Pole position: Nico Rosberg, Mercedes

The race:

1. Valtteri Bottas, Williams
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes
3. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes

Fastest lap: Nico Rosberg, Mercedes

First to pit in the race: Jean-Eric Vergne, Toro Rosso

Surprise: Jenson Button, McLaren - He will be very close to a podium finish.

Remember to post your own predictions to our F1-4-LIFE PREDICTORS LEAGUE.

The rules:

POINTS:  1st - 3  2nd - 5  3rd - 10 

HOW IT WORKS: the aim of the game is simply predict who comes where in the race (top3). A total of 18 points can be won on a race day. If you get winner and and 3rd place right but 2nd wrong you get 13 points same if you get 1 correct. eg. 2nd you get 5 points. If a driver wins the race and you said he would come 2nd or 3rd no points would be awarded. Same if he came in another position, and you predicted that wrong. A table will be posted up every race weekend. The point scoring system will change once the cars become more competitive. Everyone will say a merc 1,2 so it won't be close or fun.

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR PREDICTIONS: send an email to f14lifeblog@gmail.com or message the Facebook page to submit your predictions. You have until lights out to make them. If you submit them when the race has started they won't count. So be quick! like the Mercedes. 

THE PRIZE: the winner of the league will win themselves a admin place on the F1 4 LIFE page along side JT, AE & MW. If you don't want to be an admin you are welcome to participate anyway. We may also come up with some other prize if it helps. 

THIS TIME YOU ALSO GET BONUS POINTS! PREDICT POLE POSITION AND FASTEST LAP CORRECTLY TO EARN 2 EXTRA POINTS! AND NOW ALSO THE DRIVER WHO PITS FIRST IN THE RACE.

That's it for today and if you want to send me feedback then email me: f14lifeblog@gmail.com

Massa puts Williams on top at Silverstone test

Felipe Massa set the pace on the first of two days of Formula One testing at Silverstone on Tuesday.

The Williams driver clocked a time of 1m 35.242s, just 0.006s quicker than Daniel Ricciardo's best lap for Red Bull.

“The car was very competitive during the race so today we have built on a very good platform,” reported Massa. “The test today was experimenting with some parts for future races as well as a little bit for next year. 

“The car felt really good, so we know we will go to Hockenheim with a good car. The programme went to plan today and we didn't have any rain so it was a very productive day.”

Championship leader Nico Rosberg was third fastest for Mercedes after a busy session in which the team focussed on aero testing, brake cooling evaluations and engine system checks, plus set-up work.

“It's so valuable to do these test days; over a race weekend it's rare to get two runs in the day that are the same as tyres are getting old and conditions change but here we can always use new tyres, so we can really do some setup work that we don't normally get to do,” explained Rosberg.

“It was very useful and we learned a lot today. We will be able to use this information going into the next race.”

Adrian Sutil tested some new aero parts on his way to fourth for Sauber and afterwards declared himself pleased with his day’s work: “It was a good day, as I was able to do a lot of laps. In the morning everything worked well except for a small issue with the powertrain, which we were able to solve quickly.

“We worked a lot with the medium and hard tyres in order to understand them better. Besides that, we also worked on the set-up to improve the balance of the car. In the afternoon we tried different set-ups. So far we cannot say which set-up worked the best, but all in all it was a good day during which we went through our planned programme. At the end of the day we did short runs with the soft tyres, which was also helpful.”

Marussia's Jules Bianchi, who will drive for Ferrari on Wednesday, completed the top five. The Frenchman spent the day doing development work for Pirelli, but his running was curtailed by a small fire underneath his MR03’s bodywork in the afternoon session. 

McLaren test and reserve driver Stoffel Vandoorne, having his second run of the year in the MP4-29, was sixth fastest, just ahead of the Force India of Sergio Perez.

Jean-Eric Vergne clocked the eighth fastest time of the day, but after a productive morning his afternoon was compromised as Toro Rosso ran into technical problems whilst shaking down some new energy store batteries.

Pastor Maldonado was ninth fastest for Lotus, just ahead of the Ferrari of Pedro de la Rosa. Ferrari, like Marussia, focused purely on tyre development work for Pirelli on Tuesday, however the Spaniard’s running on prototype 2015 tyres was brought to a premature end by a coolant leak.

“It was great to be able to drive the actual car after so much work in the simulator, especially at a track like Silverstone,” said De la Rosa.

“I think today was very useful both for me and for the team. We worked a lot on race simulation, always running with a high fuel load, so as to understand as much as possible about the new tyres. We learned a lot and even if I can’t make a direct comparison to this year’s tyres, the feeling I got is that they do represent a step forward.”

Completing the timesheet was young British driver Will Stevens in the Caterham.

“I’ve done a lot of mileage already this year in the 2014 car but all in the simulator, so it was really good to be in the real car and to have a decent day at Silverstone,” he said.

“The morning session was a bit stop/start as we had a few software issues that needed fixing, but we still completed 71 laps by the time we stopped break and by then I was increasingly comfortable in the car.

“By the end of the day we’d completed 13 runs with a total of 95 laps and have a lot of data for the guys back at the factory to work through. I know the plan tomorrow for Julian and Rio is similar so hopefully we can have another productive day and leave Silverstone on a positive note. After my day today that’s exactly what I’m going to do!”

Testing concludes at Silverstone on Wednesday when Lotus will be demoing Pirelli's prototype 18-inch tyres.

Unofficial Tuesday times from Silverstone
1. Felipe Massa, Williams, 1m 35.242s, 42 laps
2. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, 1m 35.248s, 71 laps
3. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1m 35.573s, 89 laps
4. Adrian Sutil, Sauber, 1m 35.674s, 73 laps
5. Jules Bianchi, Marussia, 1m 36.148s, 108 laps
6. Stoffel Vandoorne, McLaren, 1m 36.462s, 71 laps
7. Sergio Perez, Force India, 1m 36.583s, 79 laps
8. Jean-Eric Vergne, Toro Rosso, 1m 36.688s, 28 laps
9. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus, 1m 37.131s, 97 laps
10. Pedro de la Rosa, Ferrari, 1m 37.988s, 49 laps
11. Will Stevens, Caterham, 1m 40.627s, 95 laps

(source: f1.com)

FIA post-qualifying press conference - Austria

Drivers: 1 - Felipe Massa (Williams); 2 - Valtteri Bottas (Williams); 3 - Nico Rosberg (Mercedes)

Q: Felipe, pole for the first time since, I think, Brazil 2008. Describe your emotions now.
Felipe Massa: Yeah, I'm so happy with what's happened today with us and our team. It was such a great moment. It was already long time when I had my last pole position, which was, yeah, in Brazil, 2008. So, such an incredible moment. For sure we need to concentrate on the race tomorrow, you know, it's a difficult and important race for us. But I think it's a great moment. The best place to be is here in the first place. It's something that I got the chance to be many times in all my career and I am again now. After a long time I couldn't be in this place and I hope this is just the beginning of maybe some great possibilities to be here again, not just in the qualifying but also in the race. The race is tomorrow but I'm so happy, very emotional – not just for me but I think it's a similar feeling what I feel and what Williams feel as well. Williams Martini had an incredible career in the past and they are back to the top, they are back to the fight. There is still a lot to do but the work is going on the right line. I'm so pleased for me and for Williams Martini as well.

Q: Very well done. Coming to you Valtteri. Your best ever Formula One qualifying in second place. You were in provisional pole though, but it looked like a mistake on your last and it ended up very close with Felipe, I believe only nine one hundredths of a second the gap between you.
Valtteri Bottas: Yeah best position so far in my career, so one more place to go. Well done Felipe. I'm really happy for us as a team. This result is really good at this point. We've made some big, big steps from last year and now we get a result like this. Of course it's only Saturday but still we can see that all the hard work really starts to pay off. I'm really happy for us. As Felipe says the race is tomorrow, so we need to focus on that. It's going to be a different story tomorrow, it's not going to be easy to keep the Mercedes cars behind for sure, and even some other cars like Ferrari and Red Bull are going to be strong. Yeah, not a bad day today but we just need to keep focused now.

Q: Very well done. Nico, coming to you now. Championship leader but it's not the first time that you've not been on the front row of the grid. Did you expect to have these two cars in front of you and what happened today for you?
Nico Rosberg: No, of course, I definitely didn't expect the Williams to be ahead of me today but they did a good job and it just didn't come together perfectly for me. I also lost out on that last lap because of Lewis spinning in front in the corner, so I couldn't do that lap. You have to lift off two tenths of a second you know and doing that, to do at least two tenths you have to do three tenths and it's just… it wouldn't have been possible to improve on my lap time so I backed out of it. So that definitely cost me today but that's just the way it is. But still third place is OK, it's OK to start from there tomorrow and I have a quick car in the race, so I'm still looking forward to it and I'll make the most of it.

Q: Well done. Coming back to you Felipe. Obviously the race tomorrow, but there's a big football tournament going on at the moment in your home country. I guess though that all eyes will be on you in the early part of tomorrow, what do you expect? 
FM: Yeah, I think there is a lot going on in Brazil in this moment so I really expect that we can have a great show, a great show for everybody which is looking, you know the World Cup in Brazil. So I hope the best definitely for the World Cup in Brazil but I hope the best for Brazil. Just before I go to the car my son gave me a little Neymar, a little one, so I bring the little one to the car and I put on the side of my helmet. It was a nice feeling. I'm a great fan of football, so I hope we can have a great World Cup. I know what it is to win at home so I can imagine winning the World Cup at home is like a dream come true, not just for the players but also for everybody which is watching, so I really hope the best for Brazil.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Felipe, it was noticeable this morning in Free Practice Three that you guys were working on qualifying from fairly early on. Was it a real plan here to really focus on qualifying and do the best possible job that you could do here this afternoon?
FM: Well, it was not different, what we was doing this morning compared to the other races. We were doing similar working compared to what we was doing before, so definitely… also the Saturday the qualifying is the main focus y'know, but it was no different to what we did in the other races so… but I mean it's pretty clear that our car was good, our car was competitive and it shows really a very good performance today and also yesterday since we started, both tyres it shows good performance. And it shows again in the qualifying that definitely we are a little bit surprised – we expect maybe Mercedes to be a little bit heavier, y'know? Just preparing the qualifying to put the right level of fuel and be like they were in the last races. Maybe not a big gap because this is a small track but, yeah, it was a little bit of a surprise – but it was a great job from us. From both of us, from the team, from everybody. 

Q: Valtteri, it's obvious, as Felipe was saying, the car is working well. But it seems this year, your team, when you've bought updates to the car, they've worked straight away. Obviously the correlation is very good between the wind tunnel and the race track and everything seems to be pointing in the right direction.
VB: That is true. We haven't been making any bad updates. We've always… if we have bought something it has always worked and that has been a big improvement from last year. We can really put all the energy into the right direction, developing parts and knowing that they will work, so, no energy wasted there so that's good. Like Felipe said, I'm really happy for the result today. For us as a team it's a great achievement. Of course it's only Saturday but we are really looking forward for tomorrow, trying to get some really good points with both cars. So, we really just need to focus on that.

Q: Nico, some thoughts from you. Obviously still a good chance for you to win the race tomorrow, taking on these two gentleman here. And also some thoughts on your team-mate who's going to be starting down in ninth.
NR: Yeah, chances for the race are obviously good from P3. It's more difficult than starting on the front row, of course, but it's still a good chance there because I think it's possible to overtake on this track. First stint, also, the tyres are going to degrade massively on the Option, so already there maybe at the end of the stint there's a little bit of a chance. And I'll have a good race car for sure. The balance was not ideal today in qualifying but definitely more a race car. So, in the race I'm sure I'll be more happy with it. So I look forward to trying to make the most of it. Points-wise also with Lewis starting in ninth, that's of course for the team not good but for me it's, yeah, good that way. I need to make the most of it and try to extend the gap tomorrow.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Livio Oricchio – Universo Online) Nico, last race Mercedes didn't win after six races in a row winning everything. Here, the first competition with qualifying ended with Mercedes not starting again in the first position. It's just the circumstance of the competition or the opponents are really approaching your team?
NR: It's a short track here and still we have the fastest car, even today, it's just that I didn't get that second lap to give it a go and my first lap, the balance was not good. In general also today my balance was not good because I'd worked more for the race – but I didn't expect it to be that bad. I didn't expect to be that uncomfortable. But anyways, not it's third and for the race I'm sure I'll have a good car, so, I think that's a very small view that we're taking now: two races, no wins, no pole… or no pole now. But I still think we're dominant and definitely have the fastest car and I hope it's going to stay like that for some time to come.

Q: (Michael Shields – Reuters) Felipe Massa, how does it feel to be starting from the pole position? I think this is the first time since 2008.
FM: Yeah, it's the first time since 2008. I think it's always the best feeling we can have. Being the quickest on the track against everybody, it's always the best feeling a driver can have. A driver always works and fights to achieve this. It's definitely a great moment, this qualifying. Only, work for tomorrow is very difficult. Long and tough race but, y'know, is a good start.

Q: (Sarah Holt – CNN) Felipe, you had a chance to win in Canada last time out and you've spoken passionately about the events that happened there since then. Do you think that tomorrow you've got a cool head and Williams has got the race pace that you need to make it a win this time and keep Valtteri and Nico etc at bay? 
FM: Well, I think that depends on these guys here. We need to try to do the best we can. I think we have a good car, definitely we show a very competitive car since yesterday morning. I think what happened at the last race is past. I think you cannot live the past, we need to live in the present and the future. We lost some opportunity, we lost great points in Canada. Unfortunately we had some problems in the first pit stop when I lost four or five seconds and that put me in a difficult situation for the race but I had incredible pace as well and looking what happened with the Mercedes, it would definitely have been possible to win. I was in front of Ricciardo and he won the race. Normally my pace was also good to fight with... to be in front of him. The race is tomorrow, it's a different situation, we're starting in a better position which is always a help and we need to see how Mercedes will be tomorrow in the race but we will try everything we can, definitely. 

Q: (Panagiotis Seitanidis – Alpha TV) Felipe, we saw a very touching emotional moment with your wife and son. After all the troubles you had with the accident and the difficult times that came after that, how important was the support of your family all this moment, and what did your son tell you, or what did you feel when you looked at him at that moment? 
FM: Actually, I was also very close to my family. When I was a kid, with my father, my mother, my brother, my sister – we were always together at the races. I have always had great support from my family and then after, with my wife, my son now. It's a great moment. When I saw him, it was just like... he never saw me in first place so it's the first time. I think that makes the father feel nice, a good feeling, to see that your son is looking that you are in first place so it's a great feeling, it's a great moment and for sure, it's part of my motivation. He's part of everything I'm doing for my career, so it's definitely a great feeling. I hope we can have a great race tomorrow as well with him watching and my wife and all my family as well from home. 

Q: (Sven Haidinger – Sport Woche) Valtteri, what influence did the arrival of Pat Symonds have on your team and on the performance of the car? 
VB: I think we can see it in the performance. I think the results have shown that he's been one of the key persons for Williams to come back to closer to the positions where we belong to be in the races. As soon as he arrived, many things started to change and are still changing. Every week, as a team, we are still getting stronger and stronger, so we are definitely on the right way and that is thanks to Pat but also many other people in the team.

Q: (Anthony Rowlinson – F1 Racing) Felipe, has the change of team environment to Williams allowed you to find your best form again? 
FM: For sure, I had a great time with Ferrari. I'm not a guy who is trying to speak bad about the past. I have had an incredible time in my past and I really enjoy everybody from Ferrari, but I feel that sometimes a change helps. Always when you are in the same place for many years... also I had a difficult moment as well, you know, it was good to have a change. I think it was good for the motivation and everything, so I think it was definitely positive, this change and I really really feel happy with Williams Martini with really great people. I think they work 110 percent, happy, and they really believe in my job, they really believe in what I say and I think that's really positive. It makes me feel better, it makes me feel nice and it makes me feel very important inside the team.

Q: (Mikhail Rudoi – Autodigest Belarus) Valtteri, tomorrow, when you will see green lights, how do you think? You will concentrate not to lose second place or you will try to attack Felipe to the first turn? 
VB: I think you always try to do the best you can. I think it really depends how good a start you get and it depends on the situation, what kind of start the other cars around will get and then you see how is the situation but I think both of us, me and Felipe, we really need to just try and do the best we can, try and go as forward as possible after the first corner and the first lap and keep the position as long as possible. We know that Mercedes' race pace is going to be really really strong so it's not going to be an easy day tomorrow but we will do our best.

Q: (Eli Shaouly - Automagazine, Israel) Felipe, it's the first time that somebody actually beat Mercedes fair and square this season. This actually looked closed, like finished, one or two races ago. Do you think it's now a new opening, do you think you can handle a big challenge to them or do you think it's just one track that is very unique and the future will be different? Maybe also Nico can answer this? 
FM: Honestly, we cannot forget what Mercedes has been doing up to now. We cannot forget that they didn't have a clean qualifying as well. For sure, for the moment they are in front. For the moment, they are stronger. I hope, during the championship we can close or maybe can even pass (them). This is what we're always working for, you know. But I think it's not enough to say that we are there with Mercedes. I think that for the moment we don't know. For the moment is maybe this track helps us definitely, but we don't know. As Valtteri just said, I think we will see a very strong Mercedes tomorrow, so we need to be ready for everything, we need to be ready also that finishing behind them is still an incredible job for us.

NR: I still think we are the quickest team and car at the moment, but we are always keeping a close eye on the opposition and today Williams was definitely close, so we need to keep on pushing. Today was Williams, two races ago it was Red Bull that were getting closer so we need to go for it, but I'm confident that we can keep up the development rate and stay ahead.

(source: f1.com)