British GP - Qualifying press conference - Pt.2
Questions from the floor
Q: (Andrew Benson - BBC Sport)
To Mark and Sebastian: after Turkey, the team said there was no favouritism one way or the other. This afternoon, although Sebastian's wing fell off, it was you, Sebastian, who got the one version of the new front wing. Can you both comment on what you feel about that?
Mark Webber:
I think the team is happy with the result today.
Sebastian Vettel:
From the outside, it's sometimes quite difficult to judge what's going on. We know what we're doing, I think.
Q: (Alvaro Faes - La Nueva Espana)
Fernando, you have performed quite well today but the Red Bulls are still a step ahead of your car. Is winning possible tomorrow?
Fernando Alonso:
As you said, we are happy with the position, it's more or less where we expected to be, fighting with McLaren, Mercedes and Renault. Luckily we are in front of them, so it means that we did a good job today and the car improvements that we brought here to Silverstone seem to work fine, so we're definitely happy with the team but on the other hand, as you said, we need to keep improving. We want to win races, maybe at the moment we are not in a position to do that, especially at this type of circuit, but I remain very calm. There are ten races to go in the championship and we want to win in November. There will be some circuits better for them, some circuits where we may have a chance, so let's always try to do the maximum. If there is the possibility of a podium tomorrow, a better possibility to win, possibility to do anything, let's try to take any possibility.
Q: (Alvaro Faes - La Nueva Espana)
Sebastian, who represents the biggest threat to your victory tomorrow: Mark or Fernando?
Sebastian Vettel:
Lewis [Hamilton]! No, I think that if we have learned anything so far in this championship, it's that we are racing to find out who is the best on a particular day, so we will see tomorrow. Obviously, it's not only about the three of us, as I said. Lewis is behind, there are others, and you never know how the race is going to unfold. For sure, I think, one thing is clear: we are the favourites. We have a very strong car here, so we should be able to win but there are 52 laps between us [and the chequered flag]. Today, it was all about getting in the best position and we have done that. Now we focus on tomorrow. It will be a long race, but as usual, no points on Saturday.
Q: (Manel Serras - El Pais)
A football question for Fernando: what's your opinion on the Spanish team and the final tomorrow?
Fernando Alonso:
I think it's a great opportunity for us, for our country. For the first time in history our football team has got to the semi-final, for the first time in history we have got to the final, so let's try to capitalise on this opportunity, just in case we have to wait another forty or fifty years to get here again. I think they have played very well, they deserve to get to the final, so this is the last step. So good luck to them and try to make people happy.
Q: (Josep Viaplana - Diario Sport)
Fernando, what was the real difference without traffic problems, between you and Red Bull? And the other question is what is more possible, you winning or Spain?
Fernando Alonso:
I think the difference is more or less what we see, it's a combination of the average from Q1, Q2, Q3. They've been one and two in Q1, one and two in Q2 and then in Q3 as well, so they are dominating the Grand Prix with no problems but, as I said before, there are some differences from circuit to circuit. We saw in Valencia it was not so clear. We also saw in Canada that it was not so clear. We saw McLaren were very strong in Turkey. So I think it will change from weekend to weekend from now until the final race. As for the second question, I think it's easier that the football team wins tomorrow.
Q: (Luis Fernando Ramos - Racing Magazine)
Fernando, I have just spoken with Felipe, he said that he couldn't get his tyres up to the optimum temperature on his car during qualifying. Did you have any issues on this matter?
Fernando Alonso:
No, not really. It was okay for me.
Q: (Byron Young - The Daily Mirror)
Seb, did you have some favouritism today?
Sebastian Vettel:
I think that as I tried to explain earlier, if you look at us [drivers], we are different. One probably likes tea, the other likes coffee. In the end, if you look back at the qualifying session, it was extremely tight and I think there wasn't much [between us]. In Q1 we were pretty much the same. In Q2 Mark was a bit ahead, I was struggling a bit and in Q3 I was ahead. I don't think there's a black and white answer on the wing. As I said earlier, I was very happy that I could continue with the same kind of wing, because obviously after this morning, we didn't expect that to happen after the failure. We were able to continue.
Q: (Byron Young - The Daily Mirror)
And you get both of them. They're faster and better front wings and you get both of them. Mark doesn't get one and you get the other.
Sebastian Vettel:
You are pretty smart if you know that they are faster and better. We try to keep this kind of thing to ourselves as much as we can, with the new parts, if they work or if they don't but it looks like we have a leakage!
Q: (Flavio Vanetti - Corriere della Sera)
Fernando, we saw you complaining to [Rubens] Barrichello in the last run. What happened?
Fernando Alonso:
No, it was Michael [Schumacher]. It was Michael. Nothing really. I lost time, definitely. I was improving my time and he slowed down to get a last opportunity, last chance, so I had Michael [ahead of me] in the last two corners, ten meters in front of me, so I lost half-a-tenth for whatever. As I said before, I didn't have any complaints or any problems because it changed nothing for me in terms of position, so it's all okay.
