Austria: The F1 Grand Prix Seen from the Pits

Mercedes

Nico Rosberg – 1st

Lewis Hamilton – 2nd

**Toto Wolff, Team Principal:** « A fantastic result for us here in Austria and we are thrilled to secure this double podium today. The race was mainly about management: brake management because it’s a tough track for them, and also power unit management to ensure we don’t encounter the same issues we had in Canada.

Nico and Lewis did an incredible job – controlled driving for Nico, where he let the race come to him and allowed our strategy to unfold, which worked out well for him; then dynamic driving as usual for Lewis, who had an astonishing first lap moving from 9th to 4th place. Then, both guys pushed hard but we made sure to bring both cars home as well.

It’s a great day for the team who clinches a new double win and congratulations, also, to our partners at Williams, who helped have four Mercedes-Benz engines in the top four places this afternoon.

– Read the drivers’ statements

Williams

Valtteri Bottas – 3rd

Felipe Massa – 4th

Rob Smedley, Performance Director: « I believe we did everything we could today. It was a tough race for managing the brakes, car systems, and tires, which dictated our strategy. Both car teams did a superb job managing the tires and bringing us to the end of the race, and both drivers had a smart race. When we think about where we were a year ago, and where we are today, everyone should be proud of this result and appreciate this moment. Scoring 27 points today is a great result. »

– Read the drivers’ statements

Ferrari

Fernando Alonso – 5th

Kimi Räikkönen – 10th

Pat Fry, Chassis Director: « After a good start, Kimi and Fernando struggled a lot on super-softs due to graining on the rear tires, which slowed them down. During this stint, a significant gap opened with the Mercedes-powered cars, which demonstrated their power superiority in the three straights. Setting the result aside, we can still be pleased because in the second and third stints, especially with Fernando, we were one of the fastest cars on track and, race after race, we are making small steps forward. Kimi suffered more than Fernando, and unfortunately, we paid a high price during his first pit stop lap when the rear tires were at the limit. Now we have to focus on the next race at Silverstone, a very different circuit from this one, where we can expect to see the Red Bulls in good form again. As usual, we will try to be part of the fight and prepare our car as best as possible for this new challenge. »

– Read the drivers’ statements

Force India

Sergio Pérez – 6th

Nico Hülkenberg – 9th

**Vijay Mallya, Team Director:** « Overall, it’s encouraging to see both our cars finish in the points to maintain our 4th place in the constructors’ championship. Checo’s race was particularly remarkable when you know he started 16th [15th in reality, Ed.]. It was a very fine drive and he did a fantastic job managing his tires and making the strategy work. His pace was excellent, he set the fastest lap of the race, and he didn’t make a mistake. The first lap was key to making the strategy work as he overtook five cars.

Nico’s race followed a similar path to most of the leaders, but he struggled to find a good pace on the soft tires. He managed to pick up a few points—thus continuing his points finishes in every race this year, proving how consistent he is. This sets the stage beautifully for the British Grand Prix, where we will try to deliver another strong performance at home.

Translate: – Lire les déclarations des pilotes

McLaren

Kevin Magnussen – 7th

Jenson Button – 11th

Eric Boullier, Racing Director: « Kevin drove in an extremely mature manner all afternoon, balancing the need to do fast laps while being mindful of tire management. During the first half of the race, he was able to maintain 6th place, which is the best of the rest behind the two Mercedes, the two Williams, and Fernando’s Ferrari. He managed to hold his position until the 66th lap, when, with his worn soft tires, he was unable to prevent Checo, with new super-softs, from passing him.

Jenson was never able to make up for his grid position, which was far from optimal. Nevertheless, he did his best to capitalize on a bold race strategy, which didn’t really work out. Consequently, he only finished 11th, which was in no way his fault.

In summary, 7th and 11th are not the results we were hoping for, but as I said yesterday, we are on the right track, even if our developments are only small steps at the moment. We will continue to work as hard as possible to gradually increase our progress, but it is not going to happen immediately.

Despite everything, we can’t wait to be at Silverstone for the British Grand Prix, the spiritual home of British motorsport. You can be sure that Jenson and Kevin will give their all in front of the many British McLaren fans, who will be cheering them on from the packed stands all around the circuit.

– Read the drivers’ statements

Red Bull

Daniel Ricciardo – 8th

Sebastian Vettel – Retirement (withdrawal)

Thierry Salvi, Trackside Support Manager for Renault Sport F1: « Sebastian suffered an electronic problem at the start of the race, he couldn’t accelerate for 30 seconds. The causes are still under investigation. […] This issue cost him dearly. Daniel had a difficult start and worked hard during the race to get back into the points. There is a lot of work to do before Silverstone. »

– Lire les déclarations des pilotes

Lotus

Pastor Maldonado – 12th

Romain Grosjean – 14th

Alan Permane, Track Operations Director: In many ways, it was a difficult race. The nature of the circuit doesn’t really favor us, and we were concerned about the brakes in this heat. We surely learned a lot from our return to Spielberg and will now turn our attention to the familiarity of Silverstone, which will suit our package much better.

– Read the drivers’ statements

Sauber

Adrian Sutil – 13th

Esteban Gutierrez – 19th

Monisha Kaltenborn, Team Principal: « Our work today is not acceptable. Such an error during a stop simply must not happen. We will carefully study our procedures and the consequences, and we will take appropriate measures. Today, both drivers delivered good performances, but it doesn’t help when we make mistakes. We cannot do that. »

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Marussia

Jules Bianchi – 19th

Max Chilton – 17th

John Booth, Team Director: « We leave Austria with mixed feelings after today’s race. On one hand, each car held off a Caterham. On the other hand, we didn’t really have the pace to target the Sauber and Lotus cars ahead of us. Both drivers kept their composure with our one-stop strategy; we had chosen to start on prime tires to have a clear first stint in terms of traffic. This paid off more for Jules than for Max, but obviously it was inevitable since Max started from the back.

In the final few laps, both cars were closing in on their immediate competitors. With one more lap, Jules could have had a good fight with Grosjean and without two or three blue flags for Max, he could have overtaken Kobayashi. We knew this track would be challenging for our package, however, both on the Marussia side and the Scuderia Ferrari side, we worked to extract the maximum possible performance. Let’s hope this continues at Silverstone on a circuit that might be a little better for our car.

– Read the drivers’ statements

Caterham

Kamui Kobayashi – 16th

Marcus Ericsson – 18th

Cedrik Staudohar, Track Support Manager of Renault Sport F1: The team made some changes to the car’s settings this weekend, which made it a bit more stable and closer to its rivals. Kamui was able to fight against both Marussia, and Marcus fought well with Chilton until the traffic cost him time, but that’s good news for the upcoming races. The power unit worked well all weekend and hopefully, these recent steps forward will allow us to be in a better position for the next race as well. »

– Read the drivers’ statements

Toro Rosso

Daniil Kvyat – Retirement (suspension)

Jean-Eric Vergne – Retirement (brakes)

Franz Tost, Team Principal: « Starting from 7th position and not finishing the race is quite disappointing. We need to investigate the issue with Daniil’s right-rear suspension, as well as the brake problem on Jean-Eric’s car. Overall, the car showed good performance in qualifying, and we now need to work hard to translate that into good race results. It’s really a shame not to be able to do that here at the Red Bull Ring in front of the Red Bull family, but we hope to come back stronger at the next race in Silverstone. »

– Read the driver’s statements