India: The Race Viewed from the Pits

Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel – 1st

Mark Webber – Retirement

Christian Horner, Team Principal: Winning a 4th title shows the amount of work and determination of our team. For Sebastian, joining the ranks of drivers like Fangio, Prost, or Schumacher is an incredible achievement, especially at his young age. It’s a privilege to work with him. It’s a great day for the team to have won a 4th consecutive constructors’ title. Without the work and determination of the track team, the factory, our partners, and the support of Dietrich Mateschitz and Red Bull, it wouldn’t have been possible.

I hope everyone will be happy in Milton Keynes and Salzburg tonight. We still have three races, and we’re going to do them. The most disappointing thing today concerns Mark’s retirement. We would have liked to have a one-two finish. We experienced a sudden alternator failure. It’s going to take us a few more days to fully realize it, but it’s important to enjoy this for the team as we have to push hard until Brazil.

– Lire les déclarations des pilotes

Mercedes

Nico Rosberg – 2nd

Lewis Hamilton – 6th

Ross Brawn, Team Principal: « First of all, congratulations to Sebastian Vettel for his fourth world championship title. To win multiple championships as he has, you not only need to be a good driver but also a fantastic team member, and he clearly has it all. It is now up to us to stop him. From a team perspective, we achieved a very good team result this afternoon. Nico had a very, very good afternoon: the strategy worked perfectly for him, and he managed everything very well, allowing him to show what the car is capable of. For Lewis, losing a position to Massa early in the race proved critical. It meant we weren’t able to create the gap in the first stint because we weren’t at our true pace, so as those behind pitted, we had to anticipate our first stop even though our tires were still good. After that, Lewis didn’t have the necessary top speed to pass Felipe and make the most of his car’s performance. This obviously leaves him frustrated, but that shouldn’t overshadow the good work done by both our drivers and the engineering team this weekend. We scored big points today, and we need to continue doing the same in the remaining races. »

– Lire les déclarations des pilotes

Lotus

Romain Grosjean – 3rd

Kimi Räikkönen – 7th

Eric Boullier, Team Director: « It was a hectic weekend. In the end, it was an excellent job by the team and a great performance by Romain, who drove very well and managed to maintain the performance of his tires until the end. He was fast today, even if he had to take care of his engine, and being on the podium is a good reward for the whole team. Obviously, it’s disappointing that the tires couldn’t last longer for Kimi because being third and fourth would have been an excellent result for the team and very useful for the constructors’ championship, but we will continue to fight until the end of the season and give headaches to the other teams. We send our congratulations to Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull for their championship victories today, and we also promise that we will work hard to make the battle more complicated for them in 2014. »

– Lire les déclarations des pilotes

Ferrari

Felipe Massa – 4th

Fernando Alonso – 11th

Stefano Domenicali – Team Principal:

« First and foremost, we must salute the title of Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull for their 4th consecutive title; it is something extraordinary, but we hope that the hard work we do daily will also pay off and can interrupt this sequence.

Our race today showed two sides. A positive race for Felipe [Massa] who had a great start and first lap, and Fernando [Alonso] who saw his race ruined right from the start due to contact with Webber at the first corner.

If we want to finish second in the team championship, we should have made it to the podium today. There are three races left and everything is still possible, but we have to give it our all in this final stretch.

– Lire les déclarations des pilotes

McLaren

Sergio Pérez – 5th

Jenson Button – 14th

Martin Whitmarsh, Team Director: Checo delivered a very committed and disciplined race all afternoon to secure a well-deserved 5th position. He didn’t make a single mistake: he got a good start, attacked throughout the race, and executed some excellent overtakes, all while taking care of his tires, especially in his long first stint.

Jenson was less fortunate. He was unfortunately hit by Fernando on the first lap, this contact breaking the rim of his right rear tire and causing a puncture. It was extremely unfortunate because he was running on medium tires, which he was supposed to use for the first 25 laps. After that, he had to switch to a three-stop strategy, which was going to be difficult. Unfortunately, in the last laps, he reported a gearbox issue, so we stopped his car as a precaution before the end.

Congratulations to Sebastian today. Once again he drove flawlessly to put the title out of reach of his closest rivals. Winning four titles – especially consecutively – is incredibly impressive. He will have a few days to savor this joy, but as proof of his relentless competitiveness, I’m sure he will fight for victory in Abu Dhabi in a week.

Force India

Paul di Resta – 8th

Adrian Sutil – 9th

Dr Vijay Mallya, Team Principal: « Like everyone in the team, I am thrilled to see both Sahara Force India score points at our home race. That was the target we set ourselves before this weekend and the 6 points scored today are very important to strengthen our position in the Constructors’ Championship. The second half of the season has been challenging for us, but we showed today that we never give up and that the hard work of recent times has paid off. I would like to congratulate the engineers for making the right choices in terms of strategy, the drivers for their wonderful performances, and the mechanics for their consistent and fast pit stops. With only three races remaining, there is a lot to play for and we will head to Abu Dhabi determined to keep up this momentum. »

– Lire les déclarations des pilotes

Toro Rosso

Daniel Ricciardo – 10th

Jean-Eric Vergne – 12th

Franz Tost, Team Principal: First of all, congratulations to Sebastian Vettel and Infiniti Red Bull Racing for their wonderful achievement today, with Seb clinching a remarkable fourth consecutive drivers’ title and the team doing the same on the constructors’ side. As for us, we knew it would be tight in the middle of the pack, with many cars having the same pace, and that’s what happened. In Daniel’s case, we started on mediums and he was able to do a longer first stint, even being 3rd for a while with good pace. We knew it would be more complicated afterwards and he fought well against the drivers around him. Towards the end, he found himself in a slower train and couldn’t get past Sutil. With JEV, we tried a more extreme strategy, starting him on softs. In itself, it was good, because di Resta managed to secure a good result by making the same choice. But we lacked pace with JEV during the race and struggled to move up the hierarchy, so he finishes one place ahead of his starting position, like Daniel.

– Lire les déclarations des pilotes

Williams

Pastor Maldonado – 12th

Valtteri Bottas – 16th

Laurent Debout, Renault Sport F1 Representative: « The strategy seemed to work in the first part of the race and Valtteri was in a very good position during a large part of the Grand Prix but unfortunately, we dropped back later. We are looking forward to Abu Dhabi, which plays more to the engine’s strengths. Congratulations to Red Bull and Sebastian, who are deserving champions. »

– Lire les déclarations des pilotes

Sauber

Esteban Gutiérrez – 16th

Nico Hülkenberg – 19th

Monisha Kaltenborn, Team Principal: « We are very disappointed because Nico was well positioned in the points before a technical problem forced him to retire. Even though it was a bad patch today, it is important for us to know that our competitiveness is still there. We are capable of scoring points and still have a chance to improve. Congratulations to Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull for winning the world championships. »

– Lire les déclarations des pilotes

Marussia

Max Chilton – 17th

Jules Bianchi – 18th

John Booth, Team Principal: Once again, we made two impressive starts here in India. Max’s start, in particular, where he passed two Caterhams, and except for a small incident at turn 1, it was clear we were going to finish with both our cars ahead of the Caterhams. It was an exciting race between our two drivers. We began with two very different strategies for Jules and Max, and we knew we would see the net result of that when they were both on their final stint. On paper, Jules’s strategy should have put him ahead, but a loss of time in the pits meant that Max ultimately crossed the line first. Overall, I congratulate both drivers for their excellent race performances, and once again, Max maintains his 100% reliability record. It is also gratifying to see that we are continuing to move forward with our race pace. Finally, many congratulations to Sebastian Vettel for his 4th driver’s championship victory.

– Lire les déclarations des pilotes

Caterham

Charles Pic – Abandon

Giedo Van der Garde – Retirement

Caterham did not publish statements from the team’s representatives.

– Lire les déclarations des pilotes