South Korea: The Race Seen from the Pits

Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel – Winner

Mark Webber – Abandon

Christian Horner, Team Principal: « A really disciplined race by Sebastian today to win his third consecutive Korean Grand Prix. It was a race dominated by tire preservation and Sebastian managed that very well. It was really unfortunate to lose Mark, who could have had the podium today, due to a puncture from debris from the Perez incident. Then, after he was the innocent victim of the incident with Sutil’s car, it caused a fire. It was really frustrating to see that. »

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Lotus

Kimi Räikkönen – 2nd

Romain Grosjean – 3rd

Eric Boullier, Team Director: This new double podium is a fantastic result and it feels like a victory at this point in the season. Congratulations to the team at Enstone for providing us with this boost in performance with the long chassis. Any gains like this at the end of the year are beneficial because we are looking to gain positions in both championships. The team executed excellent race strategies and ensured very good pit stops, while the drivers were exceptional. The upcoming races look promising, with podiums on our agenda.

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Sauber

Nico Hülkenberg – 4th

**Esteban Gutiérrez** – 11th

Monisha Kaltenborn, Team Principal: « I am relieved that we were able to maintain our level of performance throughout the weekend. We started the race with big ambitions and it’s a great feeling to see them realized through our own efforts. Nico delivered a superb performance and, once again, a big battle as it was clearly not easy to keep those cars behind him. Esteban had a difficult start and therefore struggled a bit more. However, in the end, it’s a big step forward for the entire team, showing that we work well together both at home in Hinwil and on the track. »

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Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton – 5th

Nico Rosberg – 7th

Ross Brawn, Team Principal: It was a very difficult race for the team and it leaves us with a rather bitter taste of what might have been after finishing fifth with Lewis and seventh with Nico. The cars were in 3rd and 4th positions during the first stint and both looked very competitive compared to those around them. However, Lewis began to struggle after 13 laps in his second stint when he reported that his front right tire was no longer performing well. At that point, we had a tough decision to make: an additional stop on the 22nd lap would have committed us to a three-stop strategy, or we could leave Lewis in clean air to hang in there and try to reach the planned number of laps to make our two-stop strategy work. We chose the latter option but it was quite painful for Lewis who struggled to minimize the time loss. On the other car, Nico’s tires were in much better shape and he was running at the same pace as the leaders, well in the race for a podium when he suffered a structural failure on the front wing assembly. The safety car eventually made the last part of the race more comfortable in terms of tire life, but neither driver was able to make up much ground against the cars around them. We hope to achieve a better performance in Japan.

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Ferrari

Fernando Alonso – 6th

Translate: Felipe Massa – 9th

Pat Fry, Technical Director: Today, the top places were out of reach and it was a very tense race for our two drivers, caught in traffic behind the Saubers from start to finish on this track. Their two cars were able to make the most of the exit traction from corners, and their high top speed made life difficult for those trying to catch them. We had to deal with tire wear, and it’s really a shame because our pace was not inferior to that of Mercedes. By the fifteenth lap, Felipe had climbed to 14th place, but he found himself behind Gutierrez. Both Fernando and Felipe did their best and fought this weekend against tire degradation, and the graining was particularly high due to the characteristics of this track. For Suzuka, we will try to improve and aim for a place on the podium.

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McLaren

Jenson Button – 8th

Sergio Pérez – 10th

Martin Whitmarsh, Team Director: Sometimes you need tough races to showcase the strengths of our employees. I am delighted that, despite both our drivers suffering a puncture and two front wing changes this afternoon, we managed to get Jenson and Checo into the points.

This was achieved through a combination of good strategies (our strategists reacted immediately to allow Jenson to recover superbly from his stop earlier than planned to replace his front wing), good teamwork (our mechanics did an extraordinary job under pressure to replace two front wings and a blown tire), and great focus from our drivers (Jenson completed an incredible 33-lap stint on a single set of tires, effectively making only one stop while Checo showed a superb fighting spirit to battle with those around him after the tire explosion destroyed his front right and front wing).

Facing all these setbacks in a single afternoon and still being able to stay competitive is a great satisfaction for the team. Even though the final standings only show an 8th and 10th place, these raw results do not do justice to how we overcame adversity to achieve these positions.

Even though fighting for small points is not really what we expect from Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, today’s results are fully deserved after a very difficult day.

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Williams

Valtteri Bottas – 12th

Pastor Maldonado – 13th

**Xevi Pujolar, Chief Race Engineer**: « It was an eventful first lap with Valtteri losing positions due to incidents happening in front of him, while Pastor capitalized by moving from 18th to 9th place. Pastor had a good first stint, but the graining on the front right tire of both cars became increasingly difficult to manage. We still stuck to our two-stop strategy for both cars, but after switching from super-softs to mediums for the second stint, tire management remained challenging. Valtteri was able to manage his front right a little better because Pastor was pushing harder higher up in the pack. We had to shorten Pastor’s second stint slightly. We used both safety car periods to help manage the tires until the end, but we knew it would be tough. With more laps on his tires than those around him, Pastor couldn’t fend off Gutiérrez, Perez, and Massa in the final laps. We were close to fighting for points, but the car’s pace wasn’t good enough. »

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Caterham

**Charles Pic** – 14th

**Giedo Van der Garde** – 15th

Caterham did not publish the statements of the team representatives.

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Marussia

Jules Bianchi – 16th

Max Chilton – 17th

John Booth, Team Director: « A tough race today but the whole team did a fantastic job. Indeed, “management” was really the word of the day. We knew it would be difficult to complete a two-stop race but felt it was the best opportunity to gain an advantage if the safety car were to come out. The starts have been very good this week and we’ve clearly made progress in this area. The rest of the race was quite challenging in terms of lap-by-lap calculation to set our race pace and ensure that our two-stop strategy worked. It was quite busy for the engineers and drivers, but I’m delighted with their work. We are still a little way off in terms of pure pace. However, we can be satisfied with fighting with our main rivals on certain occasions. We hope that with some additional developments over the next few weeks, we can close the gap to ensure we are better positioned in case of numerous retirements that might occur over the remaining five races, given our goal. »

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Toro Rosso

Jean-Eric Vergne – 18th

Daniel Ricciardo – 19th

Franz Tost, Team Principal: « Daniel was the only driver to start on Medium tires because we wanted to try something different to gain a few places. It seemed to work well, as we gained a few places until mid-race. Unfortunately, the safety car came at the wrong time for him, and we knew he would have a difficult final stint on the super softs, but he did a good job managing his tires and defended his ninth place quite comfortably. Then, in the last two laps, we had a mechanical problem on the car, and he had to park it on the side of the track. Jean-Eric had a tough afternoon starting further back, and after gaining a few places, the traffic at the back involved higher tire degradation. In the end, we had to bring him in as he seemed to have a similar issue to Daniel’s with the car. »

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Force India

Adrian Sutil – 20th

Paul di Resta – Retirement

Robert Fernley, Deputy Team Principal: « It wasn’t the best day for everyone at Force India and we leave Korea disappointed. Paul was pushing hard after his second stop and just made a small mistake at turn 12. It was a fairly light hit against the wall but it was enough to damage the right-rear and end his race. Adrian also had a tough time, falling victim to the first lap incident at turn 3. Stopping early to change his wing put him at the back of the pack, but he fought back and was in the running for points. Unfortunately, damage to his rear wing led to his retirement. After a tough race like this, it’s important we bounce back in Japan next week. »

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