So, as we’d have come into the pit lane and we'd boxed, all the cars would have been
pouring past and it would have been very difficult for Lewis to get out and that would have delayed us.
What was the reason for Valtteri's poor start?
Well, I think you need to bear in mind that the conditions were really tricky for the
drivers.
When we formed the grid up, got everything ready it was raining quite hard but that rain
sort of dropped off and by the time we set off for the formation lap, actually it was
pretty dry and Valtteri felt that he had quite a bit of grip.
They obviously go around their lap and as they go around that lap, the rain started
to really pour down and when they formed up on the grid for the proper start, there was
a totally different grip level available.
The drivers have been practising all week for that start, that start in the dry, and
they got down sort of a pattern of where they want to be with their clutch and so as we
went for that start, the driver has got to pick where they think they are going to put
their clutch, how much grip do they think that they have got and it is really a guess.
In Valtteri's case he thought he was going to have more grip than he actually had and
as a result of that, he got a lot of wheelspin and that wheelspin just means that you have
less grip from the tyres and you get away much more poorly and that's why he had a poor
start.
What technically happened to Valtteri on that first lap?
Valtteri obviously had his poor start, he had cars coming round him from either side
and he was sort of squeezed going into that first corner.
The drivers are trying to work out where their braking points are and they are doing that
not really knowing exactly how much grip they've got, how much is the rain going to affect
their grip, when should they brake, when will the cars around them brake and Valtteri picked
his braking point and unfortunately he braked slightly too late and in doing so he locked
up his front tyres and as soon as you have locked your wheels, you have lost grip and
he just slid into the car in front.
I know speaking to Valtteri afterwards, he felt really guilty for what had happened,
really sorry for his competitors he had knocked off and he was apologetic to both the team
and also his fellow competitors.
That's obviously not what he wanted to happen.
What was the extent of the damage to Valtteri's car?
To be honest, I actually don’t know yet.
I left the circuit late last night and I hadn’t seen the damage for myself.
I suspect that we'll have broken the front suspension, we will probably have damaged
the front cake tins, the front wing is probably written off as well and it is almost certainly
will have done some damage to the nose.
Whether that is recoverable or not, I won't know until we see it.
In actual fact, to really know all those bits have got to come back to the factory, they've
got to be tested and checked properly.
We would never put bits back on the car that have been in an accident without checking
them first.
Why did Lewis not pit on the formation lap like the other drivers did?
Well, clearly in hindsight we made the wrong choice, but you have to bear in mind those
decisions are really, really tricky.
We agonised over what tyre to fit at the very start of the race, as it turned out the inter
was definitely the right choice because it started raining on the lap to the grid.
We agonised over what tyre to fit after the red flag and clearly all of the cars fitted
inters.
And on that lap to the grid, even though all the drivers had fitted inters, clearly others
decided to change their mind and we should have too.
But the reality is, it's actually more difficult for us as a team than it is for the other
teams.
When you are the front car, you can't see what everybody else is doing.
You are the lead car.
When you are further back in the chain, you can see what others have done and you can
change your mind accordingly.
You can use that new evidence to your advantage.
The second problem for us is that we have the first pit box in the pit lane.
So, as we’d have come into the pit lane and we'd boxed, all the cars would have been
pouring past and it would have been very difficult for Lewis to get out and that would have delayed
us.
The second problem with that or same problem, but another way of looking at it, is if we
had tried to force our way out into the pit lane we could have collided with another car
and we actually saw that happen in that sequence of pit stops.
What we were looking at is, what is the best strategy for us?
And actually, we were thinking that we wanted to be conservative with that.
Our main rival was further back and what we needed to do was to not make a silly mistake
and end up crashing into another car.
As it happened, we would have been better off pitting, even if we had to wait to the
back of the queue.
If Lewis had pitted at that restart, in what position would he have come out in?
It's quite difficult to know because it really depends on trying to find a gap in the pit
lane to get out of your pit box.
We think P5, P6, maybe something like that.
But probably as I said before, really, the bigger risk for us was colliding with another
car in the pit lane trying to force our way out and we would have had to have been conservative.
After the restart when Lewis was on Intermediate tyres, why didn’t we leave him out a little
bit longer and let the gaps in the traffic open up?
The easy answer to that is: What we were doing is looking at the gap between Lewis and the
cars behind.
We were looking at how quick that gap was closing.
We could see the cars on slick tyres had a pace advantage and if we had left Lewis out
longer, all we would have ended up finding is we were even further behind as we did going
for the pit stop.
The other thing was that in those conditions, if it was going to stay dry, we would have
quickly started heating our Intermediate tyres and that pace would have dropped even further,
sort of compounding our problems.
So, the best thing for us to do was to accept we made a mistake and to just get on and try
to rectify as quick as we possibly could.
And that is always the best tactic in mixed weather conditions.
How critical was it for Lewis to get by Ricciardo with the undercut?
Well, I think as you saw, it is a really difficult track to overtake.
When you've got the sort of same tyres at the same life, it's very difficult to have
a pace advantage big enough to get by the car in front.
So, although Lewis was able to get by a few of the slower cars earlier on, as he came
on up to the back of Ricciardo we were really struggling.
e waited to a point where we thought we had undercut both on Ricciardo and on Max to see
if we could get by both of them at the same time, and as it turned out, we were able to
make that strategy work.
From that point on we were on a two-stop strategy, where Lewis was able to drive aggressively
all the way through the race and to maximise the performance in the car.
Why didn’t we bring Lewis in earlier than lap 47 for his second stop?
You might think if we had brought him in earlier, that would have given us more opportunity
at the end of the race to fight for the win.
The reality is that what we were trying to do is to maximise the tyre differential.
So, around Hungary it is really difficult to overtake and so if we had gone earlier,
the differential in tyres to Alonso would have been much smaller and it would have actually
been harder to overtake.
If we had gone slightly longer, which is what we thought in hindsight we should have done,
we would have increased that difference in tyre age from ten laps maybe to twelve laps,
as a result of that we may have been able to get by Alonso quicker and that would have
allowed us to fight for the win.
The other advantage if we would have gone slightly longer is Alonso had slightly younger
tyres than Sainz, and he closed up right behind him but he only had a couple of laps in which
to attack.
If we would have given him a couple more laps to attack, maybe they'd have got by and maybe
that would have meant it was easier for Lewis as a result.
It also would have meant Alonso would have done damage to his tyres, taken life out of
his tyres that would have also helped us in the race.
How is Lewis doing?
Thank you for asking in the first place.
I guess you saw him on the podium struggling.
I saw him about an hour after that and he was definitely a chunk better and I know he
has recovered since then.
I think if you have never been near these cars, it is really difficult to understand
the environment the drivers are in.
The air that is going by the car, actually because the car is so close to the ground,
it is actually closer to the ground temperature than it is to the air temperature.
So, during that race I suspect that was sort of 40, 50 degree air, it was humid, the drivers
are also sitting in an environment where there are electrical boxes around him, hydraulics
with power steering, a hot environment and that was one tough race.
Lewis was really pushing on that two stop, some of the overtakes he was doing were absolutely
brilliant.
That takes a lot of energy out of you in that really hot environment.
The average person like you and me, we wouldn’t survive five minutes in there, let alone a
whole race.
So, it was unsurprising that Lewis was tired at the end of that, but as he said to the
media I think he also wonders whether that is some of the feeling of having had COVID.
So, hopefully he will make a good recovery.
He is now going to have a break over the shutdown and I am sure he will come back really strong
for the second half of the season.
How is the team feeling going into the summer break?
For those of you that don't know, in Formula One we have a two week enforced break where
everybody goes away, there is no emails, there is nothing us technical people can do and
me, personally, I am really looking forward to it.
I think it has been a really tough season so far and I think we are probably feeling
quite tired.
I think we have been enthused and energised by the last two races, the team needs a break,
and I am sure they will come back really strong as a result of that.
I think a few races ago, we probably would have been looking at this and thinking, this
is going to be really tough going into a break not in the position we wanted to be in the
championship and with a car which felt we were clearly second best.
We have obviously had some good results in the last two races, luck has definitely gone
in our favour and we are sitting in a good position in the championship, but I think
for me, what's really encouraging is the pace we have shown in the last two races.
Particularly the qualifying in Budapest, to qualify one and two and by a reasonable margin,
that's the strongest position we have been in so far this season.
The rest of the season is definitely going to be tough, it is going to be a real fight.
I think it is going to be one of those classic F1 seasons, hopefully one we win, but I think
it is going to be fantastic for you, the viewers, to watch.
Thank you for all of your questions.
Like we are going to have a summer break, I hope you have a really good summer, I hope
you don’t miss the F1 too much in that time and we look forward to answering your questions
after the Belgian Grand Prix.