That was an eventful FP1 so can we start with a résumé from each of you about how it went.
Mattia Binotto: I think, as you said, eventful FP1. The radio was working very badly and when you’ve got something like that it’s very difficult because you’re not managing communications with the drivers. On top of that, Charles has small issues with some power unit activations that we are trying to address. Nothing major but still it somehow makes the sessions more difficult. Carlos got a more, let me say, complete programme. First, on the hard tyres then moving onto the softer. I think overall he was collecting data as usual in FP1. I think to assess the performance? Very difficult again. I think in FP1, too early a stage. More important for us to stay focused on the car, on the set-up, on the balance, preparing ourselves for quali and then the race. But overall, I think good start to the event, the start of the weekend but still I think much to do. FP2, again, will be important. Now the sessions are only an hour it makes things a lot more dense – but I think an interesting session for us.
Q: Mattia, coming to you. From Ferrari’s perspective, what have been the take-home messages from these opening weeks of the season?
MB: Coming to Bahrain, the first race of the season last year, we were performing very badly there, both on the straights and in cornering – very slow in quali and in the race. So certainly for us it was an important, let me say, test. And I think the car, somehow, progressed well. As well if we compare to our competitors. I think we made good progress. That was not easy in a situation where most of the car was frozen, per regulations. I think the power unit made a good step forward. I think that today on the straights we are certainly not lacking the speed as it was in the past. And I think that, as well, the car is behaving well, and I think that was the most important. Certainly the debriefing, post-race was very long, that’s normal at the very start of the season because, together with the drivers, we need to understand the car behaviours, the main limitations, how me way improve and I think addressing somehow any developments we can do during the season. I think we learned from Bahrain that our race pace was not as competitive as the quali. I think we’ve been better in quali compared to the race itself. That’s for many reasons but certainly reasons that we tried to analyse. I think in the tyre management… in Bahrain it is very hot conditions, very different to the one of Imola, where you need to manage the overheating, especially on the rear. I think again here, coming now to Imola, it’s important for us to evaluate the car behaviours in different conditions and make sure that somehow the progress we’ve seen are confirmed, I think that will be the key point for the Imola Grand Prix.
Q: And after the frustrations of last season, how much of a relief is the performance you’ve found over the winter?
MB: I think that the relief is to see that we are developing in the right directions. I think it is important to see that simulations, wind tunnel, at track now are correlating certainly better than what it was in the past, and that gives confidence in the tools, and our design capacity for the future. That, I think, was the most important and I think in that respect it is a relief. And certainly, the fact that the car is performing better, so that we can have a better result at the end of the race weekend, is important. We often said that our performance of last year was not somehow acceptable for a Ferrari brand, so we knew that these areas are important for us still, showing developments in all the areas. So again, I think the performance is certainly a relief.
Mattia, Carlos Sainz is not new to F1 but he is new to Ferrari. What has surprised you about him?
MB: I think that Carlos is a very experienced driver, first. And when I’m saying driver, it’s not only his capacity of driving, giving feedback, it’s his way of integrating within the team. It’s his capacity of communicating with engineers, with the entire team as well, motivating. His hard work – he’s always in Maranello when not at the race weekends and that’s something that is great. I think it’s a big boost for us; it’s fresh air. I think it’s as well important for Charles because I can see that the two are somehow integrating well. They are, I think, pushing themselves and each other, which is very positive, not only at the racetrack but back at home, playing paddle, at the simulators, playing chess, whatever they are doing. I think it is a very positive experience. Overall it is the spirit. I think he is very fast as well, but that is not a surprise. He is very fast certainly in the race but he can be very fast in quali but I think we saw that by looking at the last years and we know that somehow he’s a good driver. But I think really the spirit and the way he is dealing with the whole team.
Q: (Jon McEvoy – Daily Mail) In the latest edition of Business F1 magazine it said that there were 227 swear words in the latest Netflix series. In light of that I just wonder whether some of those who are most swear might not swear so much in the next series or maybe they’ll argue that it is good to sell Formula 1?
MB: Apart from swearing or not, I think Netflix is a very positive activity. I think it brought a lot of fans and a lot of interest to F1. I think thanks to Netflix we raised somehow the number of people now being interested in F1. I think overall we have come to the fourth season and each single year it could be better to the previous one and the interest in growing up so I think we can all be very positive and helping the situation by maybe not being actors but bringing interest to the series.
Q: (Ben Hunt – The Sun) With regards to the radio problems, I just wondered how severe they were during that session and indeed if there was a problem communicating with the drivers I just wondered how dangerous that is whether there is a problem or being warned about approaching a slow-moving car or anything like that. I wanted your thoughts on that issue. Is it a big problem and will it be rectified for the next session?
MB: Certainly it was a big problem. I don’t know if in all the teams we had the exactly the same problem but for us it was very difficult, especially on Charles, no way of communicating to him, so we aborted the first run and then as well because we had a small issue as I mentioned before. As you said, it’s difficult because you cannot give him advice on cars following so then there can be impeding situations, which are not voluntary at all. It is very difficult for the drivers as well to know who is coming behind. On top of that we are running our race power units let’s say, because the power units are the ones we fit in Bahrain and are used for the entire weekend. So obviously if you have any problems you don’t know how to react and how to communicate. So those type of problems are serious. Obviously we know that was not voluntary from FOM but hopefully that will addressed and sorted out for FP2 because communicating with drivers from the pits is very important for safety, functionality, reliability, it’s not only performance, it’s making sure that everything is running smoothly.
Q: (Scott Mitchell – The Race) To go back to the lack of data in FP1. I know you all talked about how you reacted to it and what it meant, but I just wondered if you could clarify what exactly you lost and what the cause was?
MB: I don’t think there is much to add. As he said, the pit board then was very important and useful. We got our telemetry data and that was certainly the most important, the one we can analyse now from one session to the others. We got our lap times from telemetry and all the analysis, which is required. But to manage real time this morning was certainly difficult and you may start to imagine how it was at the time when the radio was not there. As Franz said it was interesting to see but difficult to manage.
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