Zoom Three happy drivers on the podium in China

Chinese Grand Prix race winner Sebastian Vettel along with Red Bull Renault team-mate Mark Webber and championship leader Jenson Button take questions from the media.

Q: (Mike Doodson) Mark, you must have been very relieved to see the rain at the start from the driveshaft point of view. Were you able to modify the driveshafts to make them better or were you really worried that if it had been dry they might have only lasted for three laps at a time?
MW: Yes, we were able to modify the driveshafts, well, the small boot that contains the grease, to keep all the lubrication in there, so that was a spec change overnight, obviously within the regulations from parc ferme to be able to do that. There was some work done at the factory to understand the problem at this particular circuit. Of course, we might have been a bit more nervous in the dry with more loading and things like that but it turned out to be an inspired change from what the technical guys in that department had done. I must say that normally when I’m in that position, to gain positions, I like to see the guy in front have a problem and blow up but today of course, I would like to win but to get one-two, for us two, for the team… of course if it was Jenson, I would like to see him blow up but if it was Sebastian it was a bit different, so it was an incredible result for our team in the circumstances.

Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Corriere della Sera) To Sebastian and Mark, I know that Adrian Newey is projecting a new car with the diffuser. Do you believe you really need it as the one you are using proved to be very competitive?
SV: Well, first of all I didn’t know you are friends with Adrian. I think it’s the same for all the teams. We all have a diffuser, if you have this kind or this kind… As Fernando said yesterday, this is what is extremely interesting about this championship. I think these cars are new, they look different and you are just at the beginning of their development, so basically the curve continues to go up and you are able to find newer and newer bits, other than the diffuser, and an update here or there, smaller or bigger can make a huge difference because the championship is very tight. Three or four tenths up or down can have a big impact in terms of position in qualifying. You can be on top or midfield or at the back. I think every team is pushing. We are pushing extremely hard to make the car faster. I’m very happy that the car is fast already and able to compete with the best teams so far and yeah, hoping that it gets better and better throughout the season. Basically we will try and stay on top and make the final step to be the best team on the grid.

Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) Jenson, you’ve been around for a little while already. When we have wet races, they seem to be started behind the safety car and you’ve mentioned the problems with visibility; what is different from the past, are the cars too fast for wet races, are they producing too much spray?
JB: That’s a difficult one. I haven’t been around that long, maybe longer than these two! There’s always been a lot of spray in Formula One. I don’t think that has changed. For some reason we seem to be having a lot of wet races over the last couple of years which I think stick in our memories more. The problem with getting temperature into the tyres is more of a new issue for me, anyway. You know we didn’t have that so much in the past. The tyres don’t seem to work as well as previously in the very wet conditions. We don’t seem to be able to break through the water. Obviously these guys could get it to work, so it wasn’t such a bad problem for them but it’s something that’s very strange, that we’re struggling so much with aquaplaning and tyre shuddering which we didn’t use to have four or five years ago. It’s very difficult to remember that far back but I don’t remember having such big issues. The wet is always difficult but this year and Fuji two years ago and a couple of wet races in between have for me been a lot more difficult and challenging for sure, because of the aquaplaning and just not getting heat in the tyres.

MW: If you look at the Spa race whatever it was, ten years ago or something, when one of the McLarens lost it on the exit of La Source, when you’ve got a car out of control – OK, it can happen from a rolling start as well – but I think we’ve seen the safety car work quite well on releasing the field in a much more controlled fashion. If you have different speeds off the start, the spray has always been high. I think that we’ve learned a lot in ten years in Formula One that there’s no real need to… today, to have a standing start is not really necessary. We can use the safety car and it works quite well. Once we’re under way, I think the conditions are the same as they were in ’93 or ’92 when the guys used to do it (conventionally). It’s the same thing but now we just have different methods to maybe make the race a bit safer to start.

SV: It also depends a lot on if you have guys running at the front all the time they might say yes, we could have started the race in the normal way but I think especially for the guys at the back it’s much more comfortable because you have no idea where you’re going – I’ve been there – and you can see, like today, I was extremely lucky to continue, you’re not braking, nothing, you just lift the throttle a little bit, I was cautious in case it was Rubens (Barrichello), in that case it was a Toyota. You know there were three cars involved and you can see that one hit the other and that shows how difficult it is and even starting in a normal way up to turn one there was no chance to see the car in front. We all have a flashing red light but you don’t see anything when you follow each other.

E.A. © CAPSIS International