Part 1: Gabriel Bortoleto, Fernando Alonso and Oliver Bearman.
Fernando, let’s start with you. Race one done. What can you tell us about the car’s potential after what we saw in Melbourne?Fernando Alonso: Yeah, difficult to know exactly. I think qualifying was OK for us. I think until the damage in Q2, we were competitive. But then in the race, I think it was difficult to judge the performance of the cars. I think we just followed the car in front more or less, took care of the tyre, waiting for the dry track to come. And yeah, it was a game, if we could say that. So yeah, I think we have to wait a few races, different track layouts – Suzuka as well, Bahrain with the slow-speed corners. So I think after four or five races, we will have a better idea.
You say you were looking after the tyres on Sunday, but did you learn anything about the tyre degradation? I mean, at the front, for example, we saw that McLaren were very strong, whereas Red Bull, perhaps a little weaker. Did you learn about your car?FA: I don’t know. That we had a little bit more pace than the cars in front, probably, but it was very difficult to overtake. It was only one very narrow racing line to be able to overtake. And yeah, the tyre deg was big, but when you follow cars, it’s always big. As I said, I think we have to wait and see. It was an interesting first race. Pace in qualifying was maybe better than expected – better than what we saw in Bahrain. The race was tricky, it was difficult for everyone, but the outcome was eight points for the team thanks to a very good race from Lance. All in all, it was a good first race for us.
So what about here? You were mighty in qualifying at this race last year. Can you hope for anything close to that if it’s dry?FA: I don’t know. I think we started a little bit stronger last year, especially in quali, so it’s definitely going to be a bit more difficult. We were P3 in wet and P3 in dry with the two qualifyings here. I think it’s going to be a challenge to repeat that kind of result, but we will try our best and try to score the first points for me of the year. Looking forward to it – this is one of the best layouts of the year, one of the best race tracks for us as drivers in the championship. So yeah, looking forward.
Final one from me. You manage Gabriel on your right – a word from you on the job you thought he did in Melbourne?FA: Very impressive, very good, but no surprises. He’s the best of the new generation – together with Ollie! And yeah, I mean, he’s well prepared. He worked really hard all winter long, and I think Melbourne is not the easiest track to make your debut. The race especially was super tricky for everybody, so it was a hard test, but it was very impressive – the first of many.
Thank you, Fernando. Gabriel, we might come to you. Nice to hear some words like that from Fernando.Gabriel Bortoleto: Yeah, he’s being nice because there’s cameras, you know! No, I’m grateful for everything A14 has done for me. Not only him, but Alberto and Albert through these last two years already that we have been working – F3 and F2 – and they have been very cool and supportive in the junior series. Fernando obviously with all the advice, helping me to step up to Formula 1. So yeah, thanks for the words, and I will keep working very hard and trying to do my best. It’s just the beginning. I’m happy about the way we started, but there is a lot of work still to be done and a lot of development from my side as well.
You say you’re happy with how the race weekend in Melbourne went. What is the biggest thing you learned?GB: I mean, through the whole weekend, I think it was very solid. Quali was good, FPs were very solid as well. I improved a lot through the sessions. Quali – I managed to do a decent lap in Q1 and then tried a bit too hard in Q2. But yeah, in the race, it was very tricky. I’ve heard from some drivers that there won’t be many races more difficult than this one in your career – slicks to wet, then wet to slicks again, dry, then wet again. So a lot of things happened, and we take learnings from that – how to behave in a race like this, when to push, when to not push, when to take risks. And obviously, through the race as well, we had some fights around, and it was just good to understand a bit how racing in Formula 1 is.
And you’ve got your first Sprint weekend coming up here in China. How challenging do you think that will be?GB: Well, I think we are back a bit to F2, with just one practice, so nothing much I can do about it – just less practice, less time to understand. But we will give our best and try to make as many laps as possible in FP1, understand the track, and try to make a decent lap in Sprint quali. But yeah, I’m excited. It’s nice to race and feel again the racing of Formula 1 because like this I can be more prepared for Sunday as well.
Well, good luck this weekend. Ollie, let’s come to you now. A roller coaster of a weekend in Melbourne for you. Just how important was it to get those 57 laps of the race under your belt on Sunday?Ollie Bearman: Yeah, it was a difficult weekend for sure. I didn’t make my life easy with the mistakes, the clumsy mistakes I made over the weekend. But I’m glad that we finished the race – maybe not as competitive as we would have liked, but lots of data gathered and collected. Now, hopefully, we have a dry weekend to see what we’ve learned and put it into practice.
Lots of data. Just how are you approaching the weekend here?OB: Yeah, I mean, Sprint weekend, new track for me. It will be an interesting one. The track looks awesome from the simulator and from the onboards I’ve seen, so I’m really excited to drive here. It will just be important to get up to speed quickly and already be there for Sprint qualifying.
Ollie, what about the pace of the car? What can you tell us after testing and race one?OB: Yeah, I think race one was a bit of a surprise for all of us within the team, about how uncompetitive we were. We have a few pointers now as to why that was, particularly in the race. We were a bit out of the window of performance, so we have a few ideas now heading into Shanghai. Unfortunately, not enough free practice sessions – not the best time for us to have a Sprint weekend, but we’ll see what we can do. I’m sure it will be a much better one.
Questions From The Floor
(David Croft – Sky Sports F1) A question to all three of you. It was quite the intriguing, interesting afternoon in Melbourne, but one thing that surprised me was the sight of cars behind the Safety Car still going around the track while lorries were recovering other cars and marshals were stood on it. Do you all feel that a red flag might have been a better option, rather than seeing lorries on the track when cars are moving, especially on a day when people were spinning off on the white lines in such tricky conditions?FA: I don’t know the exact details, so difficult to comment, but I think Melbourne is not an easy track to recover cars. At some point, they need to go onto the track. I think we have a different system now than what we had in the past. Even behind the Safety Car, in a yellow flag zone, you have to respect a slower lap time. So, if you respect that time, you should not be too fast in that zone. I understand the sense of the question, but I don’t think there was anything crazy. I think it was under control.
GB: Same, to be honest. I agree, the double yellow area, that you need to follow the delta, and you go very, very slow there. If the stewards decided like this, for sure, they were keeping an eye on it, after what happened in the past. They wouldn’t try to make a mistake like that again.
OB: Yeah, I agree with everything they said. At the speed we were going, it was OK. But yeah, I understand the sense of the question.
(Mariana Becker – TV Bandeirantes) Gabriel, after your first race, you’ve learned a lot, and there were also some technical issues. Have you had any answers from your team on the brake issues you mentioned? Did you have any brake problems at the end? What about the suspension – did you touch anything that could have caused the suspension to break? Do you understand what happened, and do you feel confident that it won’t happen again?GB: Well, regarding the brake problems, I stand by what I said during the whole race. Whoever was [listening to] my radio or watching the race knows I was complaining about the brakes from lap one. I had a problem – it was clear. I’m not going to go into detail about what exactly it was, but we had an issue. As for the suspension, that’s a question we are still struggling to fully understand what happened there. What is clear for us is that there was contact, I think with Nico. It was a racing incident – it was a very small contact in Turn 3. We were side by side, and he had a small snap and touched my rear tyre. I didn’t even feel it at the moment, but when we re-watched the race, we saw it. So maybe that’s one of the possibilities, but there’s nothing conclusive. The team is still studying and analysing it back at the factory to try to understand the real reason why it broke. We also need to determine if it influenced my spin the corner before or if that was purely my mistake from hitting the kerb.
(Alessa-Luisa Naijoks – RTL TV) A question for Ollie. As you already mentioned, you had a difficult start to the weekend in Melbourne. How difficult was it for you to move on from those incidents, stay focused, and stay positive for the race?OB: Yeah, not enough laps for me heading into the race. Disappointing that the weekend turned out that way. I was quite glad to have the rain on race day – it kind of levelled the playing field a little bit because I hadn’t done any dry laps. That completely shifted my mind-set, and it became all about surviving on Sunday. There were so many DNFs that day, super difficult conditions, going through the track drying and with all the white lines, it was a bit of a minefield out there. So, it was really about surviving and quite different mind-set from the rest of the weekend.
