MARTIN WHITMARSH AND NORBERT HAUG PRE-SEASON Q&As
In addition to the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes drivers, team
management Martin Whitmarsh and Norbert Haug also give their
thoughts on the season ahead.
MARTIN WHITMARSH, CEO FORMULA 1, VODAFONE McLAREN
MERCEDES
How have the team’s preparations for the start
of the 2007 Formula 1 season been progressing?
The Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team’s preparations are
still progressing and will be until the Thursday evening prior
to the race. Track testing has now finished, we completed
a significant amount of kilometres and achieved the highest
average mileage per day of any of the new cars. As can be
expected when testing there were some issues, but part of
completing over 13,300kms with a new car is to find the limits
on high mileage and inevitably you are going to break something
at some point.
The important point is that during testing, we have continued
to improve the performance of the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
MP4-22. We were learning and finding improvements even on
the last day before the cars departed, and we therefore will
bring new components, set-ups and approaches to our Friday
testing in Melbourne that we hope and believe will further
improve the performance of the car.
In summary, we had an excellent launch of the new Vodafone
McLaren Mercedes team, we were reasonably good from the outset
and have made steady progress, but we recognise that it is
tremendously competitive season ahead of us. Winning races
and world championships is never easy and this year is going
to be no exception.
How has the performance of the MP4-22 been in comparison
with your competitors?
It has been an unusual winter because of the teams self-regulated
testing agreement, there has been much more testing together
with the principal teams, in fact all of the teams, and therefore
we’ve had the possibility to assess your competitive
performance to a greater extent than we’ve had in the
past in any season of Formula 1. Typically, however, looking
at the times at the end of a session is a misleading process.
We generally have reviewed where we were running in our programme
and felt that we were reasonably competitive. Whether we are
or we aren’t we will know shortly, whether we’ve
been or haven’t been on the test track doesn’t
matter, all that matters is how we perform in Australia and
henceforth in the remaining 16 races.
The MP4-22 has completed over 13,300kms on the test
track, what has the team learnt about the car and how has
it developed since the launch in January?
Much of the learning with the MP4-22 we inevitably want to
keep to ourselves, but the car is responding to development
changes in the way that our tools of analysis tell us it should,
which is positive. We know that we have to continue to improve
as the year goes on, however we’ve developed a strong
understanding of the car and created a list of development
priorities. Overall, we’re going to the first race with
possibly more knowledge about this car than we have ever had
going into the first race of a season. We launched the car
when we intended to, we very quickly had two cars available,
we’ve completed good mileage and the overall reliability
has allowed us to make good progress.
How has the relationship with Bridgestone progressed?
The organisation and the key technical people are the same
as we worked with before and the team is enjoying its renewed
Partnership. There is clearly a view that teams that have
been running Bridgestone in previous years are advantaged,
in truth Bridgestone have done a very competent job for all
the teams. In terms of tyre consistency and their characteristic,
that has been developed and we do not feel disadvantaged in
any way.
There has been positive talk in parts of the media regarding
the pre-season performance of Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, what
are you thoughts on this?
I hope that anyone from outside the team that thinks we will
win the championship this year are sincere and of course we
hope they are correct!
Vodafone McLaren Mercedes is not going into the first race
with that assumption, however our target is to win the championship
and we will be disappointed if we don’t’ do that.
This is nothing new however, this is how we approach all seasons.
We are of the belief that we are going to be strong, but
we are certainly not being complacent and we are not underestimating
any of the other teams. None of the hype matters, we’ve
got two very enthusiastic race drivers and a very strong team
and we think a competent car, those are the raw ingredients,
we’ve got to make that all come together and push hard
to develop the car sufficiently to realise our objectives.
What are the team’s expectations for the 2007
season?
We expect to be competing, to win races and our ultimate
goal is to win World Championships.
How are the drivers getting along?
The team has been working very well with our two new race
drivers and our two very established test drivers. Fernando,
Lewis, Pedro and Gary are working more closely than we have
experienced in the team for some time and there is a good
spirit of cooperation between them all. The drivers are all
motivated and very strong team players. That perhaps sounds
derogatory in respect of previous drivers, but it is not.
We have been privileged to have some great drivers in the
team over the last few years. Sometimes it is right to move
on and find new motivation and these drivers are providing
that to everyone within Vodafone McLaren Mercedes.
How has Fernando settled into the team and how do
you feel his season will pan out?
It was clear before Fernando arrived that he is an enormously
talented race driver. He has enormous focus, commitment and
intelligence; these facets of his character have only been
accentuated to us since he arrived at Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
by the experience of working with him. Having someone who
has come from a competitive environment into the team is always
useful, as he can give a relatively independent benchmark
about the technology, the car, the processes and the manner
in which we set about trying to win. Despite the size of the
Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team, we are open to learning and
we know that we have learnt things from Fernando’s approach,
and we hope this process will continue through the season.
There are many people within the team who have worked with
World Championship before, but what is more significant with
Fernando is when you look into his eyes and see he has confidence,
belief and the look of someone who is going to win more World
Championships. That is tremendously exciting.
How long is the team planning to give Lewis to acclimatise
to the sport and start getting results?
Lewis is an enthusiastic racing driver who wants to start
winning as quickly as he can. Whilst we want to moderate the
expectations that Lewis himself and others will place on him,
we know that someone as ambitious, focused and talented as
Lewis will have a small part of him that wants to win in the
first race, if they fail then the second and so on. Providing
they are balanced then these are the right emotions to have.
However the most important thing is that he demonstrates the
ability to learn and develop during the season. Whatever he
does in the first race, we want his performance to get progressively
stronger as the season goes on.
When you look back at his five years in single seater car
racing, Lewis has dominated and won the championship in three
of those, which is an astounding record and inevitably what
people focus on. In two of the years he had to learn his way
and develop and these were enormously valuable seasons for
him, particularly from a mental perspective given the hype
and expectation that has surrounded Lewis. He has always dealt
with it and come through strong, so he has had to deal with
much more pressure than some of his contemporaries. He has
been in challenging situations, where he hasn’t been
happy with his performance, he has dealt with that and come
through it. Whilst Lewis, I’m sure is expecting of himself
a very strong showing in the first races of his Formula 1
career, if it happens great, if it doesn’t he has the
experience to cope with it and we are in this with him for
the long term.
NORBERT HAUG, VICE PRESIDENT, MERCEDES-BENZ MOTORSPORT
Are you happy that the Formula 1 season is starting
once again at Albert Park and what do you particularly like
about Melbourne?
With the unique atmosphere and the enthusiastic crowd, the
Australian Grand Prix is a highlight of the season right at
the beginning. The race in Melbourne will always be a special
one for us. This year sees the tenth anniversary of the first
victory of the McLaren-Mercedes partnership. We all will always
remember the 9th March 1997 with great pleasure.
The Vodafone McLaren-Mercedes MP4-22 has shown consistently
strong form during pre-season testing. Now those tests are
over, what does the team expect from the technical package
in Melbourne?
Since we began the test programme on 17th January, the new
MP4-22 powered by this year’s Mercedes-Benz engine has
been running reliably most of the time, setting competitive
lap times and completing consistent long runs. During the
course of seven tests on 19 days since January, Fernando completed
14 and a half test days, Lewis 12 and Pedro nine and a half
days, and they have covered a distance of more than 13,300
kilometres, which is an average of 370 kilometres per day
and car, and this indicates the good reliability. All team
members have worked hard over the past weeks and months to
achieve the targets we aim for and to make it possible for
us to race among the front-runners in 2007.
What specific technical challenge does Melbourne
require of a Formula 1 engine?
The Albert Park circuit is very demanding for the engines.
About 70 percent of a lap time here will be run under full
throttle; this means almost three quarters of a lap. It will
be interesting to see how the different engines, which have
been homologated for four years, will stand the test in the
first race.
Which problems did you have to solve prior to the
new season because of the new engine regulations?
The new rules require an rpm limit of 19,000/min. As the
Mercedes-Benz V8 Formula 1 engine was the highest revving
engine in the field last year reaching 20,000/min, we had
to modify it within the measures allowed by the FIA regulations.
Our engineers had to finish this by 15th December 2006. Before
we delivered the homologated engine to the FIA on 1st March,
we made necessary modifications mainly to the combustion chamber,
inlet and exhaust ports and the pistons to match the rpm limit.
The engineers and technicians at Mercedes-Benz HighPerformanceEngines
in Brixworth and their colleagues in Stuttgart worked very
hard over the past six months, to deliver the best possible
engine specification together with all engine parts in time
for the homologation on 1st March. This was a competition
away from the circuit which was more intense than we had ever
experienced before.
How many engines will Mercedes-Benz bring to the
Australian Grand Prix?
We will bring eight engines to Australia; three of them will
already be installed in the two race cars and the T-car. The
race cars’ engines will be changed after Friday’s
Free Practice and replaced by engines, which will be used
on both race weekends in Melbourne and Sepang.
What do you think of the new driver line-up with
Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton?
Both drivers are extraordinary people with a positive attitude.
Fernando is without a doubt not only an excellent driver,
but is also able to motivate everybody in the team. Lewis
has already impressed everybody with his speed and his great
ability to learn. The combination of all these good qualities
makes a strong driver line-up, which is also the youngest
in the 2007 field.
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