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Malaysia GP: Thursday Press Conference

NEWS STORY
26/03/2015

Fernando, if I can start with you. This has been a happy hunting ground throughout your career - you got your first pole here, you won with three different manufacturers - so a good place to come back from what was a difficult episode. What can you tell us about what you've been through in the past few weeks?
Fernando Alonso: Happy to be here in another Formula One season. I start one race later than I should be but, yeah, unfortunately I had the accident in Barcelona and following the recommendations by the doctors I missed the first race. But, yeah, happy to be here, as I said. Malaysia has always been a very nice circuit for me in my Formula One career. My first pole position was here in 2003, my first podium and then as you said three wins with three different teams give me the possibility always to enjoy this circuit and I know it's going to be very tough this year to repeat such a result but, yeah, happy to be back in the cockpit and ready to enjoy the weekend.

You've only done around 500km of testing with this car so far. How do you see the journey ahead and the challenge now to hit the targets the team has set?
FA: Well, I think we need to be with the feet on the ground knowing that we are not in a position that we wanted and not in a position that we will be hopefully very soon. It will be like a test session for me, the first races. As you said I did in this car more or less the same number of laps that another guy do in one day, so obviously I'm not probably confident with the car in this moment and I will need to learn many things, not only on the driving style but also on the approach McLaren has to the weekends. So, many things to learn for me; very challenging moment of my career and ready to take it.

Okay, thank you. Kimi, coming to you, obviously you had some problems in Australia towards the end of the race but the pace all weekend was good and you were close to your team-mate Vettel throughout, so it looks like it's going to be a good in-house battle between the two of you. How do you see it?
Kimi Raikkonen: Obviously we are in a much better position than we were say even at the end of last year so in that way it's a nice place to be but obviously we still have to improve quite a bit. We want to be in front and we still don't have the speed exactly, at least in qualifying, to be there. In the race I think we are a bit stronger compared to Mercedes. But I think it will be a fun year, obviously not an ideal start of the year and we got some damage from the start and had those issues in the pit stops but you know it can happen sometimes but at least we had pretty good speed. I'm sure we're going to have strong races and good battles but like I said we still have some work to do to be absolutely where we want to be but we have done a good job so far.

Can you tell us what it is about the chassis and the way it handles in particular that makes it a better race car for you personally?
KR: I think it's the whole package. It's not just the engine we improved. Yes, we improved that a lot but we improved the chassis itself a lot as well. It's the whole package, you cannot just point to one area that has been improved from last year, it's the whole thing. I think how everybody works and it's one team and things are going in the right direction and people are pushing and doing a good job. Like I said, it's still early days. We still have to work hard and improve things but where we started, so far we have done a good job.

Carlos, coming to you, a great debut obviously in Melbourne for you. It could have gone even better without the long pit stop. I guess you dream of your grand prix debut and then when it goes well, like it did, is it a feeling or elation or relief, or both?
Carlos Sainz: A bit of everything to be honest. It was a good debut, which I'm very happy with. It obviously gives you a boost of confidence and also a big boost of motivation to keep up the good work and keep improving because I'm sure I still have a lot, a lot, a lot to improve.

Did all the attention that was on your team-mate Max Verstappen help to take the pressure off you a bit and allow you to perform better?
CS: This may be a bit what it looked like from the outside, but obviously from the inside I perfectly know the amount of pressure I put on myself and the amount of pressure STR and Red Bull are putting on us and for sure I can tell you we have exactly the same amount of pressure to perform. So not really, to be honest, I think we were pretty equal in that sense and it was just a good weekend.

Felipe, another rookie and another very good result in Australia with fifth place, which is the debut result ever for a Brazilian in Formula One. What does that result… it must be very emotional to even hear that… what does that performance mean to you and the team?
Felipe Nasr: It was very unique I have to say, coming from a very troubled weekend. My very first ever weekend in Formula One was not ideal the way it started, with all this trouble, going to court and everything else; missing first free practice, a track that I didn't know. So it was a very good outcome to come up fifth in my first ever race and I think for the team as well it was something they really needed. It's important. It shows the team was ready, myself was ready to put the things on the side and being able to deliver in the race. It was something very special.

During the race you were able to keep Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull behind you and you were even able to drive away from him. So how do you feel about this car and how excited are you about what's possible this year?
FN: I was a bit surprised to see that happening. I knew the car had the potential to do it but to hold back Red Bull was unexpected. It could only show that the car has… the engine has done a good improvement over the winter, over last year. I think we need to take the profit from these early races to maximise our potential and getting the opportunities right. I think there are still teams struggling out there to finish races and we need to use that as an advantage for us.

Coming to you Daniil, obviously a challenging first weekend to say the least for you and Red Bull, you qualified behind the Toro Rossos and didn't even manage to take the start. What progress have you made with Renault since Melbourne in particular on the driveability of this power unit?
Daniil Kvyat: I think we will only find the answer tomorrow to be honest. I hope we did. The whole team now is working really hard to overcome the difficulties we are facing right now but myself and the whole team we are used to working realty hard and that's what we are going to do and we are going to try our best to put ourselves in a strong position once again.

Last year, of course, you were in the points on your first visit to this Sepang circuit. What features of this track do you enjoy?
DK: Well, generally, it's quite a challenging circuit I think for all of us. It's famous for the heat, for the warm, hot conditions. Generally this track has been good to me, I have been here a few times. I enjoy driving it here. It has a few fast, high-speed sections that you usually enjoy quite a lot as a driver. I'm looking forward to this weekend and hopefully we will keep moving forward.

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READERS COMMENTS

 

1. Posted by Hondawho?, 27/03/2015 7:05

"2. Posted by nonickname, 16 hours ago"Most of the journalists present would have a problem reporting on a pole dance if the pole stayed upright.
They are another thing that is wrong with F1.They are always looking for a problem that they can find or manufacture that will make headlines".

Have to agree 100%, but good news does not sell of course. It's a massive problem world wide and in ALL subjects. Some journo's cause more problems than the original problem they write about. The BBC's staff BEING SOME OF THE WORST!

Mind you Sky TV's Crofty did not do himself any favours at the press conference I thought!"

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2. Posted by Hondawho?, 27/03/2015 6:59

""But definitely we had a steering problem in the middle of turn three. It locked into the right "

Call me a cynic, but, could this be the reason McLaren have been so coy about the issue? Their road cars boast "F1 Technology" but you would not want a road car with steering that locks up would you?

Only a thought!"

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3. Posted by nonickname, 26/03/2015 15:25

"Most of the journalists present would have a problem reporting on a pole dance if the pole stayed upright.
They are another thing that is wrong with F1.They are always looking for a problem that they can find or manufacture that will make headlines.Reminds me of the journalist who reported he had bee shot down in a helicopter last month.And then tried to lie his way out of the incident."

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