04/11/2014
NEWS STORY
Deputy Team Principal Federico Gastaldi takes stock of the underlying issues for F1 right now and looks ahead to the eighteenth race of the season, the 2014 Brazilian Grand Prix.
The Brazilian Grand Prix is always a carnival of colour. Is it one you especially look forward to?
Federico Gastaldi: Absolutely. Interlagos is always a pleasure because the passion of racing runs through the whole place. The close proximity of the city and all the fans makes it a very unique atmosphere. I think there is a really special vibe around the Brazilian Grand Prix. The Latin spirit is apparent everywhere at Interlagos. Traditional in the sense that there is natural undulation and a great variety of corners. From the team sense we are always welcomed very warmly here. As a proud South American it gives me a lot of pleasure to showcase our great team to some of the best fans in the world.
It is also a big race for Pastor as it is the closest event to his home Grand Prix?
FG: Yes, Pastor is looking forward to it because he gets a lot of support for this race. I am sure that he will take the recent positive momentum he has gathered to please these fans in Brazil. It is certainly the type of circuit that Pastor likes to attack and extract the maximum from especially after the positive of points in Austin.
How do you sum up Austin last weekend?
FG: It was a very good, positive weekend. It started out with some interesting objectives achieved with the evaluation of the new-look development nose. Our engineers and production guys back at Enstone are working hard on the E23 and this was a valuable data gathering exercise for our 2015 programme. We also had a few updates for the current car and these seemed to work well. Pastor was able to qualify just outside the top ten, and could have even been in Q3 if he was only a tenth faster. In the race, both drivers performed very well and we saw some great racing! It was a shame for Romain to lose out after being hit by a somewhat ambitious move from Jean-Eric Vergne, but we are very pleased for Pastor to finish in the points for the first time with us. It was also a fitting reward for all the guys at Enstone. The team have deserved better this year. Everything is there - the skills, experience and attitude. We just need to put the right package together. I was also happy that the American fans got to see an action-packed race. Everybody is so friendly and welcoming there wherever we go. We are pushing to build a new era for the sport in the US and it was also a good reminder of the positive side of Formula One after a lot of negatives recently.
The future of the sport is very much in the headlines at present. Where do you stand on the current debate on the structure of F1 in regards to commercial affairs?
FG: Well, I think everyone has known for a long time that there are big issues with the way revenue is distributed in the sport. It finally looks like things are going to be addressed on this and with the full co-operation of the teams to actually get things changed, and quickly. The teams know changes need to be made, the fans can see it and now it looks like Bernie can see it too and is going to address it. To me and in particular to the team's shareholders, it just seems wrong that some teams get a significant amount of money for just arriving at the track whereas other teams get nothing. Like any global business there are issues that need to be addressed and of course because F1 is so visible they come to light very publically when teams hit trouble. The commercial part of racing is always a hot topic and we need to make some big decisions because F1 cannot afford to lose more of its participants. One thing is for sure, the level of spending just to participate in F1 is way too high at present, so it has to be addressed and tough decisions have to be made. Hopefully something positive will come out of the difficult times being faced by Marussia and Caterham recently.
Is Romain's immediate future with the team close to being confirmed?
FG: We are still finalising things at present and an announcement will be forthcoming shortly. As I have already said, Romain is a very important member of the Enstone family and we want to keep it that way. The discussions we have are very open and progressive and we hope to be in a position to get everything out in the open very soon.
After a positive weekend in Austin, Lotus F1 Team Technical Director Nick Chester looks ahead to the penultimate race of the season, the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The team seems to be making some final tweaks to the E22 which are resulting in a car that is much more driveable for Pastor and Romain - is this fair to say?
Nick Chester: We have worked on the aerodynamic side of the car all year but have particularly been working on the aerodynamic consistency from about mid-season and this is proving beneficial. On the mechanical side we have made some changes that have helped and we had also brought a few new parts to Austin that were useful. Both drivers found that the car was more consistent and better to drive. We saw the fruits of this when Pastor qualified in eleventh which meant tenth on the grid because of a penalty for another car. He was very close to making it into Q3 too, which was a real positive and a reasonable step forward. It was pleasing to get into the points on Sunday and even more satisfying to know that both cars could have scored points.
How should the Interlagos circuit layout suit us?
NC: The first and second sectors should be okay for us however the third sector, with one corner followed by a climb up hill and on to the straight, will be more challenging. Overall, I don't think that it will suit us as well as Austin but we won't know for sure until we're there and we have some laps under our belt. We have found a bit more in the car but Interlagos might be trickier for us than it has been in the United States. The high altitude might have an impact on the power unit's performance, although this will be different than in previous years due to the changed aspiration of the engine.
Interlagos is quite an old-school track. What are the idiosyncrasies of it from an engineering perspective?
NC: It is a tricky circuit to find the right set-up. The middle sector is very twisty with a lot of low speed turns and then the final sector is essentially one corner on to a very long straight. The compromise on how to run on downforce is therefore quite challenging. You want to take downforce off for the last sector but then want it on for the other sectors. We tend to rely on where the simulation suggests will be the best compromise and then adapt through the weekend dependent on our speed and sector performance.
Will we be looking to 2015 in any of our practice sessions?
NC: We will continue our programme to evaluate aero parts for next year. We are doing a lot of positive work on the E23 back at Enstone and validating some of the concepts at the track on the E22 is very useful.
How do you evaluate the performance with the 2015 development nose on Friday at Austin?
NC: The performance was pretty much as we expected it to be: we thought it would be a little bit down on the current nose which it was but all the measurements gathered were really useful for helping us with the development noses for the E23. They will be along the lines of what we tested in Austin but still they will be further developed.
Are the tyre changes for Brazil beneficial to us?
NC: The original allocation of the hard and medium compounds was - in our opinion - way too hard. The medium and soft tyre allocation is better, but still quite conservative. Certainly, we suffered in Sochi with the allocation there so we're much happier that Pirelli has made the change and I think most of the teams and drivers feel the same.