|
Mark Gillan, Williams-Renault (Chief Operations Engineer):
“What can I say a massive result for the team and a stunning drive by Pastor. The whole race went well from start to finish with every team member playing a vital part in this victory. We will allow ourselves a bit of time to savour the win and then will refocus to concentrate our efforts on continuing to improve throughout the remainder of the season. Obviously it was disappointing that Bruno got taken out of the race by Michael but Bruno is looking forward to getting back into the car in Monaco.”
Laurent Debout, Williams-Renault (Renault Sport F1 Team Support Leader):
“There is nothing else to say but a huge congratulations to Pastor and the entire Williams team. Pastor drove a fantastic race to score his first win in F1, fully deserved. We are really proud to have contributed to helping the team score its first win since 2004 and the first Williams-Renault win since the 1997 season. What a feeling to deliver on the speed and performance we have shown since the start of the year.”
Stefano Domenicali, Ferrari (Team Principal):
“We came to Spain with the double objective of making progress in terms of performance and for Fernando to stay in touch with the leaders of the Drivers' classification: this afternoon we can say we achieved both our goals. It's a shame for Felipe who has been plagued with bad luck all weekend: yesterday there was traffic in qualifying and today, a penalty probably prevented him from finishing in the points after he had made up a lot of places at the start. Once again, Fernando drove an extraordinary race, fighting for the win from the first to the last lap. There were some unfortunate incidents, getting past Pic for example, but we must always admit that, in the closing stages of the final stint of the race there was no longer a margin to attack Maldonaldo. I want to take this opportunity to congratulate Pastor for his first Formula 1 win and Williams for returning to winning ways after a break of several years: yesterday, Sir Frank shared with the world of F1 a celebration for his seventieth birthday and it seems that someone up there was also aware of it and wanted to give him a present! As from tomorrow, we will return to thinking about the development of our car, because we are not yet fast enough to fight consistently for a podium finish, which is the only option if we want to be in the hunt for the title. The championship is incredibly finely balanced, as can be seen from the fact we have had five different winning teams in as many Grands Prix. Despite all the difficulties we have experienced in this first part of the season, Fernando leads the classification along with the reigning champion: this must be a boost for all our people who work at home and at the track. We expect Felipe to react and fight back after this unlucky weekend, starting in Monaco: we absolutely need his points to also fight for the Constructors' title.”
Pat Fry, Ferrari (Technical Director):
“In the race, we again confirmed that we have made a step forward in terms of the performance of our package, but it is not yet enough. Also today, we managed to make the most of our potential with Fernando, while Felipe was definitely not lucky with the penalty that ruined what, up to that point, had been a pretty good race. We knew tyre degradation would be the key and so it turned out. The fight with Maldonaldo was very close and maybe some incidents played a deciding role, such as at the time of the second stop and in the final moments of the race, when Fernando suddenly felt a drop in performance, the causes of which are not yet clear. Second is an absolutely positive result but, to make an objective evaluation, we have to take into account all the elements over the weekend, even those outside our own operation, which produced this race result. There is still a lot of work to do to have a car that is really capable of fighting for the win at every track and in all conditions. Having said that, I am equally sure that having one of our drivers leading the classification, even if he is equal on points with Vettel, represents a reward for the work everyone has done to raise our performance level and it is also a further motivation to do even better in the near future.”
Eric Boullier, Lotus-Renault (Team Principal):
“It's a very strong result and it's a great reward for the team today. I think we can expect a stronger season than we had last year and we need to carry on scoring points as we have in the last two races. I'm sure a win could arrive at some point this season. After qualifying you build expectations, and we could have expected after the strong race pace we had in Bahrain that we could have done the same here, but it was not the case. A race incident at the start didn't help Romain, but the pace of both drivers at the end of the race illustrated our potential. Finally, we must say congratulations to the Williams team for their win, and we hope no-one was seriously hurt in the post-race incident in their pits.”
Alan Permane, Lotus-Renault (Director of Trackside Operations):
“Third and fourth is a really good result for the team and it meant a big points haul here more than any other team this weekend which helps us to close up hugely on second place in the standings. Of course, it would have been nice to have done better, but the key to a strong championship campaign is consistency and if we can finish third and fourth in every race this season we'll be very happy. We didn't have the pace to win today, that much was clear after the first stints. We tried to push our stints out and be quick at the end. We were, and it nearly paid off.”
Ricardo Penteado, Lotus-Renault (Renault Sport F1 Team Support Leader):
“It was a great race with another podium and fourth position to move us a lot closer to second in the championship. We introduced new engines after Friday practice and it went well. We managed the fuel consumption effectively on both cars in the race, but in Romain's we had some engine air consumption in the middle stint. Congratulations to Pastor and our Renault colleagues working at Williams today a well deserved win.”
Peter Sauber, Sauber-Ferrari (Team Principal):
“First of all congratulations to Pastor Maldonado for a fantastic race and his victory. Concerning our own team, I have mixed feelings because Sergio couldn't benefit from his very good grid position. Kamui drove a fantastic race. He lost quite a lot of time in traffic, but was then able to overtake Jenson Button and Nico Rosberg with two great attacks. He scored ten important points. But this race also showed that our development package works as planned, also on a difficult track like this one. This makes me optimistic for the next races. Thanks to the whole team, and also everyone in the factory, for making this happen.”
Giampaolo Dall'Ara, Sauber-Ferrari (Head of Track Engineering):
“Sergio basically lost his race on lap one due to a racing incident which forced him to pit immediately. We then tried to do a two stop strategy using hard tyres, but then he had to stop because of a transmission problem which we need to analyse. Kamui was on a three stop strategy. As he was held up by Jenson Button we brought him in early for the first stop, but we lost some time there because the front left wheel wouldn't come off. We also did the same for the third stop, however, Kamui was still behind. It was a long final stint, and it was up to him to decide how to make best use of the tyres. He was then able to overtake Jenson Button and Nico Rosberg. He really drove an outstanding race.”
Christian Horner, Red Bull-Renault (Team Principal):
“A difficult afternoon. Unfortunately Sebastian had a drive-through penalty for an incident under a yellow flag, which I believe is because he had the DRS open. We also had front wing damage on both cars that necessitated two nose changes. Despite that, it was a strong recovery from Sebastian to finish sixth, passing two McLarens and Rosberg in the closing stages and, as a result, we leave here still leading both the Drivers' and Constructors' World Championships. For Mark it was a tough race with the wing change early on and then unfortunately a mystifying lack of pace, which resulted in him spending a lot of the race looking at the back of Nico Hülkenberg's car. So, there is plenty to understand; we have done five races now and had five winners from five different teams. Congratulations to Pastor Maldonado, but especially to Sir Frank and the Williams Team on a well deserved victory today.”
Cyril Dumont, Red Bull-Renault (Renault Engineer):
“Of course I was hoping for us to finish higher up, or even on the podium today, but we started quite far back and then had some misfortune with the front wings and the drive-through penalty. It wasn't so easy to recover from this race, although the last part was quite solid from Seb and the main thing is that we're leading both Championships. I look forward to Monaco as we know that to do well there requires strength from the Renault engine and good drivability, so I look forward to that race.”
Bob Bell, Mercedes (Technical Director):
“We spent our afternoon racing hard with Red Bull and McLaren - but it was only for places in the bottom half of the top ten today. We didn't have the basic pace we needed this afternoon, and we were hampered further with an issue on Nico's car. There was a clear loss of downforce measurable on the data, which made it even more difficult for Nico to look after the tyres properly, but whether this was down to damage or another factor is something we will have to investigate this evening. Naturally, it was a disappointment to lose Michael early in the race, after his pace had looked reasonable in the opening stint. The team did a good job on the stops and I believe we made the right tactical decisions to protect Nico's position at critical moments of the race, even though he ultimately ran out of grip in the closing laps on a long final stint. The basic fact is that we needed more pace today, which is what we must bring over the coming races. And we will.”
Norbert Haug, Mercedes (Daimler):
“A difficult race for us, and Nico went from fifth to seventh place in the last laps because our car could not use the tyres during such a long stint, so he could not repeat the lap times he had done before. Michael had an accident with a slower car which he attempted to overtake. After five races, there are five different winners from five different teams, and I am told this last happened 30 years ago. Congratulations to the Williams team and to Pastor Maldonado today - well done and great for them to win on such a demanding circuit. After five races and a quarter of the season, Nico is 20 points behind the leader. We have to raise our game in the next races and during the remainder of the season and I am sure that all our team members will work very hard to make the next steps and to achieve a better level of performance than we had today.”
Martin Whitmarsh, McLaren-Mercedes (Team Principal):
“Before I say anything else, I want to offer my very hearty congratulations to Williams, to Pastor and particularly to Sir Frank for a stunning victory here today. For Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, following our disappointments yesterday, today was always going to be about recovery. Even so, Jenson will be disappointed: he struggled with balance and grip all afternoon, and won't be satisfied with the brace of world championship points that his ninth place delivered him. Lewis, having started in 24th and last place following his qualifying penalty yesterday, drove an absolutely storming race to eighth place at the chequered flag, all but catching and passing Nico [Rosberg] for seventh place on the final lap. Like Jenson, he won't be content with the four world championship points he earned this afternoon, but in truth he should be immensely proud of his performance here. Lewis was the only driver to make a two-stop strategy work today and that, given that his race strategy called for him to drive exceptionally hard and extremely fast in heavy traffic all afternoon, pulling off some sensational passing manoeuvres on a circuit on which overtaking is notoriously difficult, was a truly magnificent feat. Make no mistake about it, the 2012 Santander Spanish Grand Prix was one of the most impressive races that Lewis has ever driven. His performance combined fabulous verve with commendable caution and I'd go so far as to say that, rising above the frustration he inevitably felt yesterday evening, he's inspired each and every one of us at Vodafone McLaren Mercedes with his stirring drive today. He's only eight points behind the leader in the Drivers' World Championship, and he loves the Monaco Grand Prix, the next stop on the World Championship calendar. Jenson, too, is a past winner at Monte-Carlo, and, like Lewis, he'll approach the dauntingly tortuous streets of the famous Principality with the forceful precision that marks out both our drivers as the superb World Champions that they are. They'll both be aiming to win, of that you may be sure.”
Robert Fernley, Force India-Mercedes (Deputy Team Principal):
“Another very tough and competitive Grand Prix, so we are pleased to have picked up a point with Nico. It was a hard-earned point with an optimised strategy and brilliant driving, especially Nico's efforts to fend off Mark Webber in the final stages of the race. Paul was not far behind, but it was hard to keep him ahead of the Toro Rossos because our race pace was pretty similar and so we had to settle for P14. Looking back on the weekend as a whole we've seen once again that the entire field remains incredibly competitive and that we need to keep pushing hard to optimise the developments we have made to the car. We know there is more speed to come and we hope to demonstrate that in the next few races.”
Franz Tost, Toro Rosso-Ferrari (Team Principal):
“Jean-Eric had a reasonably good start, moving up several places on the opening lap, while Daniel lost one, before regaining his grid position a couple of laps later. During the race, in which they both ran three stop strategies, starting on the option before pitting for Prime, followed by Option and finishing on Prime, they both showed reasonable pace, fighting one another at times. However, once again this weekend, our qualifying pace proved to be the weakest point and until we start from higher up the grid, we will continue to struggle to bring home points. We have plenty of work to do, before heading for the Monaco circuit where, even if overtaking is much more straightforward than in the past, a good grid position is still absolutely vital.”
Mark Smith, Caterham-Renault (Technical Director):
“I am pleased with the performance from both drivers today. They kept pushing throughout the whole race and made sure they didn't make any mistakes, particularly at the start of the race. Our early pace was good and we used the tyre strategy well to keep ourselves within touching distance of the midfield pack, but again we saw the issue with blue flags, having to let the cars ahead pass articifially lengthened the gap to the cars we had been fighting with, but we have to deal with that on tracks like this where we knew we would be lapped at some point. We now have a busy couple of weeks before the next race, with an aero test in the UK, part of the program that is helping us keep edging closer to the midfield, and we will go to Monaco, hopefully aiming to repeat the sort of performance we saw last year when we finished 13th and 14th.”
John Booth, Marussia-Cosworth (Team Principal):
“It is obviously very disappointing that we were unable to bring both cars home today. We have suffered two drive shaft issues this weekend - one of those was in the race - so we're sorry for Charles to suffer a DNF after his efforts all weekend. With Timo's car we have not made the progress with the car balance that we wanted to and this is preventing him from being as quick as he can be. There have been times when we have got on top of the problem and we are good, and times when we are not quite getting what we need to out of the car, as was the case in today's race. A disappointing result for us but a brilliant win for Pastor and our congratulations to the Williams F1 Team on that. A busy week ahead for us now, but we look forward to the next race in Monaco.”
Luis Pιrez-Sala, HRT-Cosworth (Team Principal):
“Once more we proved a good reliability which enabled Pedro to finish the Spanish Grand Prix in front of our home crowd. It was a really tough race, with the tyres degrading a huge amount and that's why we had to go for a four-stop strategy. But despite the fact that we have a lot to improve, we're satisfied with Pedro's result, which is the best we've achieved this season thus far. It's a very special Grand Prix and for that reason we would have liked to have finished the race with not one but both cars. But unfortunately this was not the case because of a problem with Narain's second tyre change. These things can happen when you take it to the limit, to any team, and more so when you're in a learning process as we are. But in this case, after an uphill weekend, it leaves me with an especially bad taste in my mouth to have not finished the job off.”
Paul Hembery, Pirelli (Motorsport Director):
“With Pastor Maldonado starting from the front and Lewis Hamilton starting from the back, this was always going to be a fascinating race, and thanks to the tyre strategy as well, it certainly delivered. Maldonado and Williams were quick right from free practice on Friday, having consistently got the most out of both tyre compounds all weekend. The final 10 laps were a fantastic duel between him and Alonso, with less than a second separating them, on similar strategies. Both drivers showed their tyre management skills perfectly, managing to avoid falling off 'the cliff' despite pushing hard for the race win. The tyres contributed to an extremely entertaining and tense race, but as official supplier we will always follow the wishes of the teams and the promoter and our future development direction will be dictated by what they want. For the sport, we believe that it's fantastic to have five races, five winners and five cars especially when it is as well deserved as the victory that we saw from Pastor and Williams today.”
|