F1 Round 3: Renault F1 streets the field again in Melbourne

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F1 Round 3: Renault F1 streets the field again in Melbourne

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Gil De Ferran, Honda F1 Sporting Director: “Jenson had a very difficult time to warm up the tyres at the start and every restart after that, which meant that he progressively lost places in those situations. The same issue troubled both drivers. Then we had an engine failure on the last turn. Rubens had a tough race through the field and did a good job to finish in the points. We were unlucky with him on the second outing for the safety car since we elected to keep him out to gain track position, but the plan didn't work when he encountered traffic. Overall we were certainly hoping for more but despite the disappointment we will continue to keep pushing. There are two tests prior to Imola where we will be able to look into some of the issues that afflicted us here.”

Shuhei Nakamoto,Management Board Member, Honda Racing F1 Team, Engineering Director, Honda Racing Development : “We’ll be studying the data to work out the cause of Jenson’s engine problem. We’re sorry his efforts did not bring him any points today. He drove a strong race but struggled for grip after the safety car periods. Rubens did well to score his first points of the season. We have lots to work on in testing to get where we need to be.”

David Coulthard, Red Bull F1, eighth: “Scott Speed overtook me under a yellow flag. The Stewards asked me to explain the incident, which occurred under the yellow flag for Tonio’s accident. The data shows that Scott overtook while the yellow flags were being waved. On the first lap, I passed Jarno Trulli on Turn two. Going into Turn three I looked into the mirror and saw him coming so I moved over, but he ran wide so I passed him again. In Turn six he did the same thing. However, this time I didn’t see him coming, he side-swiped me and hit the side of my car putting me in the gravel and himself out of the race. There was no way he was going to make the corner.” Christian Horner, Sporting Director Red Bull F1: “Unfortunately both cars were victims of other drivers exuberance on the first lap. David made a very good start overtaking both Schumacher and Trulli, but further round the lap Trulli made a very optimistic manoeuvre, which pushed David to the back of the field. Christian was involved with the incident between Massa and Rosberg and took a big knock on the rear of his car. A couple of laps later he had quite a large accident, which may have been a result of the earlier incident. Obviously, until we’ve seen all the data and examined all the components, we won’t have the answer on that.”

Jenson Button, Honda F1, ninth: “It’s disappointing to end the weekend as we did today after starting the race in pole position. The way the race panned out with the four safety cars left me struggling for grip after each restart and I lost so much time and so many places. I could feel that something was wrong with the engine in turn 13 and it was a difficult way to end the race after such a long hard battle. The car is strong when we have tyre temperature, but when we don’t we have massive grip problems. We have two weeks of testing before Imola and hopefully we can solve these problems.”

Christijan Albers, Midland F1, tenth place: "On the one hand, it's kind of frustrating to not be battling where I think we should be - in the middle of the pack. On the other hand, I think we're improving and at least now I'm finishing races, which is something I didn't always get to do last year. The first part of the race, I got caught in the group behind Sato, with Barrichello and Coulthard. We were stuck there for a long time, and that was really a shame. After the first pit stop, I was still behind Sato but then I overtook him on a straight, on the outside. That felt good. There were four safety car periods, so the race order got confusing at times, but in the end I felt that I could run with the other cars. It's just a shame that we couldn't score points today."

Colin Kolles, Managing Director, Midland F1: "This was a bittersweet result for us. I think Tiago drove well enough to potentially score a top ten finish had he not had a malfunction. Christijan also drove a strong race and made a very good move to get past Sato. We have to overcome some reliability issues, for sure, but we are improving all the time, so that's encouraging. We are still a young team, so we just have to keep working hard and building on what we've learned."

Adrian Burgess, Sporting Director, Midland F1: "Christijan finished 11th in a fairly action-packed afternoon. We had a mechanical problem with Tiago, which was unfortunate, as both drivers were having a good race. We made a couple of good calls and one not-so-good call with the safety car pit strategies, which kept us on our toes. Looking ahead, we need to work harder to improve the reliability so that we can come back fighting in Europe."

Scott Speed, STR Cosworth F1, 11th: (statement made when Speed thought he had scored a point for his across-the-line eighth place – he was later penalised and dropped to eleventh place): “To come from wherever we were on the grid – I can’t even remember where we were, but I know it was a big number – it is incredible to come away from here with a point. We always said our goal was to grab some points this year and to get the first one so early is incredible. It’s one step closer to my goal. It was really exciting and what a feeling to come round on the last lap and to see the whole team up on the wall. It was one of the greatest moments I’ve ever had in my life.” Gerhard Berger, STR Cosworth Team Owner: “Lucky and unlucky on the same day as with Tonio we were in a very good position today and could have finished higher. I am very happy with the result and the point. We had a race speed that was good enough to fight with Michael Schumacher at a certain stage and the others too. I think the whole team performed well and is steadily getting better. Now it is important that our speed of development matches that of the other teams.”

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