Felipe Massa

Massa arrives on the grid.

Valtteri Bottas and Jonathan Eddolls, Race Engineer.

Valtteri Bottas finished sixth and Felipe Massa 10th in the European Grand Prix. Bottas made a one-stop strategy work and ran as high as third before making his stop on lap 19. He was able to manage his tyres and strategy well to stay ahead of the two-stoppers and finish sixth. Massa had to run a two-stop strategy due to tyre graining. He was fifth before his first stop on lap 7, and sixth before his final stop on lap 28, but he continued to struggle with his tyres and finished 10th.

The team collected nine points in the Constructors’ Championship, while Bottas retains seventh in the Driver’s Championship and Massa drops to ninth behind Perez.

Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering: “That was nowhere near what we expected from this race. Valtteri being ninth in that first stint didn’t help us, but he was able to make a one-stop strategy work, as were all the top six. Felipe was struggling with rear graining in the first stint. Valtteri had a little bit of the same, to a lesser extent, and then his tyres came back and he was quite strong towards the end of that stint. He was going quicker and quicker so we could leave him out and he was able to get up to sixth, but it’s still a disappointing result.

“The team did a fantastic job with the pit stops, the strategy worked out and gained some positions for Valtteri but unfortunately we couldn’t do it for Felipe as well because of tyre degradation. The team is working really well, it’s the car’s pace that’s let us down. The main thing we need to take away from this race is that we were out of position, in terms of pace, compared to Force India. We’ve got to go away and understand why we weren’t quick enough, so that’s what we’ll concentrate on. We’ve got Austria coming up so we need to look forward.

Valtteri Bottas: “Overall, it was a good day for us because the pace we had today wasn’t enough for any more. It felt like a good race from my side, and we managed to do the one-stop strategy which was definitely the best one today. I’m glad we could manage the tyres and get it to work because that made the sixth place possible. The team did a really good job with what we had today, the strategy and the pitstop. Now we need to work hard because we need better positions than this. We need to make the car quicker and then we can fight for another podium soon.”

Felipe Massa: “It was a really terrible race for me, one to forget. I struggled massively with the tyres. I couldn’t make them work, I was having a lot more degradation on the rears than I thought I would. One point is more than it could have been because I couldn’t drive the car in the proper way and I couldn’t save the tyres either. We maybe need to change something in the car to make the tyres work in a different way here in the future.”

Valtteri Bottas

Valtteri Bottas claimed the team’s first podium of the season, finishing third in today’s Canadian Grand Prix. Felipe Massa was forced to retire following a water system issue that caused his power unit to overheat on lap 36.

Bottas had a good start and managed to gain a position as a result of Rosberg going straight on at Turn 1. He made his only pitstop of the race on lap 23. Following his stop he was able to pass Ricciardo for fourth making his strategy work to move into third after Vestappen stopped on lap 46. Massa was running seventh before his only pitstop of the race on lap 22. He was managing his tyres well before being forced to retire.

The team collected 15 points to extend the gap to fifth-placed Force India to 39 points in the Constructors’ Championship.

Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering: “I think that was a really good race for us with a well-deserved podium. As we expected, the pace of the car in these conditions was good. We gave away very little to the frontrunners and we beat Red Bull on track, which is really positive. The strategy was absolutely spot on. When other teams were doing two stops, we held our nerve and stuck with our one-stop strategy as planned, and it all worked out very well for us.

“Valtteri drove a great race and the two pitstops that the pit crew did were really great as well. There’s a bitter aftertaste with the fact that we could have had both cars up there. Felipe would have finished anywhere from fourth to sixth so that’s a lot of points we’ve lost there with the water system issue that caused the temperatures to rise. We went through a series of counter measures to try and get round it, but none of them worked. We therefore had to take the decision to retire the car because the power unit is right at the start of its life.

“Overall I think it’s a really positive result for the team. We’ve extended the gap to the people behind us, and even with one car out of the points we’ve lost very little to third place. We’ve got lots of good races coming up now; Azerbaijan, Austria, Silverstone, they’re all positive races. We have to look forward now and keep this momentum going.”

Valtteri Bottas: “I’m very happy with what we achieved as a team today. It’s a shame with what happened to Felipe, but this gives us a big motivation boost for the next few races. I think today shows that we are a strong team who can deliver good results. Our strategy was great and our pitstop was really good, yet again. It was definitely one of my best races. I’m really pleased with today and looking forward to the next race.”

Felipe Massa: “Of course I’m very disappointed not to finish the race because of a mechanical issue that we had. It’s a race where we’re supposed to score good points with both cars, but unfortunately we didn’t with mine. So we need to concentrate on the next race now as it’s a shame that it ended like this.”

Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa with Jean Todt, President, FIA.

Bottas listening in…

Felipe Massa finished 10th and Valtteri Bottas 12th in today’s Monaco Grand Prix. Massa was able to take advantage of changing conditions throughout the race to move forward from his grid position as he switched from wet to intermediate and then dry tyres. But Bottas lost time in a pitstop and had further misfortune with traffic, which cost him track position.

Bottas finished the race 11th but was demoted to 12th by a 10-second time penalty, applied by the stewards for causing a collision with Gutierrez. Massa remains seventh and Bottas eighth in the Drivers’ Championship, while the team maintains fourth in the Constructors’ Championship

Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering: “We got a point today. It’s not exactly what we want but one is better than none. We want a lot more and we’ll try a lot harder to get them. We were quite quick on dry tyres in that midfield pack, and Felipe set the fastest lap on the intermediate tyres, so the pace of the car wasn’t as bad as last year, which is a positive.

“Felipe drove a very clean race and got us a point. We kept him out on the extreme wet tyres and he got out in front of the pack held up behind Werhlein, so his race was pretty much set from there. We pitted Valtteri early for inters to try to release a bit of pace on that tyre. Unfortunately, we had a rear jack failure in the pitstop which cost us because that put him out behind Werhlein. His race was very difficult from then on because he couldn’t pass him. We could have got him P7-9 without that.

“Generally, the race was bittersweet. We’ve made really good progress around Monaco compared to the last two years, but we haven’t been able to convert that into the amount of points we should have done. Looking forward, we’re going to Canada, Azerbaijan, Austria and Great Britain – a series of races we can capitalise on. We’re still fourth in the championship, and Red Bull didn’t score the amount of points they could have. We’ve got good developments coming, and we won’t be giving up the fight this season.”

Valtteri Bottas: “It was of course disappointing to finish outside the points. I think we really need to look at our strategy and why we lost a good position after the track was starting to dry. It’s possible we stopped at the wrong time, but the conditions were tricky today and it wasn’t an easy race.”

Felipe Massa: “It was a very tough day, having to start in the wet with laptimes of 1m 40s and upwards. It was looking like a very difficult race to finish, so the positive thing is I managed that. It was definitely the most difficult race weekend of the season so far, but one point is better than zero.”

…arrives in Parc Ferme…

…on the grid….

…and a pit stop.

Valtteri Bottas

Felipe Massa

Valtteri Bottas qualified 11th and Felipe Massa 14th for the Monaco Grand Prix. Both drivers comfortably progressed into Q2 after posting times of 1:15.521 (Bottas, 12th) and 1:15.710 (Massa, 15th) on ultrasoft tyres. The team’s performance at Monaco has improved from last year, but both drivers fell just short of making it into Q3. Bottas will start 10th on the grid, due to a five-place penalty for Kimi Raikkonen following a gearbox change.

Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering: “This isn’t where we want to be, but it’s a step better than where we were last year. We managed to get the most out of the car. If we put our top sectors together, we’d be in the back end of the top 10. If you look at our times against the top cars, we can see that we have made progress and it’s now clear where we need to develop the car if we want to go faster in Monaco.

“We have worked very hard to get the set-up better around here and now this is a car that could have scraped into the top 10. We can have a reasonable race tomorrow. Valtteri will start from a point-scoring position in 10th with a free choice of tyres, and Felipe 14th. With the attrition we usually see and with a decent tyre strategy, we can definitely get both cars into the points and that is our aim.”

Valtteri Bottas: “Obviously we’re not happy to be out of Q3, but we’ve made progress, which is good. We just need to try to make more – and there’s a good chance to get my first points here. This is one of the busiest races in terms of what happens on track with safety cars, so we need to take that opportunity to get some good points.”

Felipe Massa: “It wasn’t an easy qualifying for us. We were fighting for one tenth the whole time. Unfortunately, without that one tenth we are down a few positions. It’s really a shame because it’s just so close. It wasn’t our day for getting the most out of the car with what happened with the red flags, however the car is behaving well. It won’t be easy to get points but we’ll try the best we can.

Felipe Massa makes a pit stop during the race.

Valtteri Bottas finished fifth and Felipe Massa eighth in today’s Spanish Grand Prix. The team picked up 14 points to remain fourth position in the Constructors’ Championship, and move 39 points clear of fifth-placed Toro Rosso. A two-stop strategy for Bottas saw him finish fifth from seventh on the grid, benefitting from the two Mercedes colliding in the opening lap. Massa executed his three-stop strategy perfectly, benefitting from an early pitstop on lap 8, making up 10 track positons and finishing in the points. He finished just 1.169s adrift of seventh-placed Sergio Perez.

Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering: “I think Valtteri did a really good job. At the end of the first stint we asked him to push to overcut Sainz and Perez. We were about to call him in but we kept him on track so he could get the overcut, which worked well as Valtteri was very quick and pushing hard. After that, it was a straightforward race for him. Felipe’s race was much more complex. It was a much harder job to get those four points.

“I think we did a really good job in terms of strategy, which we switched around a little bit. We had planned a three-stop strategy, but we changed our tyre plan in the middle of the race to ensure Felipe had good pace to overtake and make progress when he needed to. We got him past the McLarens and onto the back of Perez, but he was unfortunately not able to pass at the end. That’s what we expected him to do in the race, and Felipe delivered.

“It was unfortunate he had to start from 18th, but we’ve all made mistakes and we’ve got to learn from them and do better next time. The pitwall worked well today and the pitstops were fantastic again; the team seems to be building in confidence as our stops continue to improve. Unfortunately, the car’s pace isn’t quick enough at the moment. Red Bull may have won today, but we won’t stop challenging them. We’ll keep pushing them as hard as we can, and in order to do that, we need more pace from the car.”

Valtteri Bottas: “I think we got the maximum today and I’m pleased to get decent points. We know our car wasn’t quick enough this weekend, but we had a good result, so that’s positive. Of course we would like to battle for the podiums and wins, but it wasn’t possible this weekend. We need to keep pushing on the development and we need more pace on these type of tracks. We knew that if something happened we could gain a couple of places, otherwise it was always going to be tricky, but this is racing. A lot of things can happen and this time we took a small advantage from it.”

Felipe Massa: “It was definitely a very good race for us with some good points, finishing eighth positon from starting 18th. It was a difficult race, and not on our best track to finish in the points, so I’m happy. I know we’ve lost points compared to Red Bull, but that’s the way it is.

“I am really happy for Max. I know what it means to win for the first time, and he is only 18-years-old at a top team. Looking forward to Monaco, I hope we can show that we have a better car for that type of track, as we have struggled there over the last two years. Monaco is Monaco though and anything can happen.”

Valtteri Bottas on the grid with Jonathan Eddolls, Race Engineer.

Valtteri Bottas

Valtteri Bottas qualified seventh and Felipe Massa 18th for the Spanish Grand Prix. Both drivers had one planned run in Q1, with Valtteri posting a time of 1:24.251 to comfortably progress through into Q2, and go on to compete in the top ten shootout. Massa didn’t get a clean lap in Q1, with some traffic at the start of his timed lap. The team reacted in the closing minutes, but unfortunately there wasn’t sufficient time left to enable Massa to start another timed lap.

Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering: “Overall it’s a disappointing qualifying session. Our fastest car is in seventh position which is where we predicted we would get to, but it’s not enough. Valtteri did everything that he could with the car to get to that position, and we’re quite close to the Ferraris, which is positive. Felipe didn’t get his lap right and we didn’t have enough time to do another run, so we need to look at what’s gone wrong on his lap, because we had eight tenths of a margin to get through into Q2, and then we have to look at what we could have done better operationally as well.

“We’ll dissect everything, be open and honest, and do better. What we have to concentrate on now is the race today. Valtteri’s starting from a good position, and hopefully he can get some good points and get amongst the cars in front. With Felipe we need to be a little clever with the strategy, and think about what we can do in order to get into the back end of the points with him.”

Valtteri Bottas: “I was hoping for a bit better result, but it was a good lap so I am pleased with how we did in Q3. It’s a shame about Felipe. Today, we need to set the bar high and aim to be in the top five in the race. It’s possible with a good start and our strategy, so we’ll try to make up as many places as we can.”

Felipe Massa: “I’m so disappointed about what happened. I had traffic on my first run so I couldn’t do a clean lap. We didn’t have time to go out on another set of tyres. Traffic or problems on the lap can happen, but we still need to ensure we can react accordingly. It’s a long race today though, so we still need to aim to challenge for points.”