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Monaco GP: Wednesday Press Conference

NEWS STORY
25/05/2016

Today's press conference with Romain Grosjean, Jolyon Palmer, Nico Rosberg, Sebastian Vettel, Max Verstappen and Pascal Wehrlein.

We'll start without most recent race winner, the youngest ever Formula One race winner at 18, and Holland's first grand prix winner. What's the reaction been like and are we now going to see an army of Dutch fans coming to grands prix?
Max Verstappen: Yeah, it was pretty crazy in Holland. Yeah, so the first Dutch winner I think it's always very special, so I can call myself now the youngest and the oldest - something I'm the oldest in! Luckily, I didn't go out too much in Holland on the streets, just enjoying my time a bit with family and friend but of course hopefully we'll see more fans, that's for sure.

Renault has a new engine update, which their senior engineer has said should be worth somewhere up to half a second a lap. How did you find it in testing last week and what's the plan for using that engine this weekend and in the coming grands prix?
MV: I think it was a very positive step. I felt very comfortable with it. It was very positive that we gained so much, because it's not so easy to find that out of a car. I'm looking forward to using it in Canada.

So it's Daniel here and you get it for the first time in Canada?
MV: Yeah.

Thank you. Nico, world championship leader, coming to you, you've owned this race track for the last three years. Does winning here mean more to you than any other venue?
Nico Rosberg: Yeah it does, because it's my home race. I sleep in my apartment, get out the front door... I've lived here all my life, so it's a very special place. Also, if there's one race to win then it's Monaco and the combination of all that makes it the most special race.

Obviously in Spain was the first time in your three-year title battle sequence with your team-mate Lewis Hamilton that you've taken each other out and both scored no points. Are you in a position now though, personally, with more experience of these tense situations to just put it behind you and focus on winning this weekend?
NR: I don't know about experience playing into this, but for sure yeah it's now a thing of the past, not thinking about it anymore. We've been through it and now looking forward. Just concentrating on Monaco and I want to try to win here and that's that.

Romain, coming to you: first race of a double header, if you like, of French-speaking race venues. How excited, though, is the American Haas team about racing in the Monaco Grand Prix?
Romain Grosjean: Pretty much excited. It's one of the races we wanted to do during the year. Of course having the first one... well, coming here for the first time is always a challenge, but on the other hand, it's as well my home race - almost friends - so it's great to be here. There's a lot of support. Doing the track walk this morning was funny, we had cars stopping on the street asking for autographs and it made a mess. But yeah we had good fun and we're looking forward to driving here.

Well, you had three points scoring results from the first five races, but I understand you've got a new chassis after some handling issues. Could you tell us a little bit about that and how you're feeling about the overall development of your car?
RG: Yeah, to be honest we did a great job even though the results haven't followed. We changed the chassis after the race in Barcelona because we have a big doubt about it and things felt better in the testing, so hopefully we can go back to a good car here and get the best of all the package.

Thanks you for that. Jolyon, a two-time race winner here in GP2 in Monaco. You've been finding some consistency in the last couple of races but you've not appeared to be all that happy so far. Is that accurate and if so why?
Jolyon Palmer: I'm pretty happy. I'm enjoying racing in Formula One. I'm happy to be back here as well, at a track that I love. I think I've just missed a little bit in qualifying in the last couple, but it's been hundredths and a couple of tenths in Barcelona, but we had a lot of problems on Friday. Yeah, we had a very bad race in China and I didn't race in Bahrain, but since then I think we are finding some consistency and it's all coming together better.

Obviously you've got updates on the engine as we were discussing with max a moment ago, but also updates on the chassis as well, based on last week's test. It seemed to give you a few tenths; do you feel a move a little bit up the grid is imminent?
JP: I think so. I think this track will suit us better already. I think the chassis is not too bad. We're down on power but obviously Kevin has got the engine upgrade for this weekend, which will help already. The team are working really hard back in the factory to find a few tenths on the car and if we do that and a few tenths on engine then I think we'll certainly moving up closer to the midfield and looking for points more regularly.

Pascal, coming to you, only driver to do two days of testing last week in Spain, you drove the Mercedes as well as the Manor. Did you pick up anything from that experience that might help you and Manor to progress?
Pascal Wehrlein: Of course I could see the differences between the cars. I mean, the day before I just drove the Manor and then the next day the Mercedes. But also last year I drove the Mercedes, so I know the differences between the cars, so that was nothing new for me.

You're in a battle with the Sauber team, which will have big financial consequences for the team that comes out ahead at the end of the season. How does that battle feel from the inside?
PW: It's cool. We are at the back at the moment and there is still a small gap to Sauber, but on some race tracks we manage to be quite close to them or even in front of them. That's the target for this year, just to improve the care, to improve ourselves and manage to finish in front of them.

Coming to you Sebastian, of course a former Monaco Grand Prix winner, but it's hard to believe that Ferrari hasn't won Monaco since 2001, 15 year ago. Do you feel a strong desire within the team to put that right?
Sebastian Vettel: Well, I think you could probably apply the statistics to many places. I think we all know that we want to bring Ferrari back to the top. Obviously the challenge is very difficult but the target is there, so then hopefully very, very soon you start having all these bad-sounding statistics and we rock up with a win from the year before.

You were third in Spain but clearly Red Bull had the pace to match Ferrari in Barcelona, and they have a power unit upgrade as we've been hearing. So is Ferrari now in danger of being involved in a battle with Red Bull for second in the Constructors' rather than the stated aim of challenging Mercedes for the title?
SV: I think our aim is still looking forward and in that regard our aim is Mercedes. I think in Barcelona we had a bad Saturday, which explained the difficult race on Sunday, I terms of raw speed we should have been ahead but we weren't. I said on the day well done to them and in particular to Max, but we move on. I think we have a strong package. We do have new bits here and there, so I think we obviously as I said want to make progress and want to make sure we close the gap to Mercedes rather than looking at what's going on behind.

Questions From The Floor

(Heikki Kulta - Turun Sanomat)- Nico, how much would it mean to you to win here fourth time in a row, because only Senna has done it and especially after what happened in Barcelona?
NR: I'm aware of the statistics of course, but it's not something I'm concentrating on or even thinking about, because, as I've said even in the past couple of races, what I want to do this weekend is try and win this race, just because it's Monaco and I love winning here and that's it. That's only what I'm thinking about. That's it.

(Peter Farkas - Auto Moto) Nico, has it become absolutely clear what happened with you at the start in Barcelona, so you simply made a mistake by no putting the switch in the right place, and could you tell us how easy it is to make a mistake in that mental state in which you all are at the start, which is obviously a very nervous moment, and how do you prepare yourself both mentally and technically before a racing start, during the formation lap?
NR: What was the first part?

(Peter Farkas - Auto Moto) Has it become clear that you made a mistake by not putting the switch into the ‘Strat 3' setting, why were you not in the right engine mode?
NR: Because it was in the wrong position. It's my job to put it in the right position and that's it. Pretty simple. Not much more to say with that. In terms of formation lap and start, it's the same as always. Of course you need to think about what you're doing. There's a lot going on and that's it. You need to come up with ways of making sure that everything is done properly. That's it.

(Ralf Bach - Auto Bild) Nico, if you were the team principal of Mercedes, what would you tell both your drivers after the incident in Barcelona and before the Monaco race?
NR: When am I going to answer that? I'm not the team principal. That's not my job to even think about that. I have enough to think about myself to try to win this race, with all respect. I don't know what I should answer to that. What is your opinion?

MV: I would say keep going.

NR: I'm sure you would! What would you say Ralf?

(Jerome Pugmire - AP) Question for Max. From the outside you don't seem to be feeling any pressure. You seem to take everything in your stride. Does the pressure get to you at all - especially now the spotlight's on you because you're the youngest winner of a race?
MV: I think every driver has pressure but I turn it into positive pressure. As long as you're enjoying it and you feel happy then, yeah, I think it's the most important to have success. At the end I always try to do my best. I think that takes a lot of pressure away as well.

(Jonathan McEvoy - Daily Mail) To Nico. Have you a) spoken to Lewis since the race to discuss the events of Spain and b) when you get out to race this week will there be, from you, an obligation to race absolutely full out, not giving Lewis an inch - and if you need to shut the door on Lewis again, that you would do that?
NR: So, if we've spoken or not, as always that needs to be kept internally. What I can say is that, between the two of us, it's a thing of the past now, we're moving on with everything and the relationship is the same as before. Now, going out on track, I'm not going to be thinking about Barcelona. I'll take the same approach as always - flat out and do what's necessary to try to win this grand prix, which is what I've come here to do.

(Leigh Diffey - NBC Sports) Sebastian, you rocked the motorsports world as a 21 year-old, could you share with us your thoughts on Max's achievements as an 18 year-old.
SV: I was in Formula Three so I can't possibly share... but, yeah, in both cases probably the circumstances were very new. It wasn't an expected win, probably little bit less for me at the time - still I think you're first grand prix win is something... you're over the moon. Something very difficult to grasp. I'm sure he felt now how it was and he wants to do it again. That's how I felt back then. It's up to all the rest of us to ensure it doesn't happen too often.

Check out our Wednesday gallery, here.

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