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Team Quotes - Sunday 8 June

SEASON INFORMATION
13/01/2018

2014 Grand Prix du Canada

Team Quotes - Sunday 8 June

Red Bull
Christian Horner, Team Principal: "An amazing race today and what an amazing race for Daniel to win his first Grand Prix. He's been phenomenal since he joined the team and I think today he fully deserved the victory. We benefitted from the misfortune of Mercedes, but nonetheless he still had to be there and his pass on Perez was the deciding moment in the last ten laps. He was then able to make an easy pass on Nico with a couple of laps to go and to win in Montreal, against all expectation, was a phenomenal result. The added bonus of having Sebastian up there on the podium as well tops off a perfect day. After a good start, Seb unfortunately just got locked behind the Force India and no matter what we tried we couldn't manage to pass ' it was one of those frustrating races for Seb who in the end was fortunate not to be collected by the Williams and Force India. Thankfully both of those drivers escaped unhurt. Well done to everyone in the team today and at Renault for the first win of the season ' it's a great result and a great motivation for the forthcoming races."

Thierry Salvi, Renault: "Congratulations to Daniel for his first victory in Formula One; we are proud to be part of the team that helped him achieve it and also to score the first win for the Energy F1. It was a stressful race with a lot of things going on in the background. Both power units were used at the maximum to try and stay in contact with the front row. We were stuck behind cars for quite a long time, especially with Seb, which was hard for the PU and we had to run at the limit temperature'wise. Both drivers were clever in managing the energy and the tyres and the result is there: the team did a great job today to put two cars on the podium."

Mercedes
Nico Rosberg finished in second place while Lewis Hamilton was forced to retire in an eventful Canadian Grand Prix today.

Nico claimed his seventh successive podium finish of the season after a battling drive to second position. A high-voltage control electronics failure caused a permanent loss of MGU-K drive for Lewis on lap 36 and Nico on lap 37. Lewis was forced to retire on lap 46 owing to overheating rear brakes. Both cars started the race on option (super soft) tyres. Nico stopped for prime (soft) tyres on laps 18 and 44, Lewis for the same compound on laps 19 and 45.

Toto Wolff: First of all, I must say I feel very sorry for Lewis. His retirement was not his fault in any way and it is something the team has to take on the chin. Both drivers were doing a great job up to the point when the MGU-K failed. That also led to the brake failure that forced Lewis to retire after the second pit-stop. Nico did a sensational job to get the car home and it was a fantastic piece of damage limitation given how much power he was giving away to the other cars. Now we will stick together as a team, analyse and understand what happened, and come out of this situation even stronger. Congratulations to Daniel Ricciardo on his first Grand Prix win. He's not just a quick guy but also a fresh new face as a Formula One winner, and that's something very positive for our sport.

Paddy Lowe: We knew this would be a very tough race and so it proved. We were able to run at a good level of performance at the beginning of the race, notwithstanding a minor incident for Nico when he ran straight on at Turn 14 in the second stint. We then experienced a near-simultaneous failure of the MGU-K on both cars just after half distance, which was apparently caused by an issue in the high-voltage Control Electronics which manage the MGU-K. This meant both cars lost hybrid power from this point onwards and, without the additional braking force of the MGU-K, this also put a much higher load on the rear brakes. Lewis then suffered a complete rear brake failure after his second pit stop, which was a consequence of the MGU-K fault. Nico was not affected in the same way and managed incredibly to maintain position from lap 37 to lap 67, making up time in the first and second sectors in order to defend in sector three, when he was considerably down on power. This was achievable against the Force India but not the Red Bull after Ricciardo finally passed Perez. It is disappointing to see our run of race wins and 1-2 finishes come to an end. Nevertheless, we will regroup for the next race and will be determined to arrive in Austria in an even stronger position.

Ferrari
Marco Mattiacci: "Even before we got to Montreal, we knew this would not be an easy race for us, because this is not a track that suits the characteristics of our car. The final result is definitely not satisfactory, far from it, but the improvement in performance seen over the weekend shows that to get the most out of our package, we have to push in those areas where our opponents are making the difference. Today we saw that for many teams, this was a battle fought on the reliability front and our main rivals were able to make the most of the opportunities presented to them by Mercedes. My congratulations go to Ricciardo for the first win of his career. As for the future, I can't make predictions, but I would ask the team to take a long hard look at what they are doing and work together, putting in maximum effort so that our drivers can fight for more ambitious results."

Pat Fry: "Tyre degradation had a significant effect on today's race as did, in more general terms, everything linked to parameters affected by temperature, as today it was, as expected, very hot. The start wasn't easy, because we were starting from far back and here, it's almost impossible to overtake. The Safety Car coming out on the opening lap reduced the effect of fuel consumption and then in the second stint, on a clean track, the pace improved, but even so, it was difficult to make up places. Fernando's first stop saw him get ahead of Vergne in the Toro Rosso, while Kimi lost time behind Kvyat, but in the end, he managed to get past. In the final stint, the group ahead closed up and our pace was very good with Fernando, but it was almost impossible to overtake. We brought some improvements to the F14 T and even though this track did not produce the results we expected, we will continue to work on the development of the car and on this front our approach will not change for the coming races."

Lotus F1
Lotus F1 Team endured a double retirement in today's Canadian Grand Prix after Pastor Maldonado and Romain Grosjean both returned their cars to the pit garage before the end of the 70-lap race. Pastor suffered from a power unit related issue whilst Romain's rear wing was damaged.

Romain started from fourteenth position on new super soft tyres, changing to new softs on laps 11 and 46. He retired on lap 59. Pastor started from seventeenth position on new soft tyres. He retired on lap 21.

Federico Gastaldi, Deputy Team Principal: "Today saw a great Formula 1 race and we must say congratulations to Daniel Riccardo for his first win. For us, it was certainly not our finest moment. Pastor was driving very strongly with a good strategy which should have seen him finish strongly in the points. He had an issue related to his power unit from the start of the race and eventually he had to retire because of this. This is frustrating for all involved and we will do everything we can to eradicate issues like this in the future. Romain had a tough race where he pushed all the way, but there was a problem with his rear wing. Again, not ideal and something we need to understand and rectify. We have a busy few weeks before Austria."

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: "A tough day for us. Pastor drove well and did everything we asked of him and could have finished strongly relative to his starting position. Romain struggled for pace and suffered from a rear wing problem. We need to analyse what happened with both cars. Pastor's problem was related to his power unit and we had this issue from the start of the race. We're working closely with Renault Sport F1 to understand what happened."

Simon Rebreyend, Renault Sport F1 track support leader: "Obviously not the result we wanted this weekend. On the formation lap a wastegate issue hampered the car but using the fail mode we were able to race nearly normally until other issues on the energy management side forced us to retire. We'll investigate the reasons in detail next week. Romain then had his issue with the rear wing, which was a real shame as we could have taken some points with the way the race turned out at the end."

McLaren
The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve managed to throw up another extraordinary, unpredictable and endlessly unraveling grand prix. Both Jenson and Kevin spent much of the race fighting inbetween the traffic, but, as the race's cards were decisively shuffled at the mid-point, both drivers slowly began to move up the order.

Jenson was the greatest beneficiary - in just two laps, he jumped from eighth position to fourth at the flag; first, taking the opportunity to pass Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso to take sixth, then gaining a further two places after a last-lap crash took out Sergio Perez and Felipe Massa.

Kevin spent the last 22 laps of the race attempting to find a way past Jean-Eric Vergne's Toro Rosso. At the finish, the last-lap accident helped him take ninth position.

Eric Boullier, Racing Director: "Firstly, it's worth saying that, as both a sporting event and as a piece of pure spectacle, this afternoon's Canadian Grand Prix was an absolutely fantastic showcase for Formula 1. As always, this circuit created the circumstances for an incredible race, some tense battles and the sport's newest-ever victor, Daniel Ricciardo. Bravo, Daniel - yours was an exceptional performance today.

"Secondly, we're also fortunate to be able to pass on our best wishes to both Felipe and Checo, both of whom escaped uninjured from a frightening accident on the last lap. It's a testament to the safety work that the sport tirelessly undertakes that both men were able to walk away from such sizeable impacts. We wish them both a full and speedy recovery.

"As Jenson said yesterday, eventful races like these really demonstrate the strength in depth of our trackside and strategy operations: we didn't have the raw pace to finish fourth, but a combination of good strategy calls, some excellent pits-to-driver communications, and aggressive drives from both drivers pushed both cars into the points.

"Jenson showed the never-give-up attitude that has served him so well at this circuit in the past: he started the penultimate lap in eighth position, and finished the race in fourth, making a brilliant move at the hairpin on lap 69 to overtake Nico and Fernando.

"Kevin's pace has been extremely strong all weekend, but his grid position, and the closeness of the cars around him, meant that much of his race was spent battling with traffic. After his pitstops, he did well to push back strongly in the second half of the grand prix. We take 14 points home from this weekend - let's hope we can continue to rack them up once we return to Europe."

Force India
Sahara Force India had a starring role in the Canadian Grand Prix as Sergio Perez challenged for victory until the closing laps of the race. Sadly he was the innocent victim of a high'speed crash on the final lap (after contact with Felipe Massa). After medical checks at Sacre Coeur hospital in Montreal, he was discharged. Teammate Nico Hulkenberg's one'stop strategy saw him finish in fifth place scoring a further ten points for the team.

Robert Fernley, Deputy Team Principal: "The most important thing today is that Checo is okay after that very heavy impact on the final lap. He had done a fantastic race, challenging for the lead for a large part of the afternoon and holding on to what was shaping up to be a very strong result. Unfortunately, this was not to be, but we will focus on the positives and build on the performance we showed today at the coming races. Nico delivered another very solid performance, making the most of an alternative one'stop strategy. He drove smartly to resist incredible pressure towards the end of the race and was able to bring home another good haul of points. As in previous rounds, our pace looked really strong in the race and we are confident we will be translating it into another good performance in Austria."

Sauber
Disappointing Canadian Grand Prix for the Sauber F1 Team. Adrian Sutil drove a race without any special issues and finished in 13th place, while Esteban Gutierrez stopped shortly before the end of the race due to a problem with the energy storage system. He was classified 14th.

Monisha Kaltenborn, Team Principal: "No doubt, this was a difficult race. The team worked well delivering good pit stops, and we were able to execute the strategy as planned. The tyre wear was as expected, so there was nothing wrong on this side. However, we have to analyse the data very carefully to understand why the lap times were slower than we could expect based on the long runs on Friday. We will concentrate on working on the set-up of the car, because there is more potential to be exploited."

Giampaolo Dall'Ara, Head of Track Engineering: "Adrian made a good start and gained two positions. We were planning a two stop strategy for him, and we sticked to it. The race went more or less okay. We did not quite achieve the lap times we expected. With Esteban, who had start from pits, we did this trick with the safety car. He started on the soft tyre, but then we switched to the super soft and then immediately back to the soft. He struggled on the first set of soft tyres mainly due to graining, but was then able to extract more from the second set. Shortly before the end there was a problem with the energy storage system, and we decided to bring him in."

Toro Rosso
Franz Tost (Team Principal): "I am very happy for Jean-Eric's strong 8th place finish today, especially after he was forced to retire on several occasions due to technical problems, when he was actually in a promising position to score points. The team was able to provide him with a car that allowed him to show what he is capable of. After having overtaken Alonso at the start of the race, JEV managed to keep him behind and he also succeeded in defending his position against Magnussen towards the end. On the other side, it looks like Daniil suffered a drive train failure, which forced him to end his race early. Well done to Daniel Ricciardo who won his first Grand Prix today. We are now looking forward to going to the Red Bull Ring in Austria, where we will have numerous updates to further improve the general performance of the car."

Ricardo Penteado (Renault Sport F1 track support leader): "A feeling of a job well done with JEV. We used the Power Unit to the maximum and pushed the energy and fuel management as hard as we could. Temperatures were higher than expected, plus fuel consumption was right on the edge so it's extremely rewarding to get the points at the end, which are very important for the championship."

WilliamsF1
Valtteri Bottas finished seventh, while Felipe Massa retired on the last lap. Both cars ran in the top five early on, challenging for the podium places. Valtteri suffered with high brake and engine temperatures, preventing him finishing higher than seventh. Felipe was attacking Perez for fourth on the final lap when Perez crashed into him. Felipe was taken to hospital for precautionary checks, the results of which were entirely positive and he has therefore been discharged.

Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering: It's massively disappointing to lose that position with Felipe at the end. It looked like he was going to get past Perez and they've had a collision. Valtteri's race was going well but we were a little bit hot, having to manage engine and brake temperatures, as a lot of other cars were. That dropped him to ninth, which was recovered to seventh with Felipe's accident. In free air the car was very quick, but we've lost a lot of points that we should have picked up today.

Marussia
After the joy of the Team's first points finish in Monaco two weekends ago came the disappointment of Montreal, where the Marussia F1 Team's Canadian Grand Prix came to an end on the opening lap.

A collision between team-mates Max Chilton and Jules Bianchi at Turn 4 meant that the Team was unable to exploit the clear potential of its package at the first low-downforce event of the season, after a positive progression through the weekend towards race day.

John Booth, Team Principal: "A very tough day for the Team but one we will move on from very quickly. The accident at Turns 3 and 4 ruined both drivers' races and, more significantly, the Team result. This can often be a race where opportunity can present itself, so it was key that we had both drivers running and taking part. The story of the wider race today was indeed one of attrition, but in the end the results have not affected our standings in the Constructors Championship and for that we can at least be grateful and happy to leave Montreal still holding P9 in those standings. Next week will be a very busy time for the Team back at base, where we'll regroup and sort through the damage sustained. The race team are also looking at a very busy end to the week this evening. We're a strong unit so I'm sure we will all pull together and focus on what we need to do for Austria in two weeks' time."

Claudio Albertini, Head of Customer Teams Power Unit Operations, Scuderia Ferrari: "A difficult weekend for the team, which ended in the worst way with both cars out of the race after a few turns. Since the beginning of the weekend we had a number of problems that made the job much more complicated than the norm and this put pressure on all Ferrari and Marussia guys, who have worked regardless with great commitment and team spirit, a sign that the collaboration is ever closer. What happened on the first lap is obviously sad because we hoped to further demonstrate here that the progress seen in the last races was concrete. This is Formula 1; in two weeks you switch from a historic achievement to disappointment. Now we just need to think only of the next event in Austria, where we pick up on the progress interrupted unexpectedly here in Canada."

Caterham
Cedrik Staudohar, Renault Sport F1 track support leader: "After the start we could see the turbo speed on Marcus' car had greatly increased, indicating a leak in the intake system somewhere. The team will investigate why but we had no choice but to retire to save the Power Unit from damage. Kamui then stopped soon after with a suspension failure, bringing the weekend to a very disappointing conclusion."
Pirelli
High temperatures in Montreal, and a lengthy safety car period right at the beginning of the race, meant that tyre strategy formed a central part of a thrilling Canadian Grand Prix, with the teams having to assimilate to a new set of tyre characteristics compared to the cooler conditions of free practice and qualifying.

The race was won by Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo, with the top five separated by just five seconds in the closing stages of the race. Tyre strategy was central, with drivers on younger and fresher tyres using them to gain an advantage as the grand prix drew to a close. Ricciardo took the lead with just two laps to go, from Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg, while Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel completed the podium. All three adopted a two-stop strategy.

The highest-placed one-stopper was Force India driver Nico Hulkenberg in fifth, who started on the soft tyre and completed a 41-lap stint before his single stop from the soft to the supersoft.

His team mate Sergio Perez also stopped only once: switching from the supersoft to the soft on lap 35; exactly half-distance. An accident on the final lap between him and Williams driver Felipe Massa, while both were fighting for a possible podium, meant that neither could finish the race, which concluded behind the safety car. Nonetheless, both their strategies had launched them into podium contention, with Massa benefitting from the extra speed of tyres that were considerably younger than those of his rivals during the final stint.

Another safety car period, lasting eight laps right at the beginning of the race, altered the strategy, with tyre degradation at the most critical fuel-heavy period minimised. Wear on both compounds was generally low, despite track temperatures that exceeded 45 degrees centigrade and 30 degrees centigrade ambient.

Paul Hembery: "Once again, Canada delivered a thrilling grand prix: this time in hot conditions, which led to plenty of interesting tyre strategies. With such an action-packed race, we saw plenty of improvisation from several drivers as they attempted to use tyre strategy to their best advantage. Congratulations to Daniel Ricciardo for his first win after a truly memorable race. Congratulations also to Force India, which has often taken a different approach to tyre strategy compared to their rivals in all the time we have been involved in Formula One. In Canada this led to a good result, which could have been even better had it not been for the accident right at the end, demonstrating again how tyre strategy can be used to boost final positions."

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