Today's team representatives press conference with James Vowles, Frédéric Vasseur and Flavio Briatore.

If I could start with all three of you, if that's okay. It's been a challenging season, with world events affecting everybody, but I'd just like to get a word from you, if I can, on the Bahrain organisers, who've brought the Bahrain Grand Prix experience here to Malaysia this weekend, and the huge effort that they've put in to make this feel as though we are at the Bahrain Grand Prix. James, if I can start with you.
James Vowles: Yeah, I think incredible job by them. When you walk outside, you can see actually huge amounts of the facilities from Bahrain itself that have been brought here, and it's impressive to do that at the scale and level that they have done. For us, we obviously want to be racing as much as possible, and it's fantastic that they're managing this event back onto the calendar in the way it is. So well done to all of them, and hopefully normal service resuming shortly.

Frédéric Vasseur: Yes, not much to add. I think it's showing the commitment of Bahrain vis-à-vis F1. It's something unusual to do the Bahrain Grand Prix somewhere else, but it shows the effort of all the Bahrainis vis-à-vis F1. We knew for a long time that it's like this, that we are always more than welcome when we are going to Manama, but honestly it's exceptional.

Flavio Briatore: Same. Really, thank you to the Crown Prince Salman and all the organisation, Stefano. We want to do as many races as possible. This was a fantastic idea. It's a little bit strange, you know, to be in Malaysia, but when you arrive at the airport yesterday, it was "Welcome to Bahrain". So basically, I think it's a super idea. For us, it's great to race in Malaysia.

Thank you very much. Fred, if I can come to you. Ferrari felt it necessary to issue a public statement this week expressing full confidence in you. Can I ask why was that statement needed?
FV: I think this you have to ask your colleagues. When you see the noise and all the rumours in the press all the week, I think as a team we need to work in serenity, and it was absolutely not the case. I think the statement was mandatory to do something, or it would have been the same this weekend. But honestly, the big issue that we have today is the stability, the serenity into the team, the focus that we need to have, and not to have this kind of question all the day.

JV: I'm just going to add to that. Normally we beat each other up and put knives in our backs, but Ferrari is in the best place it's been in the championship for a while. They have innovation on the car this year with a rear wing and exhaust blowing that we've all copied as a result of it. It's a team that's doing brilliantly. So, I mean, for me personally, there is no question that Fred is the right person to do this.

FV: Thanks.

FB: You're the right lawyer.

Fred, if I could continue with you. In Baku, you had to add downforce to the car because of grip issues. You weren't able to see the full potential of that second ADUO, the power unit there. What's your understanding of the potential of this car, and particularly at this circuit this weekend with this layout?
FV: We knew before going to Baku that it wouldn't be the easiest weekends of the season, that with the straight line that we have, for sure the deficit was huge. We tried to do our best so that wven if it was not an easy one, we were still on the first row. It's not also a bad result in itself, the quali at least. And this weekend, I think it's much more difficult to have a good understanding of what could be the weekend, that will be mega dominated by degradation. We saw this morning that it's a completely different story compared to the last four or five weeks, when you had Monza, Madrid, Baku. We had almost zero deg. This weekend will be another story. It means that we have to change a little bit the focus and to be much more focused on the race pace.

Thank you. Flavio, if I can come to you. The crash in Baku obviously cost the team dearly in that fight for fifth in the Constructors'. Can I ask, have you spoken to the drivers coming into this weekend? Have you discussed any consequences for similar incidents?
FB: Whatever we do is internal to the team. Sure, I was very disappointed with what happened in Baku, but it's another race. We need to forget. We need to look always for the future, and the past is the past. There's nothing possible to do. I was upset, yes, like I believe everybody in the team, including Franco, for the mistake he made. But this is the past. We need to go ahead and think about the future. Let's talk about the race, the qualifying tomorrow and the race Sunday. Every race is a different scenario. Last weekend was not nice for us at all, and we're fighting for fifth position with Racing Bulls. We gave away a lot of points. After that, it's finished. What can we do? Whatever we've done, it is impossible to come back.

The gap now, 15 points to Racing Bulls. When both teams are essentially fighting for eighth, ninth and tenth in the championship.
FB: I think we have seven races... or eight. James, how many. No. Jesus Christ!

JV: I don't know either. Just do both and then they can cut it the right way.

FB: So, basically, eight races. Okay, we see what happens.

That's what I was going to ask you. Do you think you've got enough time to claw those points back with the races there?
FB: Plenty of time. Just finish the race.

Thank you very much. James, just a single point from Baku. What's your assessment of the upgrade that you took there? A step in the right direction?
JV: A lot of it is getting, I mean, chassis will carry over into next year. A lot of it was actually forward investing into making sure that's right. It's nice to see the car had ballast on it, so directionally correct, but it's too late in the season. That's the facts behind it. We haven't added enough aerodynamic performance. We've focused our cost cap dollars really on just getting the elements right that we need next year, and that was at the sacrifice. We left quite a bit of performance in the tunnel at home. Step in the right direction, but Baku is also a track, to a certain extent, that suits some of the characteristics we have, and I think here will be a tougher time.

So where can you target, James? Vegas is a potentially good one for you, or?
JV: There will be tracks that move up and down. I mean, what you can see now in that sort of midfield hump is there's no doubt about it, Alpine are strong out ahead today as well, I have to say. VCARB, very, very strong in what they've done, and there's a gaggle of us within the same tenth fundamentally. So, it will move up and down race on race. It's just not going to be a guarantee to go out there and get points enough to move the championship forward at the rate I want it to.

Thank you. One final one to you, Flavio. You've added Mike Elliott to your team as Technical Director. I think, from my understanding, he was pretty much in demand in this paddock. How did you get him to sign, and what does he bring to the team?
FB: I feel that we need a better, stronger technical direction in the team. In this moment we're improving, but not enough. Like in any business, you need to put the technical fundamentals in the team, and I feel that Mike Elliott was the right person to come back in Formula 1. A lot of experience in Mercedes. He was already with Haas and Aston for a few years. What can I say? We need constantly to improve the team, technically, commercially. We just arrived in the team one year ago. It was a position with the team one year ago, but not really what I want to be in Formula One. Now, little by little, we need improvement to try to catch Fréd and everybody, and to defend our position from Williams. This is what we want to do. We want to win. We're doing everything possible to make sure the team is in the condition to win.

Questions From The Floor

(Craig Slater - Sky UK) A quick question for Fred. Fred, strong and sincere backing from both your drivers about your leadership yesterday. Lewis did raise the question about, does the overall leadership structure need to be looked at? Just from your perspective, are you happy you have all the powers you need from those above to lead the team, and are you minded to evolve the structure beneath you, or do you think the way things are, you're set for success at Ferrari?
FV: First, about the structure of the team, I think, as Flavio said before, that in the technical equipment at least, it's a non-end story. It means that you have to improve. I think it's the DNA of what we are doing, to not take a success as a final situation, but try to improve in the good and the bad moments. Honestly, the dynamic that we have, we recruited a lot, but as the other teams, and we are trying to push the limit of everything. On the comment of Lewis, I think it would be a mistake to finger-point someone or something or whatever. In the good moments, we are winning as a team. In the bad moments, we are suffering as a team, and I don't want to speak about a single individual or whatever. Honestly, I think it would be a huge mistake to start to not be unified. We had a good beginning of the season. For sure, it's not enough. We want to get more, we want to win more, we want to win the championship. But at the end of the day, we had a positive start. We are struggling the last couple of races, but we are hoping to come back soon with development and to be back into the pace.

Check out our Friday gallery from Sepang here.