RED BULL - Canadian GP - Qualifying

Saturday 7 June 2014
CANADIAN GP – QUALIFYING


SEBASTIAN VETTEL, Position: 3rd, (3rd Practice – P10, 1:16.884)
“The start of the last lap wasn’t great. I still didn’t manage to get that first sector right, I didn’t get along with the first two corners very well today. But, after that I tried to take more risk and it worked, so sector two was very good through the two chicanes, especially through the second one; I found a significantly better line and more time compared to previous runs. I then kept it together until the end, so a very good result. It was the maximum we could do – we were very close with those behind, half a second behind the Mercs, but then four cars were within four to five hundredths of a second of each other, so I’m happy to be the quickest of those. Strategy could be a bit of a surprise tomorrow, we’ll have to wait and see what happens but Williams is strong here and the Mercedes powered cars will be looking forward to the straights. I will try to stay as close as I can to the front two and get some tow. If we have a chance to attack them, then we should go for it.”

DANIEL RICCIARDO, Position: 6th, (3rd Practice – P5, 1:16.504)
“It was a bit scrappy on the final run, we made a couple of adjustments and it didn’t quite work out – but that’s hindsight! We were close to third, but not close enough and we paid a bit of a price by being sixth. We’ve made progress throughout the weekend and we were not too far off, but it’s disappointing to just miss out. The times were close, but it could have been better. Hopefully we can get a good start tomorrow and see how we go, the strategy will be interesting.“

CHRISTIAN HORNER: “If you’d have offered us third and sixth in qualifying before the weekend, I think we’d have definitely taken it! An excellent final lap from Sebastian, he extracted the most out of the car to line up in P3 and Daniel is right up there too in P6. All things considered, it was a good qualifying.”

THIERRY SALVI: “We expected a tough qualifying here due to the track characteristics with those long straights, so Seb did a brilliant job to put the car into third. He finally had a trouble-free session from a reliability point of view, which is obviously the minimum we have to give each time. Daniel as usual pushed very hard and both the drivers are close to each other. Unfortunately with such little lap time gaps between cars, every hundredth has to be extracted from the car and what we could think as ‘details’ can make the difference. Red Bull is still fixed at that third place, which must be our minimum objective tomorrow as well.”

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DRIVEN TO RACE
Despite the hours in the garages and the thousands of kilometres of testing and racing, everyone in the team is very passionate about what they do. This time, Number 2 Mechanic Adam Chamberlain reveals how his F1 career started in the British National Rally Championship and why his very best moment in motorsport is right now…

What’s your first memory of motorsport? My dad’s rallying. He used to race a Mini 1275GT and he competed in the British National Rally Championship. I was about eight years old and I used to wash the mud off the wheels, I loved it.

Did you actively pursue a career in motorsport? Absolutely. I got the bug from my dad’s rallying and then I got into karting when I was 12 and it spiralled from there. I ended up doing quite well in karting. We had a prize-giving at a British Touring Car team and I got talking with the team manager. I had always said that if I couldn’t be a driver I would be a mechanic and that was the start. I had my work experience in British Touring cars and then from there I got a job after I left university.

What did it mean to you when you got your first job in F1? It was everything to me. I think my pay more than doubled overnight! It was a big milestone as I was quite young when I got the job. I think I was 22 years old when I got my first job in F1 with Renault. It was a case of massive excitement and a little bit of trepidation. I only had to serve a week’s notice with the team I was with and a week later I was going to Spain for an F1 test. I moved to Red Bull Racing in 2012.

Why does F1 remain exciting for you? I think because there are always changes in F1 every year. The regulations mix it up every year. You never know quite where you’re going to be. You hope to be up there but you just don’t know and that adds a level of excitement.

What’s been your best moment in motorsport? I have to say that lately has been amazing with Daniel, who’s totally pumped all the time. It’s really great working with the car crew. We’re all really excited about the season. The P3 in Monaco was great and you knew that it really meant something to Daniel as well, which was great to see. So the best moment is now.

Can you have fun in F1? Yeah we definitely do. It’s one of the things I love about the team. We can be serious when we need to be but we're always searching to get a little laugh out of something. The aim is to have a laugh every day.

 

Tom Beeler

Tom has been a contributor to RIS since 1992. He was invited to join the staff as a full-time reporter/editor in 1995, and has covered IndyCar, Formula 1, NASCAR, Grand-Am, ALMS and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. In addition to his RIS work, Tom has been a contributor for General Motors, Nissan, Toyota and the ACO.

Read More on Formula 1 press releases
Volume 2014, Issue 6, Posted 5:42 PM, 06.07.2014