Spanish Grand Prix - Post-race press conference - Pt.2

Drivers: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), Nico Rosberg (Mercedes), Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull Racing)

Questions from the floor

Q: (Frederic Ferret - L'Equipe)
Question for Nico and Lewis. What was the main difficulty during the race: managing the hard tyre or doing quick laps at the end to fight to get Lewis with the medium?

Nico Rosberg:
No, the big challenge was tyre degradation. Very, very big tyre degradation. That was really difficult to manage that. But I found my way and was quite comfortable with it, and then graining on the hard tyre which is the opposite of what we expected. We expected to have graining on the soft tyre. So it was very strange. Graining on the hard tyre and no graining on the soft tyre, it was really weird and unexpected.

Q: (Adrian Rodriguez - Agencia EFE)
Question for Lewis, congratulations for your first win here in Spain. Makes it 26, one more than Jim Clark and one more than Niki Lauda, one of the big guys on your team - are you planning any jokes on him tonight and how many victories can you make it this year?

Lewis Hamilton:
At the rate the team's going, we're looking strong for at least a few more races. It's by no means easy for me because I've still got a massive challenge with Nico. But, I mean, I could never had imagined winning these four races but it's still so close, long, long way to go and, just as I was saying earlier, I've got a bit more time to find in this car, so going to work on it.

Q: Michael Schmidt (Auto Motor und Sport)
Lewis, in the race, did you experience similar problems to those you had yesterday and how did you try to dial them out? There was a lot of conversation between you and the engineers.

Lewis Hamilton:
I did have the same problems as I had yesterday, yes. It was very strange because
Friday P2 was excellent. The car was really good, degradation... I mean I was very very fast and I stopped my run with 18 laps or something like that, but if I just brought my pace down a little bit I probably could have eked it out even longer. Those changes just transformed the car and today, just not able to attack the corners due to snap oversteer, and that's generally where Nico was catching me, through those entries of corners.

Q: (Leonid Novozhilov - F1 Life)
To the Mercedes drivers: you have won every race this year. What secret did you find and where?

Lewis Hamilton:
I haven't found any secrets but I think Mercedes - there is no secret really, it's just been hard work and really constructive work. Often when you're working towards something, sometimes you stumble and fall and then you have to build it again and the team has just been building and building, building and not really having many times when they're falling. It's quite remarkable, the actual car itself, the downforce is very good, I'm sure very very close with the Red Bulls and then with the engine, it's the best engine Mercedes have made.

Nico Rosberg:
It's been five years, it's been since 2010 this process started and so much has changed, it's been such a long long way, the personnel restructuring, everything. Big, big changes and now we've come to a point where, thanks to all the work from the past, we're really just able... we're becoming the best team in F1. That's the way it is. I would still say Red Bull is the benchmark at the moment but we're definitely shaking their chair at the moment and I think there's the possibility that soon we will be the absolute best team, in terms of team organisation, capabilities, we're getting there and hopefully it will be a long domination.

Q: (Dan Knutson - Auto Action and National Speedsport News)
Daniel, Sebastian Vettel went from 15th to fourth, is that encouraging that the car - while not as good as a Mercedes - can slice through the opposition, or a bit worrying because it looks like he might be back up to speed and coming to challenge you?

Daniel Ricciardo:
Obviously it's the first thing you said. Yeah, really good. I just sort of heard on the radio that he was making progress through the field and when he was in fourth - I think he made a move in the last few laps so really good. I definitely see it as a positive for the team, third and fourth, particularly after his starting position. Obviously Mercedes are the top dogs at the moment but we seem to be settling ourselves nicely in that next spot and I think we've just got to now try and somehow creep our way closer. All the talk about Seb, I'm sure that was going to pass very soon and he'll get to his World Champion form.

Q: (Tony Dodgins - Motorsport News)
Nico, just before the first stops, on the radio we heard the team say 'primes planned for the next stint' and you said 'the options are fine.' Did that mean you wanted another set of options for the second stint or were you happy with the way it went?

Nico Rosberg:
There was a misunderstanding from my side because we were going to go prime second stint - there were two variables. There was one where we go prime second stint if we have graining in the first stint or I go prime second stint to try and beat Lewis, if I feel that pace-wise I can be quicker and have a shot at it. I thought they were going prime because they thought I had graining but I didn't have graining so that's why I was confused but then I understood: it was to offset my strategy so that I would have a chance to fight Lewis at the end so it was fine - and just what I wanted.

Q: (Borna Zsoldos - Nemzeti Sports)
Lewis, at the end of the 2012 season when you announced that you would switch to Mercedes, there were some really harsh criticisms against you, stating that you are destroying your career without the guidance of your Dad. Now that you're winning and leading the championship and have the very best car of the whole pack, is it important for you that you could really prove that you can make good decisions on your own?

Lewis Hamilton:
Yeah, for sure, it was obviously a great call and there was never a moment that I ever doubted it but of course never could have imagined that we would be having this kind of success. I'm not one to rub it in people's faces. I knew that I was in a good place, I knew that I was making the right decision for me and now it should be becoming more evident to people... I'm sure the people that wrote those things had an opinion at the beginning and I'm sure it's changed now.

Q: (Adrian Rodriguez - Agencia EFE)
To Nico and Lewis: you guys seem to get along pretty well right now but the problem is that just one of you can win if it keeps going this way. Do you guys believe that your relationship is going to be the same by the end of the year?

Lewis Hamilton:
We've been racing together for a long time so I don't see why not.

Q:
Does that help, Nico, that you've been racing together for a long time?

Nico Rosberg:
Definitely yes, because we've been through this before. It's not a first time and even back then we had discussions, debate but always... life goes on, discuss it and life goes on so that helps, yeah.

Q: (Anthony Rowlinson - F1 Racing)
Lewis, you've said quite a few times this year about how perfect this car is, how well suited it feels. Could you explain just a little bit about how you've guided the development of it so that it suits your style?

Lewis Hamilton:
It's a lengthy process. Obviously last year... when you request something to be changed, it takes some time because obviously you don't want to take away their focus from the most important things which is getting downforce. I think it's just taken some time. I think Michael required a little bit of a... he had a different driving style to me. He required different things, different seating position, different set-up and as I've come along, I've really tried to... and I guess Nico probably and Michael both kind of gelled and went in one direction with the balance and then as I've come along, mine is slightly different and I guess we've then created a hybrid: Nico's come halfway, I've come halfway so we now require the same things from the car, but last year it was maybe a little bit different and so over the time just really, for the engineers to get to know what I require from a car and I think really working on being comfortable with the engineers as well, new engineers, it takes a while to build those relationships and that's probably been a key strength to this year.

Q: (Livio Oricchio - Universo On Line)
Nico, you are second in the championship now. Will you change your approach for the weekend, make strategies with more risks; even during the race, do you think you will change what you have been doing until now?

Nico Rosberg:
There's not much to change. The race was really lost in qualifying and at the start. Those were the two opportunities I had. Qualifying was very very close, I even had a bit of a problem which we found in hindsight, where I was a little bit down on power on the straight, but the difference was not enough to get pole, but still it was actually even closer than it looked. And then just had a poor start, so those were the two shots that I had at it and it didn't work out. And then in the race, I nearly got another opportunity at the very end but again, just not enough. One more lap and I could have given it a go, I think, but I would have done everything the same again at the start of the weekend. Of course, I also missed FP1 which doesn't help either. Many small thing which add up and there are only very small gaps so next time.