Jenson Button is the most recent winner in Formula One. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Changing conditions make for difficult strategy choices, with an early tire call for McLaren's Jenson Button leading to victory.
McLaren
Ross Brawn "Nico did a very good job today and pushed hard to get fifth place. He was in a reasonable position halfway through but we began to get concerned about his tires. He had lost a position to Lewis and it looked like Mark would get past so we took the decision to bring him in. As expected with fresh tires, he caught up with the pack towards the end and was able to take advantage of the ensuing incident with the cars ahead. Whether we gained from bringing him in or whether his original tires could have held out is difficult to know. Michael had the first lap incident which made his race very difficult thereafter and he did a very good job to keep at it and score a point. Overall I'm pleased with how the team performed this weekend. We got the most out of the car but clearly need to find some more performance. It's not out of reach and we have a lot to look forward to over the next few races. Congratulations to Jenson on a great performance and victory today."
Norbert Haug "A very entertaining race and indeed probably one of the best ever. The rain and the various tire strategies mixed up the field and our drivers showed competitive speed. Better than fifth and tenth positions was possible but Michael was a victim of Button and Alonso coming together in the first corner which required a stop and nose change. Michael stopped three times in total so finishing in tenth position and in the points was the maximum that he could achieve after an excellent drive. Nico did a great job, finishing just over two seconds behind a podium position and in the same league with the fastest. Great job, Nico! We have scored points in all four starts and our speed in Melbourne was much better than in Bahrain. Congratulations to Vodafone McLaren Mercedes and to Jenson Button. Their early tire change was followed by a great and measured drive from Jenson. This was the 69th victory for Mercedes-Benz since Melbourne 1997 and I hope soon we will have a jubilee. Looking to the next race in Malaysia, everybody in the team is very dedicated to catching up and I am sure this will be achieved soon."
Williams
Sam Michael, Technical Director: It was good to get some more points, but we need to bring more performance to the car and to the engine. Doing both is the major part of our development program over the next few races. Rubens drove well through all the conditions he faced today. Unfortunately, Nico was knocked out of the race by another car.
Sauber
Eric Boullier, Team Principal "The second place today is a fantastic result for Robert and the whole team in Enstone and Viry. We worked really hard over the winter and we can be very proud of this result. Although we still need to improve the car, this podium gives us all a lot of motivation to keep pushing. Robert drove a perfect race, looking after the car and fighting hard. I also have to say a big well done to the mechanics, who did an excellent job to get Robert out ahead of Massa in the pits, which was crucial for the final outcome of the race. It was a disappointing end to the race for Vitaly, but he is still learning about F1. His start was very strong, and with his strategy he could have been challenging for points."
Alan Permane, Chief Race Engineer "Robert drove a brilliant race today. He made a good start on the intermediate tires and I think we stopped to fit slicks at pretty much the ideal time. After that he drove and excellent race and managed his tires perfectly to bring the car home in second place. Unfortunately Vitaly's race ended early as he got caught out in the damp conditions, but he has another weekend under his belt and will look to bounce back in Malaysia next weekend, where we will have some more new aero updates on the car."
Rémi Taffin, Head of Engine Operations "Today's result is excellent and we must dedicate it to the mechanics who have worked so hard over the last few weeks, and, of course, to Robert Kubica who delivered an exceptional performance. Without him we would not have been able to get this result. We're not yet at the level of the leading teams, but we will continue working hard to get there."
Lotus
Mike Gascoyne "Obviously a very disappointing start. Jarno had a hydraulic power pack fail on the grid, not something we've seen before and we couldn't get it changed in time. Balancing that was another strong race from Heikki who did really well staying out on the option tire. He made a good start but lost a few places after the accident on the opening lap, but he did a great job to get the car home, keeping us tenth in the championship. And congratulations to Karun Chandhok for getting a finish!"
Tony Fernandes "I guess we've got to have had some bad luck at some point and unfortunately it was today. I'm disappointed for Jarno, but Heikki did us proud - three places away from a point, and he was keeping pace with most of the other cars throughout the race. Maybe it would have been nice if three other cars had gone out so we could get a point, but, joking aside, it is good that at this stage of the season we're already thinking about points. We're in a nice position for Malaysia. We're looking forward to going home, and really looking forward to giving our fans something to shout about."
Bridgestone
Hirohide Hamashima - Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tire Development, says "This was a great day for tire performance, strategy and racing as we saw interesting action on track and a good illustration of the benefits of tire management. The soft tire was the preferred race tire once the track dried, and this is a reflection of the track and weather conditions suiting the lower temperature working range tire. Jenson Button did a superb job to look after his soft tires for 52 laps for an impressive victory. Robert Kubica also completed a long stint showing good tire management for second place. There was an interesting battle between the one stop strategies of the Ferraris and the two stop strategy of Lewis Hamilton. We are happy with the performance of our intermediate tires which were used to start the race, with these heavy cars, and then performed well as the track dried. Careful tire management meant the soft could last for so long in today‚s conditions and this provided a showcase of driver tire management skills. The degradation of the soft was less than we would have seen on a fully dry track, and the lap times were quite slow because of this. The hard compound, as used by Rubens Barrichello, also delivered a good performance so we are happy.
Cosworth
Mark Gallagher said: "Another satisfactory race weekend from an engine point of view. Our teams were all able to put good mileage on their engines in Australia and we experienced no mechanical problems over the three days. The race was certainly exciting and it was good to see Rubens pick up more championship points for Williams-Cosworth. Well done also to HRT for achieving their first race finish with Karun. After two race weekends, we have a better understanding of where performance deficits lie within each of the chassis-engine packages of our four teams. We are pleased with the performance of the CA2010 so far, but we are working hard with each of our teams to optimize performance. I should also add that hard work and dedication of the Cosworth track support technicians and the staff back at our UK base have helped ensure these first Grands Prix have gone as well as they have."
