News
20th April 2014, 12:00
Romain Grosjean on his points ambitions being ended by gearbox issues; Jean-Eric Vergne on the need to understand his early race struggles; Lotus on pinning their hopes to upgrades arriving in Barcelona. Drivers and senior team personnel report back on an intriguing race in Shanghai...
Toro Rosso
Daniil Kvyat, 10th
"It felt great today and I'm very happy with my performance. I had a good start and I managed to make up some positions during the first lap. Our pace was very strong today and I enjoyed the fight with Jenson pretty much throughout the race. We did a good job with the tyre management, so we were able to stay out longer. Even though it all went very well today, I think there's still a lot more to come from the car, so I'm really looking forward to starting the European part of the season, where I hope to get some more points."
Jean-Eric Vergne, 12th
"First of all, congratulations to Daniil for his good race and another point for him and the team. As for my race, I had a bad start and a bad first lap. We need to understand what happened exactly to improve this aspect. After that, I could not make the best out of the option tyres because I was stuck behind Button, so it was not possible to build a gap and pull away. It was definitely a tough race but we should not have to forget some positive aspects: we had a really good qualifying yesterday, the general pace was not bad and we know exactly the direction to take in order to improve. This is the reason why I'm convinced that we can be stronger in a few weeks' time in Barcelona."
Franz Tost, Toro Rosso team principal
"Daniil did another fantastic race, with his lap times always quite competitive. To start from the 13th position on the grid and bring home one point certainly shows the good performance. Jean-Eric had a poor start, which compromised his race and didn't allow him to finish with a better result. We have to find out the reasons for this, in order to be better prepared for the next race in Barcelona, where we will have some new parts that will hopefully help us improve our general performance."
Lotus
Romain Grosjean, DNF
"We started by losing fourth gear but it got worse and essentially we lost all gears. It's the first time we've had a problem like this so we'll have to understand what happened. It had been quite nice in the race as we'd been fighting for ninth position so we were in the points, which is a good improvement from before. We didn't make it to the end of the race today but let's hope we finish in the points in Barcelona."
Pastor Maldonado, 14th
"Today wasn't my best race ever but we finished. My pace wasn't fantastic but at least we moved forwards and I pushed as hard as I could. We will look at the data as we seemed to lack pace on the straights which made it difficult to overtake and also difficult to defend. It will be nice to have a race weekend without any problems, and that's what we are all working for when we head to Europe."
Federico Gastaldi, Lotus deputy team principal
"Romain suffered from a gearbox issue which meant he lost fourth gear and then other gears meaning his race could not continue. Obviously, this is not ideal and we're investigating the cause. It's a shame as Romain had been running reasonably well in the points and able to race his rivals, and a points finish was realistic. Pastor did a great job from the back of the grid to finish in 14th. For Barcelona we have more upgrades for the chassis and engine so we should be more competitive there."
Laurent Debout, Renault Sport F1 team support leader
"We've made some real progress this weekend and for the first time since Melbourne we could show we had the pace for points, which is why today is so disappointing. We have identified some further development with the power unit here so with the three weeks between this race and Spain we'll work with the team to capitalise on the potential."
For tickets and travel to 2014 FORMULA 1 races, click here (http://redirect.viglink.com?key=11fe087258b6fc0532a5ccfc9 24805c0&u=http%3A%2F%2Ftickets.formula1.com%2F).
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Toro Rosso
Daniil Kvyat, 10th
"It felt great today and I'm very happy with my performance. I had a good start and I managed to make up some positions during the first lap. Our pace was very strong today and I enjoyed the fight with Jenson pretty much throughout the race. We did a good job with the tyre management, so we were able to stay out longer. Even though it all went very well today, I think there's still a lot more to come from the car, so I'm really looking forward to starting the European part of the season, where I hope to get some more points."
Jean-Eric Vergne, 12th
"First of all, congratulations to Daniil for his good race and another point for him and the team. As for my race, I had a bad start and a bad first lap. We need to understand what happened exactly to improve this aspect. After that, I could not make the best out of the option tyres because I was stuck behind Button, so it was not possible to build a gap and pull away. It was definitely a tough race but we should not have to forget some positive aspects: we had a really good qualifying yesterday, the general pace was not bad and we know exactly the direction to take in order to improve. This is the reason why I'm convinced that we can be stronger in a few weeks' time in Barcelona."
Franz Tost, Toro Rosso team principal
"Daniil did another fantastic race, with his lap times always quite competitive. To start from the 13th position on the grid and bring home one point certainly shows the good performance. Jean-Eric had a poor start, which compromised his race and didn't allow him to finish with a better result. We have to find out the reasons for this, in order to be better prepared for the next race in Barcelona, where we will have some new parts that will hopefully help us improve our general performance."
Lotus
Romain Grosjean, DNF
"We started by losing fourth gear but it got worse and essentially we lost all gears. It's the first time we've had a problem like this so we'll have to understand what happened. It had been quite nice in the race as we'd been fighting for ninth position so we were in the points, which is a good improvement from before. We didn't make it to the end of the race today but let's hope we finish in the points in Barcelona."
Pastor Maldonado, 14th
"Today wasn't my best race ever but we finished. My pace wasn't fantastic but at least we moved forwards and I pushed as hard as I could. We will look at the data as we seemed to lack pace on the straights which made it difficult to overtake and also difficult to defend. It will be nice to have a race weekend without any problems, and that's what we are all working for when we head to Europe."
Federico Gastaldi, Lotus deputy team principal
"Romain suffered from a gearbox issue which meant he lost fourth gear and then other gears meaning his race could not continue. Obviously, this is not ideal and we're investigating the cause. It's a shame as Romain had been running reasonably well in the points and able to race his rivals, and a points finish was realistic. Pastor did a great job from the back of the grid to finish in 14th. For Barcelona we have more upgrades for the chassis and engine so we should be more competitive there."
Laurent Debout, Renault Sport F1 team support leader
"We've made some real progress this weekend and for the first time since Melbourne we could show we had the pace for points, which is why today is so disappointing. We have identified some further development with the power unit here so with the three weeks between this race and Spain we'll work with the team to capitalise on the potential."
For tickets and travel to 2014 FORMULA 1 races, click here (http://redirect.viglink.com?key=11fe087258b6fc0532a5ccfc9 24805c0&u=http%3A%2F%2Ftickets.formula1.com%2F).
For FORMULA 1 merchandise,