Q. Riad, if I understand it correctly, if you finish in the top 10 again this year as you did last year, you move up a column which obviously brings certain financial benefits under Concorde. But, by the same token, you have more to lose if you change your team's name, unless you get permission from everybody. How are you going to tackle that juggling act if you do change your team's name?
RA: I guess there is a process that we all have to go through but as I highlighted, it is a process that we will undertake if and when the decision is made but it's something that hasn't happened yet so I can't comment.
Q. Are you confident that you will get that permission?
RA: I've got no notion of doing anything right now in terms of changing the name or anything like that so I can't comment.
Q. Gerard, on the one side we are hearing about massive investments as we heard about early on; on the other side we're hearing stories of doom and gloom about bank loans and bankruptcies and all sorts of things: selling the team, Group Lotus wanting to buy the team. Could you clarify these issues please?
GL: It's been one of the surprises for me in Formula 1. The fact that any time we have a new driver, any time we announce something, any time I take a trip to Brazil or Russia or whatever, they suppose I'm looking for money for the team. The fact is that we're involved in a lot of businesses. This one, as a matter of fact, is one that we hope is going to be break-even at some point in time. It's not but it's not one that needs to make money for us. We make money somewhere else.
I used to answer this giving examples and so on. To be honest, I don't care anymore, because if it was reality we wouldn't be there for a long time. I think the team that we took over had about 480 people. We saved those jobs and added about 40 jobs to those. Facts speak for themselves. As I said, I used to get quite angry every time I would pick up something like that. Now it's almost like crying wolf and nobody cares. The fact is that the facts are there: we are investing, we're adding sponsors. Our drivers, whenever they get called pay drivers, I actually feel bad for them, not for us because at the end of the day, there is no driver I think or I hope could bring enough money to actually carry this kind of team forward. I find it disrespectful to those guys. I used to find it disrespectful to us, to be honest with you. Now I don't any more so now what we do is we get on with the things that we have to do. We make the investments that we have to make and at the end of the day we will see – in terms of results – what will be in the future and hopefully we will be wherever our investments carry us, which is to be one of the top three teams.
Q. Sam, I know your interest is much more on the sporting side than on the financial side of things, but on a broad principle, Williams going forward in the years to come – not just next year but in the years to come – are they in a situation where they will be able to make decisions on drivers based purely upon what they bring to team in terms of ability or is Williams in that situation now where it's got to look more toward sponsorship and the financial aspects rather than just pure talent?
SM: If you take the first part of your question about Williams financially, they are obviously entering a lot of different areas of their business such as WHP with the hybrid power system – that's standing out to be a very...an industry that's going to open up a lot over the next few years. They already have contracts with major motor manufacturers, so that's one area that's quite strong. They're obviously investing pretty heavily in Qatar. There's the new Jaguar program as well. There's lots of different areas that Williams is diversifying into to ensure...which a lot of other teams have done as well. McLaren is a good example, earlier than Williams, and that will continue to be more and more profitable as years go on. That will help Williams put themselves into a good position. Other teams have done it, there's nothing to say that Williams can't either, so I can't see that that will be an issue for them in the future.
With respect to their finances, if you then come to their drivers, if you look at the two drivers this year. We've got Rubens who is obviously an experienced guy, a multiple grand prix winner. Although Pastor Maldonado is a rookie, he's GP2 champion and he's run pretty close to Rubens all year. If you take out the first four or five races, which is entirely normal for any rookie, I would normally say that a rookie needs a couple of years, but you can definitely start to see the signs as to whether the guy is capable or not by midseason and I would definitely put Pastor Maldonado in that category. And if he wasn't in that category, he wouldn't have kept his drive going forward. So I can see the guy having an even stronger year next year when he knows all the circuits, because he's still on a slope. He'd never turned a lap around here before this evening, so I would say that to say that Williams are taking their decisions on drivers from a financial point of view is not really correct at the moment, because otherwise they wouldn't be choosing the drivers that they have. I think Williams will make the choices that are best for the company and the best results. That's what it will come down to.
Q. Question to Norbert and Jean-Francois regarding engines, both at the moment and 2014 onward. We used to have a situation where there was a maximum number of teams that an engine supplier could supply. In 2014, we could possibly have as many as five manufacturers supplying twelve teams and when you look at it, somehow five into twelve doesn't work that well, particularly when you've got one manufacturer supplying four teams with engines. What do you people think the maximum should be allowed, both from a sporting and a financial, commercial point of view?
NH: For me it should be an open market – that's it, basically. I hope we're in a position to have five engine manufacturers, that would be very pleasing for all of us, I think. This is even more competition, but maybe we have less than five, we will see. It doesn't look bad at the moment. The rules are heading in the right direction; over a five-year period there will be lots of cost saving. All us engine manufacturers work very constructively on that point together with Ferrari and Renault, especially Cosworth also and our target is to save 30 percent budget over a five-year period which is challenging but which is achievable. For us, if five teams chose the engine X, then they should do so, it should be a free and open market. J-FC: By regulation, today it's four teams, but I share that same advice, I am pushing for an open market because we are in Formula 1 and regulations cannot solve all the problems. I think the key point is not how many teams, the key point is which teams because when we are dealing with top teams, it's not easy to have one or two top teams when you provide the same engine. The problem is more with who and how many teams.