Chatting to Peter Windsor - Part 2

Often dubbed ‘the voice of F1 Racing Magazine’, Peter Windsor has seen Formula 1 evolve and grow into its current state.

(c) SpeedTV

The sports evolution has happened at quite a rate, the sport is now drastically different to the one Windsor fell in love with as a child. But despite the changes and branding the sport “a mess” he has remained a fanatical fan of the sport, loving every minute of track action.. He has traded the rivalries of Niki Lauda, James Hunt and Ronnie Peterson for the current stars of Formula 1; Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso. So what does he make of the 2013 season so far? Read on to find out…

Peter has seen the sport from so many different angles: he has worked within the team, attempted to start his own outfit, worked as a highly regarded journalist for a whole range of publications and now commands our laptop screens with his new show “The Racer’s Edge” (which he discussed in part 1). With a wealth of knowledge and expertise on the sport who better to ask on the latest news stories than the man himself?

Formula 1 has been rocked by two dominant stories from the 2013 season thus far. Sebastian Vettel’s disregard for team-orders and Pirelli. Starting with the former, I asked Peter if he thinks Mark Webber will stay in the sport beyond 2013 after the controversies of the Malaysian Grand Prix.

With his know-how and familiarity with the Formula 1 paddock, Peter admitted that he has not asked Webber the question himself due to the risk of losing their friendship. After so long reporting on the sport he has became close to the Aussie and branded him as “one of the last really good guys” in the sport. However in his own opinion, he thinks Webber will leave the sport at the end of the year.

(c) Sky Sports F1

Peter told me “If you want my opinion he probably decided as long ago as last winter that this is going to be his last year in Formula 1 and I think he probably made that decision when he decided not to go to Ferrari for a year and to renew with Red Bull for 2013.” Rumours kicked off recently about a possible change to sports car racing with Porsche. Whilst Windsor did not discount the chances of Webber racing for Porsche, and despite Porsche denying the rumours themselves, he could see him in a role similar to that of Michael Schumacher at Mercedes.

“I would think he would have been thinking of a future with Porsche, not necessarily racing with them but I think more as a general global ambassador for the brand and working on the development of their road cars. I think he would do a superb job there, a sort of Walter Rohrl type job and I can see Mark doing that for the next one, 15 or 20 years of his life. Very much like Jackie Stewart with Ford. I think he would do a superb job in that role.”

It’s interesting to hear Peter’s thoughts on Mark and his future. I too could see him moving to Porsche but for me, I reckon a role driving sports cars would suit him brilliantly. Some drivers retire due to boredom or lack of passion but Webber certainly possesses plenty of the latter, I don’t think he is ready to stop racing just yet. However Peter knows Mark extremely well, saying he would “hate” to see him not racing in F1 because he “loves to watch” him race.

The topic of Mark Webber came up when reading his latest F1 Racing magazine column. In the most recent issue he also got the chance to interview Adrian Sutil who returned to the sport after a year out. Peter is certainly a fan of the German, particularly for his “vee” style of cornering. “Well yeah I think he has driven extremely well in all the races, I don’t think results necessarily are something that you should base judgements upon, I think he drives beautifully, he is definitely a vee corner driver.” Peter quickly defined what he means by a “vee corner driver” by adding “he definitely minimises the amount of time the car has lateral load going through it and that is a very rare and fun thing to watch on the race track, he has always had that talent.”

Sutil has certainly come back stronger than ever. He led the season opener in Australia en route to sixth place and was looking to score big points in Malaysia before that troubled wheel nut issue that put both Force India cars out. Despite not scoring in China or Bahrain he consistently looked strong enough to contend for points finishes. Had he not collided with Felipe Massa on lap one of the Bahrain Grand Prix, he could have finished close or even ahead of his team-mate in fourth. However it has taken a few years for him to polish his race craft, when he entered Formula 1 he was crashing left, right and centre. Now both Peter and I believe he has come back from his year out as a more well rounded driver and individual. “I think when he came into F1 he was possibly over driving a little bit but I think since he’s had a year off, time to think about it and relax a little he has come back as an even better driver.”

It was fascinating to read in Peter’s interview with Sutil that he now feels Formula 1 “is his job” now rather than his life. After 12 months of reflection, it almost seems like he has realised life is not all about racing. From an outsiders point of view, I see it as being all too easy to work so hard to get there that you do probably miss out on normal things in life, like hanging out with your friends or learning new skills. Drivers have to be hugely committed as they rise through the feeder series and whilst you can mix pleasure and business, it can take over your life. So it’s refreshing to hear that from Sutil, that he now appreciates life more after losing his race seat.

(c) Sahara Force India F1 Team

Peter seemingly agrees. We discussed this at length and he feels it is “a great attitude” for Sutil to have. He continued “and I think how that manifests itself is that when things do not go well you don’t allow it to eat you up inside, your able to say ‘I’m a racing driver, I’m lucky to be in Formula 1, let’s get on with the next motor race and we will do very well there’ and that’s where that attitude really shows through.”

In his view, quite a few of the sport’s “greats” have viewed life and the sport in that exact way. “I’ve known a lot of great racing drivers and I think the likes of Carlos Reutemann, Nigel Mansel, Jim Clark and Mario Andretti all had that same perspective. That they are not so obsessed with Formula 1 that they can’t eat, sleep or drink or do anything other than that.”

When reading Peter’s columns in F1 Racing and his thoughts in numerous other publications, he quite often mentioned the theory of a race driver, who is there just to race, and a professional Formula One driver, someone who is obsessed by the sport. He discussed this whilst talking about Sutil and his new perspective.” I have always said in my columns and in anything I have ever said on the show that for me there are two types of people in Formula 1 these days. One is the professional Formula 1 driver, if you like, who carries a briefcase to the track and is obsessed with the sport, the money and everything that goes with it. Then there are a few out there that are just race drivers, they are racing drivers.” Who would he bracket as a race driver then? Well “Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso” to name just a few and “Adrian Sutil now probably,” However he does admit that whilst there are a limited number of race drivers, there are considerably more professionals who are devoted to the sport. “I think most of the drivers fall into the category sadly of professional Formula 1 drivers.”

Sutil certainly has a tough fight on his hands if he wants to out-race Di Resta in the driver’s championship. Peter rates Paul highly and when asked if he thinks the Force India inter-team battle will be close, he replied “Yeah I think it will, I think Paul makes the corners go on slightly longer so I think in that sense Sutil has a slight technical advantage but I have always rated Di Resta.”

He even expected Di Resta to drive for McLaren. He told me one particular story that he mentioned during episode seven of “The Racers Edge” from back in September 2012. When the news broke of Perez’s signing for McLaren, Peter tweeted out his thoughts on the news. “I tweeted out ‘I’m surprised they didn’t go for Di Resta’ and I was actually inundated with quite a lot of negative tweets, people saying ‘how can you possibly say that’, ‘Di Resta doesn’t deserve it’ and ‘Perez is much better’ well I still think Di Resta in a McLaren would be very good.”

Moving swiftly onto Sergio Perez, the Mexican has had a tough start to his season but one that Windsor actually “expected.” When discussing how he thinks Perez will fare Peter told me “He is very fast, very raw and as we see on occasions he is going to be out-qualifying and outracing Jenson, no question about that.”

(c) Vodafone McLaren Mercedes

He came under fire after the Chinese Grand Prix due to the fact it had been the worst start to a Formula 1 season for a McLaren rookie ever. But Peter disagreed and said that he never criticised the 23-year-old, in fact he has so far performed just as he expected him to. “I thought he did exactly what I thought he would do. He was within three or four tenths of Jenson, sometimes he got into Q3 and sometimes he didn’t but that’s exactly how I thought he would go in the first three or four races.”

Discussing the development a driver goes through, Peter spoke about Perez and how he has improved as a driver since joining McLaren. “I certainly wasn’t disappointed with his early races; in fact I think he has developed quite nicely. I loved the way he drove in Bahrain, I saw for the first time Perez using much shorter corners and driving very well.” One thing that has perhaps helped Perez’s mediocre form has been the McLaren car. We have seen Jenson Button struggling too, particularly in qualifying, and despite recent leaps forward the car is still not where the drivers or team want it to be. I personally agree with Peter in that it is unfair to criticise him for having the worst debut season for McLaren in the team’s history because not all the rookies have had to contend with a car as tricky to drive as the MP4-28.

Perez was one of the stars of the show in 2012, particularly in the early part of the season. However the mid-field runner who moved to the forefront in the final half of the year was Nico Hulkenberg. The German in my view made a rather strange side-step to Sauber which has so far not paid off. However recent reports suggest, along with an article in the latest issue of F1 Racing, that the move could be preparing him for a move to Ferrari. The Swiss team are often seen as their “junior” team much like Toro Rosso are to Red Bull. However Peter doesn’t see Hulkenberg fitting in well as Alonso’s number two driver. “I think they want the best possible number two to Fernando and I don’t think that many drivers fill that bill in Formula 1 at the moment. I personally don’t think Hulkenberg fills that prescription; I would say Hulkenberg is potentially a number one, very fast racing driver that will probably annoy Fernando after a while, it’s not the sort of driver he probably wants in the other car.”

Of course a potential move to Ferrari would only emerge if Felipe Massa was dropped or left the team. When discussing whether Peter could see the Brazilian leaving the iconic team at the end of 2013 he said “Yeah probably, he has been around for quite a long time now hasn’t he, I would be surprised if Massa stays another year. I’m very glad Ferrari resigned him as I think he is the perfect number two to Fernando. But they will probably replace him at the end of this year I would think, unless he has a couple of wins and is very buoyant and things go really well for him.” That’s something that Peter would love to see, adding “I really hope that happens.”

(c) Sauber F1 Team

Whilst Hulkenberg moved to the team after seeing their success in 2012, they have so far failed to match it. The C32 is proving tricky to set-up and both drivers have pinpointed the aerodynamics, the most important part of the car to enhance performance, as the main component to improve on. However Hulkenberg’s rookie team-mate Esteban Gutierrez is seemingly struggling more than most. Peter likened his driving to that of the old Romain Grosjean before he somewhat calmed down. Describing his driving style he said “he is a slower, more mistake prone version of Romain in the way he drives. He is very reflexy and very on the edge of what the car can do all the time and by definition he is going to make mistakes.” 

Despite spotting potential and “finesse” in the Mexican’s driving, he admits that Gutierrez needs to work on the fundamentals first before trying to develop his driving style further. “I think he isn’t going to get any better if he just says to himself ‘I’ve got to be faster and make fewer mistakes, be more precise’ or whatever it is he is saying to himself. He needs to start working on the fundamentals of his driving,” before mentioning McLaren’s Perez as someone to emulate. “As indeed obviously Sergio Perez has and is, he needs to start making the corners shorter, start manipulating the car, warning the car more and anticipating what the car is going to do rather than reacting to what its doing after he has provoked it which is how he is driving at the moment, he doesn’t know any other way.”

Gutierrez needs to make some immediate changes; otherwise the future is not looking so rosy for the Mexican. “But at the moment if he just goes head long into it like he does now he is going to bounce off all the guard rails at Monte Carlo I would think.”

The “old” Romain Grosjean as mentioned earlier has somewhat been and gone. Now we have a much more mature and developed driver competing for Lotus, although Peter disagrees with me. “Well I don’t think he has developed that well actually from last year actually, I think he has just gone a bit slower and I think that is a bit disappointing.” Peter continued “Last year there were occasions when he was at least if not quicker than Kimi and I think he has lost a little bit of that pace and I find that a bit disappointing, I think that’s how he has found his stability.”

What Peter is saying is somewhat true in my eyes. Grosjean has become a lot more conservative with his driving and has matured in where to place the car and taking risks, but not he has lost the exciting edge glimpsed last year before he got a stern telling off. “I think he has found his stability by going a bit slower and leaving more margin and that’s a bit of a shame, I don’t like seeing drivers like Romain doing that.”

(c) Formula1.com

This was no more evident for Peter than the most recent Grand Prix in Bahrain where the ‘Iceman’ Kimi Raikkonen was far more committed through the tricky left hand complex that makes up turns nine and ten. “The difference between Kimi and Grosjean through turns 9 and 10 (Bahrain International Circuit) was so massive, I couldn’t believe it really.” Peter confessed. “I couldn’t believe that Kimi’s team mate could be so different when Kimi is obviously doing it very well.”

It is fascinating to hear Peter’s thoughts on the season so far, some of them I agree with and others where I have contrasting feelings. However we both agree on one thing, the racing is just as exciting as ever (not that it has ever not been exciting to be honest).

You can catch up on Part 1 of my chat with Peter where we discuss his brand new web-show. Part 3 will introduce his thoughts and feelings on those game-changing Pirelli tyres, the struggling Marussia and Caterham along with Mercedes chances of victory this season.

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Peter’s very own blog: http://peterwindsor.com/