The Brazilian Grand Prix - Practice 3 Formula 1

Hello and welcome to practice 3 from Interlagos. The rain continues to

fall. No change from yesterday. The weather is set to get worse over the

weekend. We could see our first and final wet race of the 2013 Formula

One season. As we all know, the constructors championship has been

won by Red Bull an the drivers championship has been won by

Sebastien Vettel for the fourth consecutive time. But there's plenty

to play for away from those headlines. In the Drivers

Championship, Sebastien Vettel won. Nervous times at the bottom of the

table where every place and penny counts. In the pit lane today,

braving the rain we have Jenny and Tom. It was a frustrating day for

Pirelli yesterday. They now have to switch their attentions to

qualifying. What can we expect in practice 3? It was a hugely

frustrating day for them. You're right. They brought their tray

weather 2014 -- their dry weather 2014 prototype to give the team some

experience of that rubber. They got no data at all because it was awful

weather all day. Doesn't look like we will get any dry running in this

session. The rain continues to fall. It's cold, overcast. There's rain

and puddles everywhere. The guys have been sweeping those away this

morning to try and clear this very sodden pit lane. You guys are brave.

This is where the fair weather TV presenters stand under this lovely

bridge. Nico Rosberg was fastest yesterday. The last time he did that

was in Monaco when he went on to win the Grand Prix. Is this wishful

thinking? Surely Sebastien Vettel must be favourite and he has big

favourites on his mind? Yes, he wants to win nine races in a row. He

wants to win 13 races in one season and match Michael Schumacher. He

might have a battle in the wet. Nico Rosberg was fast in the two

settings, and look being bag -- backing back over the year, Rosberg

was quick in the wet in Australia. Hamren got -- Hamilton got pole

position as well. The car works well in slippery conditions. But in these

conditions anybody has a chance. It's not just Mercedes and -- that

Red Bull have to keep an eye on. It's not all over yet. Time for the

end of season photographs, though. Plenty of those going on through the

weekend. Who knows how many personnel will move around. Plenty

have already, during the season. In terms of the engineers and

technicians, are we going to see quite a few more transfers between

teams over the coming period? Or is it a quieter period in terms of

recruitment? It does become a quieter time. They'd have heard

about it now if anybody was moving. These guys have got longer term

contracts. At the end of the day, if anything happens now, it would be

mid-season next year before it has any influence. The ones that we know

about have happened. There are a couple that we know about but can't

talk about yet because they've not been released. It will have an

influence on the top teams losing key personnel. There's always a lot

of movement and a lot of rain here this morning. It is very, very wet.

There will be quite a lot of standing water. Remind us on the

situation with the tyres available - how many wet or intermediate tyres

do they have available? You start Friday morning with four sets of

intermediates and three sets of wets. If you use one set of

intermediates on Friday, you get them replaced. So this session has

four sets of intermediates, three sets of wets, one of which will have

done some laps yesterday. This weather is wet weather tyres. I

think, I doubt if you'll get to intermediate before the end of it or

it will be just for a couple of laps because you want to save them for

qualifying. Yes it's important to have fresh sets not only at

beginning, but quite often at the end of a session. I was looking back

at the wet sessions we've had this year, one of the ones that struck me

was Malaysia where they were on slicks in Q1 and Q2, but on

intermediates on Q3. This is Gutierrez doing a practice lap. At

the final part of qualifying Sebastien Vettel took pole in the

wet. McLaren and Mercedes stayed on one set of intermediates during the

session. But they lost out because the intermediates had lost their

hard edge. That edge makes all the difference. If you stay out there,

you have temperature in the tyre but not the sharp corners that cut

through the water. It's a decision to make and make it early. The end

of the session comes at you quickly. This is nice seeing Felipe Massa

autographing the guy's arm. He won't wash that ever, presumably. Some

Ferrari fans would probably chop his arm off for that photograph. That's

lovely to see and a great relationship that Felipe Massa has

with that team. Tom, you're in the pit lane at the moment, but you were

telling us yesterday that he really has been incredibly popular member

of the team in that stint since 2006. You're absolutely right. In

2003, when he started there as a test driver, he was very much under

Barichello's wing. He was very open and honest with the team. That is

the quality about Felipe Massa that the team admires so much. If he has

a be legal with the car, he -- if he has a problem with the car, he says

what he thinks. If he has a member of the team that is annoying him, he

says that too. They love that honesty. It has been a fruitful

relationship. He's been a team player, Gary. Sometimes to his

disappointment, as he's mentioned, having to move out of the way of

Fernando Alonso in 2010 was a key point. Massa has been a great team

player. He has. Honesty is always the best virtue, as long as you're

consistent, the team will respect you. I believe it's time for Ferrari

to put in someone new. It's time for Massa to move on and get a new lease

of life. He's going to Williams, bringing a mute -- multitude of

experience. They have Bottas there. That combination could being very --

could be very powerful. We're watching Esteban Gutierrez.

He heads down out of that, it's a little downhill. It's steeper than

it looks. It flattens out a touch on the next straight, then the last

corner which leads to the fast, sweeping, well straight, but it

keeps on curving through corners 13, 14, and 15. They're all given corner

numbers on the official FIA map. Eventually it brings him past the

pit lane exit there and across the line to complete a lap. Tom, I think

you're at Lotus now? I am. I'm looking at Heikki

Kovalainen who is sat on a toolbox at the back of the garage behind his

car. His car is still on its jacks. As they started the car this morning

some irregularities with the engine showed up. They've stripped the

thing down in the last hour. They say they've found the problem.

They're not having to replace the engine. But it will take them a

while to get the floor back on and get the bits and pieces together. So

a slow start to FP 3. He was fourth fastest in the second fastest

section. Pictures of Gutierrez slipping and sliding. He's been

pretty impressive in the wet conditions this year, even from his

very first Grand Prix in Australia. Even though he lost control in

qualifying. But he was fast up to that point. He's been a match for

Hulkenberg in the wet conditions. Hulkenberg, his team-mate yesterday

was eighth fastest. Gutierrez was 12th. Talking about the second

practice session, the wetter of the two sessions. The first session in

the morning had been that little bit drir and we saw a one, two on that

occasion for Rosberg and Hamilton. Hamilton seemed less happy. Hamilton

did 128. 1. We saw him yesterday making some mistakes. Lewis is one

of those guys in the wet who loves those conditions. What he needs to

do is get back to basics and make the car do one thing. The engineers

will have tried to give him one thing rather than the car doing

everything. I am sure this morning he will be up to speed. He's always

going to be happy and there will be plenty of work done. He was saying

that the throttle mapping didn't suit his driving style. That's

something they can change. A lot of data will be absorbed. They'll look

at the way he drives the car and presumably change the mapping. What

does that mean, though? These engines produce a certain amount of

torque at different throttle levels. You try to create a throttle map

that's a smooth delivery. In a Formula One car the throttle peddle

is called a torque pedal. 10% of throttle doesn't have to give you o

10% of torque. It might give 5%. You can shape that. If you have a too

flat a shape when the driver is trying to control through a corner,

he gets to the top end of that and it has to rise. It must start at

zero and end at 100%. If it does that, you have to play around with

it to suit the driver. He didn't like it yesterday. He's driven in

the wet before this car, so I'm surprised they don't have a good

throttle map available. He said he struggled in the wet in Australia at

the beginning of the year. Still seems to be a slight problem. Of

course, that is another issue when you move from one team to another,

someone like Rosberg has been in that team since 2010. He's helped

develop that car. He's worked with Michael Schumacher, no doubt

learning tips from him. Whereas Lewis is fresh this year. A few

things like that. We heard he struggled with the braking on the

car. It hasn't given him the confidence he's wanted. We heard in

the wet that the car doesn't respond the way he wants. At McLaren he knew

and understand the McLaren inside out. He came into Formula One with

McLaren. He derived McLaren's ways. They were a family together. Then

the divorce hand and he came to Mercedes. Sometimes your new wife

doesn't do what you want. It takes time, but she will know what to cook

for you for dinner when you get home. The relationship is still

developing. Rosberg has been looking very impressive. Gutierrez, the only

one to sett a lap time so far 1. 34. 6. Yesterday was in the 1. 27, 1.

28. That shows how much wetter the circuit is. The forecast today is

rain throughout. Showers on Sunday. We could end up with a wet race. Who

knows what's going to happen. It's gone very quiet. There's not much

happening on track at the moment. Most cars are in the pits, even if

they have been on the circuit. Mark Webber is on the track at the

moment. Esteban Gutierrez is still out there. We will keep an eye on

him. Christian Horner joins us from the pit wall. Good morning. What is

the programme for you guys this morning, going through what is the

very wet free practice, how does this affect the normal programme

into qualifying? Good morning, it's a wet one out here. Basically, the

plan is for the drivers to get a feel for the car in these

conditions. Obviously, it's extremely wet. Therefore, having to

run on extremes. We have to be a bit careful that we don't burn too many

tyres prior to qualifying. We will need them for qualifying and the

race. We saw and we were discussing a moment ago, Gary Anderson is with

me, you planned it well in Malaysia, that wags a wet qualifying -- that

was a wet qualifying. You used two sets of tes in the final part of P

3, effectively importantlying teams were wear -- effect other teams were

wearing them too much. Will the intermediate lose its edge quickly?

It's a pretty good tyre and has a reasonable range. Where it gets into

trouble is as on as you -- as soon as you get dry patches around then

it eats up the tyre quickly. If you have a car out of balance as well,

that tends to do a lot of damage to the tyre. The intermediate you can

run in pretty wet conditions. It will go a reasonable distance. The

wet tyre, presumably once you've run the full wet, like this morning, it

is so wet, you're not seeing much wear on the tyre itself, unless it

starts to dry off? That's right. In conditions like this, the tyre, you

can see Gutierrez at the moment, those tyres will come in and not

look too bad. The water protects the tread block reasonably well. It's

when you start to lose that water and put load and heat into the tyre,

particularly through the faster corners, that's what does the

damage. You have two drivers who have always performed well in wet

conditions. I remember watching Mark come up through the ranks, very

quick in the wet. Vettel took that amazing wet win with Toro Rosso in

appalling conditions. Daniel Ricciardo, Jean-Eric Vergne, two

younger guys, it looks as though Jean-Eric Vergne has had the edge in

the wet so far this year have you seen that yourself? Yeah we've seen

in through his career. In the wet he has hay tremendous feel. That was

the thing which was so impressive about Daniel's performance

yesterday. He was quicker than Jean-Eric Vergne. So coming back to

that the Russian driver who is going to join Toro Rosso, you were

suitably impressed? Massively impressed. He's done limited mileage

in a Formula One car. He's jumped out of a GP3 car. The power is three

times the power. To turn up at a circuit he's never seen before, in

the wet, jump in and do the job he did was very impressive. Eighth

fastest in the first practice session, very impressive indeed.

Tell us what the team is forecasting, what your team

forecasters are saying we are going to have for both qualifying and the

race? Unfortunately, it looks fairly set, in the weather at the moment.

It looks like this is here for a while. Then hopefully, if you

believe the forecast, it looks grar tomorrow but a -- greyer tomorrow,

but less rain. But the horrible drizzly showers which are a

nightmare on the pit wall. Great for us watching. Thanks Christian.

Thanks for joining us. We could be in for a changeable race like last

year, a race won by Jenson Button, on ape clever strategy. -- on a

clever strategy. He stayed out on slicks. It's that kind of call that

Jenson Button is renowned for. He might have to use some of those

talents again this weekend. Yes, it's very ease why toy make those

decisions -- easy to make those decisions. You always want to get

onto the quicker tyre. It's easy to get onto it too early. You lose

those few seconds that are vitally important. Though your tyres are up

and working to temperature at the time on the track, those come good

enough. The seconds you lose are difficult to pull back. Watching ham

-- Lewis Hamilton here. He was in a good position last time to win the

race. But he tangled with Nico Hulkenberg. He has certainly shown

his pace in the changeable conditions. I wonder if he will feel

a bit happier with the car. He had a couple of spins yesterday, one long

broadside and one complete 360 we saw. He comes straight back into the

pits and it's only Esteban Gutierrez, so far, who has

established a lap time. Let's look at the replace. A bit a lock up?

Beautiful shots of the water coming off the tyres. Giving you an idea of

airflow over the car as well? Yes, it does. The amount of water at the

moment is heavy. It is changing the airflow dramatically. That's the big

difference from the car in the dry to in the wet, the airflow is

affected by the water. Whenever you see some of the ones with the

vortexes coming off because of the moisture in the air, in the morning,

that's more representative of the airflow. The water is a bit too

heavy, so it changes the direction of the airflow quite dramatically.

Now, you've been getting in touch all weekend using the #BBC F1. Great

to have your involvement. Your highs and lows of the season. Let's go

through those. Andrew priestly saying, "2013 F1 season will be

remembered for Sebastien Vettel's consistent winning. Love him or hate

him, you can't fault it." I think you're right. Another one says, "Red

Bull winning the championship for the fourth year is her high. The low

is Mark Webber leaving." He's going into his final event this weekend. I

know many of you Mark Webber fans are sad to leave him go. Another one

says the best moment is Bottas in the Williams scoring points. The

worst moment and this is a good point, cameraman getting hit by a

wheel at the Nurburgring. It's difficult rules have come about

because of that. Yes, the wheel locking system, basically when these

wheels go on, there's a central wheel nut. There's always been a

locking mechanism. But now the rules have got changed. If the wheel nut

doesn't come onto the thread, the toggles come out then. The teams

have had to adapt to the systems they've got. Because not everybody

wanted to make new axels, it's a hugely expensive component. It is an

adaptation this year. We will see better solutions next year. You're

in the pit lane, you're often in the pit lane, how has it been in terms

of reducing the numbers of journalists in there? I think right

now we've got it right. Whenever the rule was put in initially, there was

probably too few. Then the second time there were too many. The

numbers now, the pit lane is not as congested. You can see cars coming

in, find places to get out of the way easier. Motor racing is

dangerous. You have to be alert. You have to watch the way the cars are

coming at you. So many inexperienced journalists and photographers down

there are always looking in the wrong direction. Sometimes you have

to either have somebody with you or make sure you're look being where

the cars would come and hit you. Watching Heikki Kovalainen. Jenny,

you have an update from Williams? Yes, they went out yesterday on of a

dry mechanical set up. They weren't expecting the weather to be as bad

as it is. Overnight they've reverted back to a wet set up and put on a

few more bits to try and deal with that. They're expecting the weather

to continue throughout today. We saw Valtteri Bottas have his best ever

qualifying in Montreal in similar conditions to these, the spray was

everywhere. It was very hard to see on track. Bottas really thrived in

that situation. He's looking forward to those. They're going to try to

get long runs in in this session to understand what the car can do in

these conditions. They expect tomorrow's race to start in wet

conditions. This -- that will have a huge beari because of the

limitations in what you can change on the car into qualifying, not very

much at all. Do the teams look at the weather and say right, we're

going for a full wet set up? I think you'd have to. The weather forecasts

that we've seen look like it is going to be partially wet tomorrow,

maybe not as wet as today. You've got to bend towards that. You have

to make sure you have the car covered in the wet. The other you

can change tomorrow if it pops up and be dry, is the front wing angle

and if the climatic conditions are different, if it is dry, they will

allow you to change the engine cooling and brake ducting. Those are

the only things. But you have to get that climatic condition change from

the FIA before you can alter the cooling. Let's get back down to the

pits now. Tom Clarkson is with Martin Whitmarsh.

Good morning Martin, that rain dance you've been doing, seems to have

paid off. It's pretty miserable out there. I think on balance, I'd

rather it was raining tomorrow than today. Anything can happen in

qualifying in these conditions. I want a wet Sunday afternoon, not

necessarily Saturday. You don't always get what you want in this

world. At the moment, as you can see, everyone is holding onto their

tyres. Quite an abrasive surface, it's ease why I to take the edge off

the tyres here. Everyone is doing an install. Gutierrez did timed laps. I

don't think there'll be too much running because people just realise

that you'll need fresh hopefully inters this afternoon. What sort of

life were we seeing from the inters yesterday? I think the problem with

the inters is that you take the edge off them quickly. You probably want

to do your quick lap in the first one or two laps. Thereafter you

progressively degrade. It people only use the one we have to give

back yesterday. They were keeping their fresh sets for this afternoon.

I think it was one of those things, if the track dries at all, the

inters overheat so quickly on this circuit, they would be destroyed in

a lap. I think at the moment, actually, this is full wet

conditions. In qualifying, you want to go out on inters. The problem

will be trying to stand on the pit wall or stand in the garage here and

making a decision -- make a decision. Is it inter or full wet?

Getting that right, avoiding the of traffic, getting the tyres

temperature, all sorts of things. Having said that, it will probably

throw up unexpected results for the grid, that will be interesting in

the race. I quite like it to be wet in the race as well. Jenson said to

us yesterday he's hopeful of a podium this weekend. What sort of

shape are you in, do you think? Well, I think the last few races,

we're not in the same race as Red Bull clearly. But we've been racing

with fraries and -- Ferraris and Mercedes and Lotus, so we're a

little bit closer. We need good fortunes, great driving to get on

the podium. You don't give up. It would be nice to go for that. I

think we need something unexpected to happen to really be in

contention. Who knows. That's what ens. Normally, we're here with a

competitive car and the last thing you want is rain. We've seen that so

many times, but at championship critical points, where you think I

don't want the uncertainty of a wet race and you get it. Tomorrow,

knowing our luck, it will be dry. We'll' see. How much would a podium

mean to you tomorrow or even a fourth place? This team has never

not scored a fourth place since 1966, and your best result this year

is fifth. I'm not an hiss torning. Getting up there -- historian.

Getting up there means everything to this team. It's been a tough and

long year. If we can get some reward, it hasn't quite come

together in the last few races. I think we flattered in a few of the

practice sessions but we didn't quite deliver. Who knows. Maybe

something will go right this year. There's one race to go, but we keep

fighting. Say it's during the hard times that you learn the most. What

have you learned the most as a team this year? I'm immenly proud of the

team. The drivers and the team here, we've been racing with a lot of

pressure, a difficult, frustrating circumstance. The teams pulled --

team's pulled together. You can sense tha Anyone around the team,

you can sense the that the team is working well here. Our car isn't

quick enough, we know that. There's a determination. I think back in

Woking, I'm an optimist, so a quick up the backside is what you need. We

have had that this year. In that environment you rethink how you make

decisions, what things you're doing. We've been able to do that.

Hopefully we're going to come out of this year stronger. I think we can.

But, having said that, it's been a long one. I really look forward to

next now. What percentage of the MTC is focussed onned 2014 or is there a

little bit of you thinking Honda, 2015? Next year is an important

year. Most of the focus is on 14, but we have a new partnership in 15.

I think Mercedes will do a very good job next year. There's no excuses.

There's no reason we can't go out there win and win a championship

next year. We'd like to do that. Inevitably, there's an excitement

about the longer term future. We'll try to focus on winning with

Mercedes again. That would be the right thing to do. Thanks for your

time. Good luck the rest of the weekend.

We're on board with Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes. He's going into the

pits. He did a practice start. I've been looking back at the poor years

for McLaren. 2004 they were only fifth in the championship as well. I

was talking to David Coulthard about it. It was a tough season for them.

Kimi Raikkonen, his team-mate that year, had hay second place finish in

Brazil in a rain-affected race. Maybe thicks will -- things will

come good for McLaren. 1983, they were fifth in the World

Championship, the pre-Ron Dennis era. They were sixth in '81. John

Watson was fourth in Long Beach and Canada. That was the year that Prost

was with John Watson at McLaren in 1980. He was snatched by Renault at

the end of the year. It was a year you just left McLaren, Gary? Yes, I

did the first Test. I left just after it. It was one of those

things, I wanted to work with Morris Dunn. Yeah, it was a difficult time

for McLaren. The years before that really they never caught onto the

ground effect cars. The car for 1980 was quite a good package, but it was

a year too late because it didn't have the information. They were a

year behind where they should be. You can see everybody trying to keep

themselves dry. But there's always passion for Formula One in Brazil.

We're at the Autodromo Carlos Pace stadium. You worked with Pace didn't

you? Yes, it's quite nice. It's a long time ago now. It was one of the

very good drivers. Unfortunately lost his life in an accident. One of

those guys who drove cars quickly. They were similar people, dedicated

to what they did but nice guys as well. 1975 he took the victory. The

first ever winner here was a Brazilian as well Fitipaldi. He's

written a beautiful piece on the McLaren website about his memories

of Cena. Very well worth a look. Looking at it this morning, looking

back at Cena. He knew him well and talks about how he knew him as a

lad, met him here, when Cena was winning everything in carting. The

cart track is right beside the main circuit here. He met him then and he

introduced him to quite a lot of the Formula One teams. He introduced him

to many team managers telling them all he was a future world champion.

Maybe they didn't believe him at the time, but they learned he was right.

It's interesting how the Brazilians stick together and help each other.

I've known quite a few. I've known Emmerson, Massa, Berti, to be

honest, Moreno, they all help each other at some point in time. They

have enough experience to know how hard it is. They stick together as a

nice club. Some other places we go to seem to try to make sure that the

other guy doesn't get a chance. But the Brazilians Join Together and

make it all happen. We have you in the car because the weather is

changing. There could be a break any moment. We don't want to miss the

chance to do any running. Just over half an hour to go in the final

practice session. One of the stories this weekend is which team will

finish 10th in the constructors battle? At the moment Marussia have

the 10th place. Their race in Malaysia was affected by rain. Jules

Bianchi got that place. That means they have 10th in the championship.

Caterham are trying to beat them. It changed in the final race last year.

Lets' see how they're feeling. Jenny is with Graham Lauden. Tense times

this weekend and there's a lot riding on the result here. Well,

there is, but it's another race. From the team's point of view that's

how we have to treat it. We are always trying to beat the team next

to us. We want to stay ahead of them now. Things can change, even with a

few laps to go. We will race as hard as we can and see if we can stay

ahead. Max Chilton in his car being fired up. That's the racket behind

us. What have you said to Chilton and Bianchi about how to handle the

pressure? They're professional drivers and they know exactly what

they're doing. They don't need us to add anything. They want to did a

really good performance every time they get in the car. I don't think

there's anything we could say to change their approach. We wouldn't

want to. We don't want them to feel any extra pressure at all. Was

announced earlier on this season, the second place in the team stim a

question mark over. Are things getting -- still a question mark

over. Are things getting closer to Max? It's highly unlikely we will

announce anything during FP3 session or qualifying or the race.

Traditionally we have waited until the season is over. I think that's

exactly how we're going to treat this season as well. I have to say I

think both drivers have done an extremely good job. They're both in

their rookie years. They've worked really well together. The whole team

has had a great atmosphere, very competitive spirit in the team.

That's what we will harness. We're standing in the noisiest place. Max

Chilton is about to go on track. I wonder, this is the end of the

Cosworth era, so say goodbye to a good partnership. Yes, a fantastic

brand in Formula One. They've been around for a very long time. It's

sad that there'll be a season without Cosworth. But they will be

in Formula One. They provide more than just engines. But I'm sure we

will see Cosworth engines again. Going forward, how hopeful are you,

we approach 2014, we will move back wards actually, how hopeful are you

that 2014, with the new regulations coming, can open a doorway to the

younger, newer teams to try and beat some of the more established guys?

For a team like us, we want to have regulation that's stay exactly the

same to allow us to catch up the lost time because we're a newer

team. Or some kind of radical change and one thing is for sure, the new

power units offer a completely radical change. We see it as an

opportunity. It's a huge technical challenge but one that we're up for.

It's too noisy. Graham, thank you. You're welcome.

Jules Bianchi is about to go out onto the circuit. Let's just watch

him out. Yes, there he is on his way out. Christian Horner joins us again

from the pit wall. It's a bit of a quiet day for you. Not much going on

from a team point of view, I suppose. It's a bit quiet. There's

supposed to be a hole in the rain at the moment. So I guess everybody is

in the garage trying to save their extreme tyres because we don't have

that many of them. Asking BBC viewers for their highs and lows of

the 2013 season. Many of people are connected with your drivers, of

course, Andrew says, "The best moment was Vettel's epic

celebrations after winning the title in India." Tom saying, "The worst

moment for him was Mark's too slow get him out of the way, the message

on the Vettel radio." What are your highs and lows? Certainly the high

of winning the championship in India was incredible. I think winning in

Montreal this year, a track we've never won at. To be totally dominant

through the weekend was really satisfying. The worst bit?

Obviously, there was a highlight in terms of performance, but a low

light in the way it panned out and the attention it attracted. That was

probably my low light of the year. Tell me how the relationship is now.

It's always been professional, I know, between Mark and Seb, but have

you seen any relaxing of it in the last few races with Mark heading out

of Formula One? Has that changed their relationship at all? It's

changed a little bit. They've always been a -- there has always been a

respect between them. The problem is they're different generations.

There's more than a ten-year age gap between the two of them and they're

different characters, different personalities. Therefore, there has

been, on occasion, differences of opinion over certain issues. There's

been a respect. Certainly, seeing that, as Mark is getting to the end

of his career now, I think it has thawed between the two of them. In

future years, with a bit of time for reflection, the relationship with

them will only grow. Looking down through the grid this year,

obviously you keep a very close eye on young drivers, particularly

through the Toro Rosso programme. You've taken Ricciardo to join your

top team for next year. Any other drivers that have impressed you this

year amongst some of the xetive teams? -- competitive teams?

Grosjean has stepped it up a gear, particularly in the last few months.

He's looked very impressive. I think Hulkenberg has done an excellent job

in the Sauber. They're two guys who have really stood out. Certainly I

think most people would agree with you. Thank you very much for joining

us again. Let's hope we get some running in before the end of the

session. Thank you. Jules Bianchi on track at the

moment. Who else? Not very many. Three cars out there. Jules Bianchi,

Max Chilton and Valtteri Bottas, the only cars out there at the moment.

It is probably one of the quietest. We are going shortly on the full

wets again. We don't want to damage these tyres. This is probably the

best chance before the track gets worse again. ( At the end of the

day, that's what happens when the track gets slippery. You can't do

anything about it. That's right. The only time we have sets is Bianchi,

Chilton. Barning bank has done 1. 33. 4. -- Bianchi has done 1. 33. 4.

No-one else has set a lap time. So the normal front runners haven't

completed a lap. Bottas hasn't completed a lap. The fin is out of

shape there. He has no fear of these conditions. You can see he seems to

thrive on the car moving around beneath him. He doesn't seem to

worry about the car moving around. That's a good thing to be.

Obviously, when the car is moving, you know where it is as well. If you

drive fast enough, then it just snaps away, you have a problem. If

My Friends Could See Me Now the car is moving -- if you keep the car

moving, then you don't have that problem.

# Valtteri Bottas is exceptional in these conditions. Let's think back

to Canada this year when we had changeable conditions in qualifying.

He put it third on the grid. He's a solid guy. Look what he did last

weekend - exceptional. Whenever he has had a chance to perform this

year, he has nailed it. He's been rewarded with another contract by

Williams. Another contract and a new team-mate in the shape of Felipe

Massa. He's going to be measured against a known target now. For all

the teams, who'll watch to see how he gets on, it gives a clearer

gradient. Against Maldonado, we know he can be quick, but we know he's

inconsistent. Bottas has done well to out qualify Maldonado on more

occasions than not this year, but it's hard to judge him. Yeah, Massa

coming into the team will be a huge asset for Williams at the moment.

They need to build. Pat is a great guy, running the engineering side of

the company now. He listens to people. He understands people. Hose

a racer at heart. -- he's a racer at heart. We will like Massa coming

there. This was the lap we were watching

now, when he got quite out of shape. Look how much work on the steering

wheel. You don't often see that on a Formula One car. But these

conditions are a different story. A question has come in - thank you for

your questions. What happens to the individual race engineers when

drivers change teams? Do they then work with the new driver that's

coming in? The question particularly is about Rob Smedley, will he work

with Kimi Raikkonen and will he be at Ferrari? There are driver

relationships. If you take Kimi Raikkonen's engineer Mark Slayed. He

was with Kimi at McLaren. You gept a relationship -- you get a

relationship built up. But the team employs the engineers. It's up to

the engineer whether he wants to take on a new job or move away. We

will see Smedley making a move. Everything sways that little bit. We

see changes even higher up in the engineering front. People from

higher levels move because of a driver movement. Just because they

have a relationship with that driver. It's quite important. Let's

see what this lap time is for Sebastien Vettel. He's been pushing

hard on this lap. Reasonable middle seconder. -- sector. He could go

quickest here. He's five tenths faster than anybody else. Bottas is

pretty good in these conditions. That's a good lap by Sebastien

Vettel, the first of the front runners to show us what he can do.

Jonathan Wheatly looking at the monitors. He looks like a Bond

villain as he assesses that lap. Weber is still in the -- Mark Webber

is still in the pits. You have to keep pushing, but one thing you want

to do at the end of the session is bring it back with all four wheels.

When the cars come back from these sessions they're horrible, covered

in muck and debris. You don't want to be having to fix the car during

these sessions because it can take away from the effort you put in for

qualify. Lap time is two or three seconds off the cross--over. Talking

about the cross-over, when to switch from the wets to the

interimmediatians. Tom? I wanted to follow up, we were talking about Red

Bull earlier and Sebastien Vettel gets ready to come in. I was

fascinated by what they did yesterday. They put an aerodynamic

device onto the car yesterday so they could back-to-back next year's

prototype dry tyre with the hard compound tyre that the team are

using this weekend, Gary, what could they have learned in those wet

conditions with those slick tyres yesterday? None of the other teams

did it. Why did Red Bull? I think they did it just because they had

the equipment on there to measures something. In reality I think they

would have learned very little. The thing you want to measure is when

the car is in a high-speed corner, you want to measure the distortion

in the tyre. The tyre goes down the straight at speed with a normal

aerodynamic forces displacing the tyre and making it change its shape

when it touches the ground. You want to see how it changes the airflow.

And how it changes the airflow when you go through a high-speed corner

with lots of tyre distortion. Those are the things that a tyre can

influence dramatically. It was still wet, they wouldn't have lateral

force to deflect the tyre. It wouldn't be quick down the straight

I thought Ross Brawn made an interesting comment yesterday

afternoon, when he was asked a similar question about why didn't

you go out on the slick tyres? Red Bull always seem to be a step ahead.

Ross just said, well in our opinion bad information is worse than no

information. That was his comment. It can lead you astray. I think they

only did it just because they had the kit on the car. I don't think we

see Red Bull led astray too often. They do a quick job. Quick lap from

Hamilton. 1. 29. 9. That was a good lap by Lewis. First driver into the

1. 29. Maybe he's happier with the handling of the Mercedes today.

Looking at Giedo Van der Garde. He had a bit of a moment. He was on the

kerb, but he recovered. Rosberg is just going out. We have seen

Hamilton go fastest of anybody. It's been a much quieter FP3 than normal.

A couple of questions coming in. Thank you for those, as the pace

begins to pick up. Question for you Gary from Matthew who says, "If I

wanted to get into the strategy side of things, within an F1 team, what's

the best way to go about that? You need good mathematical understanding

because it's all about simulation. To be honest, you have to do that.

You have to find yourself some way into motor racing. It doesn't matter

what level, on your CV you need experience. If you can do that, the

team can buy into it. It is a tough line, but it's something that can be

done. Most of the strategists would have some sort of degree, whether

it's engineering or a maths degree or something? Pure maths would be

more for that side of thing. It depends on where you want to go in

the future as well. Today is today. If you want to do the strategy work

today, but tomorrow is another day, you don't know what's going to

happen. If you do that well, you will always step up the team or get

the offers to step up the team. All the education you can get, put that

as a package and get yourself in the door with a F3 team, or GP 2,

something to sell to a Formula One team. Daniel Kyviat was with us

yesterday. He had driven in the morning. We were impressed by his

driving and how he chatted to us later in the day. He speaks several

languages, born in Russia, moved to Italy when he was 13. Speaks

Russian, Italian and also Spanish and very fluent English. He lives in

Milton Keynes at the moment. I think he'll be dog a lot of work on the

simulators over the winter. Now done to Jenny. I think you have news from

McLaren. Yes, Jenson Button just standing with his race engineer,

Dave. They're working on a few tweaks on the car. What I want to

show you, look at the back, the rear wing. Remember that formation, not

much low downforce. And let's look at Sergio Perez's car. You can see a

different set up. Lock at the back, completely different rear wing.

Inner there there is a monkey seat. They're going in two very different

directions at the moment. The thing is to try to get the best out of the

car possible. If you aren't -- if you aren't sure about the weather

tomorrow, you need speed. Running two cars differently is not the

wrong thing for sure. Hamilton, interestingly came back in the pits.

He had done the fastest first sector of anybody, then he came out of it.

He came back into the pits. Presumably they're looking after the

tyres. He is fastest any way. Probably looking after the tyres,

but it might have been a little mistake. The midsection of this

track you can make loads of mistakes. Then you give up because

there's no point in running the tyres the rest of the lap. You know

it's not going to be faster. It is about looking after the tyres. It's

a strange world because three sets of these wet tyres, it sounds like a

lot, but actually it's not very much. That's right. We have Paul

Hembry with us explaining they can't justify flying around many more sets

of wet tyres for the relatively rare occasions. We do follow the sun in

formula unwith. Generally -- Formula One. Generally we have dry events.

We've had a few wet qualifying sessions but not a fully wet Grand

Prix since Brazil last year. That was fully wet at times. It's been a

whole year since we've had one. Yeah, and more tyres is just more

tyres. What the should do is replace the wets, if you use them, or the

intermediates if you use them on the Friday. That would mean carrying an

extra set of tyres, but it wouldn't always be used. You don't have to

take it everywhere. This place we've come, how many times it's been wet,

so you know where you have to bring them to. We've seen a lot of wet

events in the past. Gutierrez is second fastest. He's done 1. 31.

16789? -- 1. 31. 1. Hulkenberg is third fastest. Sutil is fourth.

Vettel is five being with the time -- fifth with the time from earlier

on. Perez is eighth. Van der Garde is ninth. Bianchi 10th and Chilton

11th. No, 12th. We have Charles Pic in between the two Marussias.

Charles Pic is on track. It looks as though Caterham have a bit more

speed than Marussia in the wet. They have more downforce on the car. That

squashes the car into the track and give them more grip. Downforce is

everything in the wet. Tomorrow's weather forecast we're not sure

about. But this surface here because of the long pit straight and the

first part is uphill, with too much downforce it's easier to pass into

turn one. A lot of understeer. We gather that Sauber are running

two different set-ups on their car. Useful feed back from Nico

Hulkenberg there as they try to work out which set up is the one to go

for. If anybody was going for a lower downforce set up, Hulkenberg

would be the man. If you're going to split your cars, Hulkenberg would be

any choice of being able to cope with the downforce level is a bit

less. A lot of these decisions will have to be made quickly. -- minutes

-- 20 minutes left to go. You can see the wet tyres on the car. Very

deeply treaded, full extreme wet tyres on the Sauber. The more

lightly treaded version, different pattern that you see on the

intermediate. X Chilton is on the circuit. He didn't do free practice

1 in the morning, they had the free driver in the morning. He's trying

to learn the track. It's only been wet. He hasn't done any dry laps in

either of the sessions. None of them have of course, but he's learning

the track. It will be interesting if it dries up over tomorrow's Grand

Prix. I think Pic and Van der Garde have been here. Tom, what do you

have for us? Good news for myself and Jenny is that it's stopped

raining in the pit lane. Mark Webber is the first guy out on intermediate

tyres. You have to remember, this afternoon we could end up with a

drying qualifying session, as we saw in 2010, when Nico Hulkenberg kept

the car on the road on the driest bit of the session and took pole

position. I expect to see a lot of cars out now. I know it's the end of

the session any way. Get out on the intermediate now and try to simulate

what we will see this afternoon. That's very likely. Big slide for

Chilton. He has enough run-off to use. It was graceful for a while.

Eventually he had to run of the Tarmac into the run-off area. A bit

of bright nts around. -- brightness around. It's misty our window and

it's hard to see when it's raining or not. But we can see it's

brightening up along Sao Paulo. This is Max Chilton. Well held. Lots of

steering lock on there. He picked up the car well. Going out on

intermediates right now, I agree with the fact you need to find out

some time. But there is enough time to have left it longer. The rain has

stopped. The track will only get that bit better for a few minutes. I

think it might be early tore Mark Webber at the moment. Currently on

track. He's in the middle sector of the lap currently. We'll see how he

gets on with that. He's gone through turn five. There he is, coming up to

turn six. Let's see how he gets on on these intermediate tyres. The

full wets clear the water at 60 litres per second. The intermediates

about 20 a second. The full wets really clear the water at an amazing

rate. Yeah, they do. It's 60 litres a second, that's like filling a

bathtub in four seconds. The faster you go, the more it pumps, not just

because of the grooves in there. It's actually because those grooves

are built, so as they distort they act like a pump. The water is pumped

out. Less grooves on the intermediates less pumping of water.

This is on board with Mark Webber. We node a slightly clearer visor.

That's a great shot. He's gone fastest. 1. 29. 9.4. He's fastest in

the middle sector, not quite the fastest in the first and third. That

indicates they're running a lot of downforce. He got on the grass

there. That's a bit soggy now. Mark Webber, remember those intermediates

that he has on are brand new compared to used wets from yesterday

that are on the other cars. Slightly biassed comparison. You could do 27

or 28 on the wet tire if it was brand new as well. Webber is so far.

He has gone quite early. He may end up dropping down the order in the

final minutes. It doesn't matter. This doesn't count towards the grid

position of course. All it counts towards is the driver's experience

of the conditions, trying to learn when it is the right time to go onto

the intermediate. The cross over is just under the 1. 30 mark? Yes, I

would say 1. 28. If you can do that and be safer than doing 1. 29 on the

intermediate. I feel like Michael Fish at the minute. I told you the

weather is getting better but now it's getting worse. The rain is

coming down and it looks as if Mark Webber might have had the best of

the track conditions. He's just den a very quick lap. You -- just done a

very quick lap. He's massively quicker than anybody else. It's two

seconds faster than Lewis Hamilton did earlier on. Changing conditions

and you suddenly depet I lap -- get a lap, if you hit the sweet spot.

Williams have dispensed with the exhaust blowing the extra downforce

than created by the exhaust systems, they've been struggling with it from

the end of last year, never got it quite right. They've got rid of it

all together. Everything is a compromise. When the exhaust is

blowing, the bodywork sweeps inside the rear wheels an you compromise

that area. You lose overall downforce. As long as exhaust

blowing works well, you get the downforce back with traction, which

is when you want it. If it doesn't work well, you have lost something

from the set up of the car. Sometimes it's better to put it in

the bin. Hulkenberg has begun third fastest there. He had a moment

through turn 15, turn 14 in fact. Paul di Resta had hay shunt up there

last year at the end of the Grand Prix. We gather both it Ferrari and

Mercedes are not going to be out any further. They are saving tyres

rather than getting experience for the track in these conditions. They

feel they've done enough over the three practice sessions so far today

that they don't need to, or over the weekend, that they don't need to go

out now. It's an interesting choice. It is, but in reality, the track is

changing so much in conditions, it's about getting in the car and

adapting when qualifying comes. You can't take much from this session as

far as what's going to happen in qualifying. You have to wait and

make sure you are ready for those set of circumstances that might suit

your car and your driver to put intermediates or wets on, that will

happen during qualifying. They will work towards qualifying, perhaps

going for a full wet set up if they think it's going to be raining in

the race. Gutierrez has done 17 laps during this session. Next best 12

for Hulkenberg. So Sauber doing a lot of work here. They're

experimenting between different set-ups. That might help them later.

It's good to get laps under your belt, particularly for a less

exeensed driver like -- experienced driver like Barry Estabrook. He

could be one -- like Esteban Gutierrez. Vergne himself, by the

way, he hasn't done a time yet. He has only just gone out. Gutierrez

really is using the wide lines to the maximum. He almost hit the white

line on the edge. Let's listen. We have higher left front temperature

than the right. Still working on getting the temperatures right in

the tyres. Bottas has gone in as well. He's quite a long way off what

Webber did. But he's second. Kovalainen is fourth now. He always

goes well in slippery conditions. Only a sect outing for Lotus. This

is Romain Grosjean's car, star of the last Grand Prix when he finished

second, splitting the two Red Bulls. He has gone eighth. Confidence boost

for Heikki Kovalainen there, having set the fourth fastest time. He out

paced Grosjean yesterday. He has outpaced him so far today. What

counts is qualifying. Grosjean knows that. He may be keeping a little in

reserve. A lock up for Hulkenberg. You can see he was trying to turn

into the corner. He got the brakes locked. These tyres don't like

turning and braking. He's definitely, front brakes a bit dodgy

for him. That was the outside tyre. It implies the tyre temperature

isn't quite right. Yeah, it does. When you lock up, it's hard, you

have to get off the brakes. Thalingz the last thing you want to do --

that's the last thing you want to do. In these conditions the tyres

cool so quickly. Second fastest. Another good lap. Maybe it's about

living in Finland. These guys seem to be so good in the wet conditions.

Jean-Eric Vergne saying that his car is pulling massively to the left,

he's told the guys on the radio. He's been told work your brakes, we

have higher temperatures on one side than the other. It looked like Nico

Hulkenberg. Ing that an issue for the teams. The brakes around here

get different temperatures. Some people have brake ducts as well.

There is different cooling on them because of that problem. You pointed

that out on the Mercedes yesterday that one brake duct had a hole in

the top and the other was solid. Grosjean goes second. There's not

much between them. Lotus should be happy about that. A nod of the head

from iric. That's good effort. Still -- Eric. That's good effort. Still

trying to beat Ferrari for third. Two drivers scoring, you can get big

shifts at the end of the season. That's what they're looking for.

It's a culmination of both drivers' points. The maximum you can score 43

points, if you get a first and second. Not pane of those done. Red

Bull have had a couple this year. If you were lucky enough to fall into

that, it's big points. Hulkenberg has gone fifth on that lap. Good

first sector, faster than anyone in the first sector, lost out in the

middle sector. That's where he didn't gain the time. We're watching

Gutierrez, his team-mates still going around. He's burned through

the fuel a bit today. He's been a busy boy. Yes, very busy. That flick

there. That's scary. That's a flick you don't want. A couple of people

have flicks there and end up with consequences. That's a very fast

corner. In the dry, it's not really a corner. But in the wet it's

seriously a corner. Some quick reactions from Gutierrez. We have

saw that from Hulkenberg as well. Di Resta crosses the line. He's tenth.

Haven't seen a lot of Force India. They are now. They've decided to

leave it at the end. They're pretty evenly matched.

The checkered flag is about to come out on the session. F #36r3 comes to

a conclusion with Mark Webber quickest. -- FP3. Ricciardo is 1. 5

seconds down at the moment. Let's watch him up the hill and see how

stable the car is. No problem through there. Even using the

painted outside green part. That's pretty brave. I think I'd stay off

that bit. He seemed to deal with it OK. Ricciardo comes through and is

#107b8g. -- 10th. We know Jean-Eric Vergne likes the wet conditions.

Gutierrez sixth there and Vergne goes sixth now. He splits the

soubers. Once -- Saubers. Vergne is recognised to be a wet weather

specialist. Ricciardo could have his work cut out if it stays like this.

Di Resta also still slightly quicker. He maintains the edge over

his team-mate. Two strong team-mates at Force India. They push each other

along. Who else is to finish? Charles Pic is about to come around

through this last little loop. He's in 16th place. Can he find a tenth

on this lap and go ahead of his team-mate? Yes, he does. So the

third practice session has ended with a man leaving Formula One

fastest of all. That's got to be a nice feeling, 1. 27, the only one in

1. 27. 8. Hamilton is in 11th place. He wasn't

running at the end. That applies for the front runners. Ricciardo 12th,

Bianchi ahead of Pic, Chilton and Van der Garde. Vettel was 17th at

the end. When he was out there, he was competitive. Perez didn't do

that many laps. He's 18th. Rosberg didn't bother setting the time at

all. Jenson Button didn't do any lap

times. Massa same story. A lot of teams just concentrating on saving

their tyres for qualifying. That's important. I think the mix between

Bottas, Hulkenberg, Vergne, Gutierrez, Maldonado, that's great,

to see the small teams getting themselves up there. You have to

make the right decisions come qualifying. What you did in this

session doesn't really matter, but they'll be all right in qualifying.

Fastest in FP3. He will be one of those fighting for pole position I'm

sure. He's done well here in the past, two-time winner of this

circuit we'll keep an eye on Rosberg, Hamilton and Sebastien

Vettel. Not a very representative session,

but the rain will not spoil things. There are so many stories here this

weekend. Sebastien Vettel looking for his ninth consecutive

record-breaking victory. Mark Webber, fastest in that session,

he's hoping to bow out from Formula One with a win. Felipe Massa driving

for Ferrari for the last time after eight years. A lot of drivers here

don't know if they'll be in Formula One next year, eight seats up for

grabs, well a lot of drivers on the market. Find out more about all of

this in just one hour, BBC One, 3pm: