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  • F1 2018: Brazil Gp Preview – Title Battle Still On

    F1 2018: Brazil Gp Preview – Title Battle Still On

    More often than not the crowing of an F1 drivers’ champion takes the sting out of the remaining races of that season. But there is no such thing as a dead rubber in Formula 1 and it is certainly not the case in 2018 as Mercedes and Ferrari are still embroiled in a battle for the constructor’s championship title.

    While most of the attention is often paid to the drivers’ title the constructor’s championship trophy is as coveted. Lest we forget, the two cars that pound around circuit after circuit around the globe are only able to do so because of the incredible effort of hundreds of people both at the factories and trackside. And then there is the marketing capitol that goes along with being able to emblazon all promotional material with the champion epithet.

    The fight for the sought-after prize sees Mercedes in the lead by 55 points over Ferrari. With a maximum of 86 points still available in the final two races of the season there is every chance that Ferrari could still walk away with at least one championship trophy from 2018.  And there are several reasons to suggest why they may just do it too. Generally, as evidenced in the last few seasons, Lewis Hamilton’s form seems to dip slightly after winning a title, which could be something for Ferrari to pounce on. What’s more, Valtteri Bottas will no longer be in Hamilton-wingman-mode which could, potentially, prevent Mercedes from executing the perfect strategy by focusing on only one car.

    GP MALESIA F1/2017Another detail to add to the mix is the fact that Hamilton has never been a particularly special performer around Brazil’s Autodromo Carlos Pace, which hosts the penultimate race of the season this weekend. Though Hamilton claimed his first championship title here in 2008 in astonishingly dramatic fashion the Brit has never truly bossed this track.

    What’s more, since Ferrari finally figured out where it went wrong with their upgrade package their pace has returned. A win at the US grand prix and a double podium in Mexico is proof of that. While Kimi Raikkonen, off to Sauber for 2019, has racked up eleven podium finishes in nineteen races, it is Sebastian Vettel who should want to atone for the mistakes that he’s made this season. There is no better way to do this than to deliver the constructor’s trophy to Maranello. With the weather forecast predicted to be sunny on race, at least for now, Ferrari has every opportunity to put one over Mercedes who has been struggling with tyre wear in warmer conditions.

    There could hardly be a better backdrop for this battle that Brazil’s iconic circuit at Interlagos. The lap may be a relatively short one but it has hardly ever been short on delivering dramatic and enthralling races. And it has been the sight of many a championship triumph. This is Ferrari’s chance, which has already let one title slip through their fingers, to stand up and show what they are made of. Or will they once again trip over their own feet?

  • 2018 Brazil Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference

    2018 Brazil Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference

    DRIVERS – Brendon HARTLEY (Toro Rosso), Kevin MAGNUSSEN (Haas), Lance STROLL (Williams), Marcus ERICSSON (Sauber), Stoffel VANDOORNE (McLaren)

     

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Marcus, if we could start with you. It’s been a busy couple of weeks for you since Mexico. You’ve announced your plans for 2019, in IndyCar. Is that farewell to Formula 1 or do you see IndyCar as a stepping stone back to Formula 1?

    Marcus ERICSSON: I don’t really know the answer to that question; I think that’s what the future will tell. I go to America fully committed to doing a great job over there. I see myself as being there for quite some time. But then in the future you never know what will happen. I’m just super excited to go there. I met the team and it felt really, really good. I think IndyCar, from the outside, looks like a lot of fun, so I can’t wait to get started.

    Q: So that means your Formula 1 tenure is over, at least for now. How do you reflect on the last five years?

    ME: It’s been amazing, I’ve really enjoyed it, but it’s also been tough. Most of the time I’ve been running in back-of-the-grid teams and cars and that’s always tough, especially when you’re used to growing up through the junior ranks and you always fight for wins and podiums and you always go in with that mindset to a race weekend, and then the last five years that’s never been realistic and that’s been the tough part of it. That’s why also I’m so excited about next year, that I can actually be back racing for wins again. I bring a lot of experience and a lot of good memories from these five years, for sure.

    Q: Let’s just finish by talking about the on-track performance of you and your Sauber. You had your sixth points finish of the year in Mexico. How confident are you of repeating that here at Interlagos?

    ME: We are confident that we can be competitive here. I’ve scored points now two weekends in a row and I’m aiming to continue that. I think the car at the moment is competitive. We know it’s very tight there in the midfield but we’ve done a good job all year to improve all the time and we continue to do that and I’m sure we’re going to be in the fight this weekend as well. I feel really good, feel really confident so I’m sure we’re going to be there and fight for those points on Sunday.

    Q: Thank you, Marcus. Stoffel, you’re another driver who has announced plans outside of: is it farewell to Formula 1 or do you see Formula E as a stepping stone back into Formula 1?

    Stoffel VANDOORNE: It’s a bit hard to tell. I’m starting a new challenge, which I’m really looking forward to, with HWA in Formula E. I don’t really have a break this winter, so I’m going straight into that and that will also be… my mindset is to do the best job there. So whatever happens in the future, it’s difficult to tell at the moment. You know, the driver market this summer has been a little bit crazy and no one could have really expected what has happened. Things like that can happen in the future and who knows what is going to happen. But for now I’m just focusing on Formula E and trying to do the best job there.

    Q: So how do you reflect on your couple of seasons with McLaren?

    SV: Definitely it’s not been the best two seasons. I’ve had a great time with McLaren through the junior series and they’ve supported me a lot to make the step into Formula 1. But the two years I’ve had in Formula 1 have been good in terms of experience but I would have much preferred to fight higher up. The timing was right to get to Formula 1 and I think I was with the right team, the right support, but I think just the competitive we’ve had over those two years have not been great. It would have been nice to fight a bit higher up.

    Q: Well, we saw you back in the points in Mexico last time out, where you finished eighth. Just talk us through that result: what changed on the car, did you make a breakthrough, because you were more competitive?

    SV: Nothing changed. That weekend we just looked a little bit more competitive in general. From my side that weekend went really well from the start. Qualifying wasn’t maybe the best for us but we were a little bit closer to the group in front, which usually means on race day we are a little bit better than them. It turned out to be that way. I think the tyre degradation helped us quite a lot there to be a bit more competitive and to make a bit of a difference. It was nice to finish eighth and get some points on the board and also quite important for us for the Constructors’ Championship.

    Q: Thank you. Brendon, we’ve been speaking to these guys about 2019. Any update on your plans for next year?

    Brendon HARTLEY: Pretty much the same stance I’ve had for the last races. It’s probably not worth going into. I’m still very much focused on my own performance, what I can do to get the most out of the weekend, working with the team. I’m focusing on myself and not much has changed, so there’s no real news to give you.

    Q: You’ve started ahead of your team-mate Pierre Gasly in two of the last three races, so it feels like you’re getting a bit of momentum behind you. While we’re in reflective mood, can you just talk us through how you feel you’ve improved as a driver during 2018.

    BH: Yeah, I definitely have improved and there was a lot to learn, being a rookie – an old rookie at 28 years old – but still a rookie in Formula One. Coming from LMP1 there was a lot of similarities, which I’ve touched on many times before but then also a lot of new things to learn. Tyres is a big one that springs to mind. Maybe the environment in Formula One, the style of racing, and I guess some of the external pressures that are sometimes put on you as a driver. I felt through the season… yeah, I’ve maybe hardened my approach, I’ve got stronger, I’ve learnt from mistakes, figured out, with the engineers what’s going to get the most out of the weekend for me, in terms of the car, the set-up. I think I’ve bought a lot of experience to the team and in the second half of the season I’ve definitely been stronger. Qualifying, me and Pierre have been quite aligned: sometimes he’s been just ahead, sometimes I’ve been just ahead. The races haven’t always worked out and I don’t think the points on the board is a true reflection. I think sometimes people do forget it’s also a team sport, it’s not just an individual, it is very much a team sport and I’ve been a team player. I think now the focus is really on making sure we’re ahead of Sauber before the end of the season. That’s the main focus for Toro Rosso right now and I think we’ve got an exciting couple of races ahead. Mexico we had really, really good pace considering we had the older-spec engine. Even with the issue I had on the first lap with the flat spot, I was still in a points position before the penalty and the damage, and I think that, knowing how much performance we can gain from the new engine, and potentially the new aero package that we’ll both have this weekend, I think we can be excited and optimistic for the last couple of races for 2018.

    Q: You mentioned the upgraded Honda engine there. How much of an improvement is that? Is it something you can actually feel in the cockpit?

    BH: It’s a tricky one to answer because these Formula One cars are very light and you have close to 1,000hp – I don’t know the exact number – and the objective from the drivetrain, which is massively complicated with three different engines and all sorts of calculations going on to make it all work but in theory you get power when you put down the throttle pedal and… I guess the point I’m trying to make is that every track we go to, we have different downforce levels, different altitude in Mexico, for example, so to feel a power increase is tricky for a driver but the lap time shows a story and there’s no question from everybody in the team and from all the data that there’s a really big step. I think we suffered a little bit in Mexico, especially in the racing environments and off the start line not having it – but we have it onboard again for the next two races and yeah, it gives us something to be optimistic about.

    Q: Lance, we’ve spoken to everyone else about 2019, so I feel it’s only right that I should ask you the same question. When are you going to tell us what your plans are?

    Lance STROLL: Yeah, well, right now I’m still focussed on the remainder of this season. There’s two races left, that’s where my heads at. We’ll see what the future holds.

    Q: Can we expect an announcement about your future within this season or do you think it’ll be a winter announcement?

    LS: I believe so. Time will tell. That’s all I can say right now.

    Q: I think that’s you telling us to move on. We’re in reflective mood here. You’re coming towards the end of your second season in Formula One. Talk us through your ambitions in the sport now. You’ve been able to observe all the other drivers around you, including the world champions. What do you think you can achieve in Formula One?

    LS: That’s dependent on a lot of things. I mean, right now I’m just taking it day by day, year by year. We’ll see – but there are so many factors in Formula One that are important. You need to be in a good car first of all – this year has been a good example: it’s been a very challenging year with the car. The performance really hasn’t been there and therefore we couldn’t score many points. So that’s a bit part of it – but yeah, I’m not looking too far down the line right now, I’m really just trying to, y’know, focus on the present, make the most of where I am currently and we’ll see down the line what happens. It’s too hard to tell, sitting here today.

    Q: How difficult has it been for you to make the most of where you are currently, because it’s been a difficult season? What do you feel you’ve learned during 2018?

    LS: Yeah, it has been very challenging. The car just hasn’t been there so we’ve just been surviving every weekend rather than actually competing. Been getting knocked out in Q1 a lot, most of the races I’ve had good starts and I’ve been in a points-scoring position, we’ve just fell back down the order so it’s kind of always been the case, we’ve just been on the back foot throughout the whole year. We haven’t really developed the car at all since Australia, I don’t think we’ve really improved the car at all. It’s been tough to see some of our competitors early on, like Sauber, for example, who were neck and neck with us at the beginning, make big steps in the right direction, compared to us. Yeah, it’s been a survival year, that’s all I can say. But I’ve still developed as a driver, I’ve matured as a driver. The second year in Formula One, more seat time, more experience. I’ve absorbed a lot of information, even though it’s been a very challenging year compared to last year but that’s the nature of the sport. As a driver, you have to accept that some years are more challenging than others and that’s part of the game.

    Q: Kevin, we’re talking about 2018, so how do you reflect on the season that’s just been? It’s been a good year for you. You can clinch your qualifying head-to-head against Romain Grosjean this weekend in Brazil.

    Kevin MAGNUSSEN:  Yeah, it has been a pretty good year, I think. It has shown that we are making progress with the team, year by year, and I think our aim should be to keep that up in the next season. I think this year it looks like we’re probably going to finish fifth in the Constructors unless we get some very good weekends in the next two weekends. That leaves us at least one realistic target for next year, to take another step forward. I think this year we’ve had a very fast car. We haven’t always scored the points that we should have for different reasons but the good thing about that is that we can go into next season and know that we can do better, because the performance is there.

    Q: Well, Mexico really hurt the team’s chances of getting P4 in the championship, didn’t it? Both cars knocked out in Q1 for the first time this year; do you understand what the problems were in Mexico?

    KM: Not quite, but I think we understand that it’s probably to do with tyres as we hadn’t changed the car so the only thing that really can be such a big factor is the tyres and I think in Mexico you have these factors like you have very little downforce because of the altitude and that has a lot of knock-on effects on different things so cooling as well and you run the car in a different window in Mexico. I think we got the tyre performance a little bit wrong so we suffered a lot in Mexico and that was a weekend to forget, definitely, but also at the same time we of course are trying to learn from it because last year and the year before the team also had a bad weekend in Mexico, so hopefully next year we can learn a bit more and get there a little bit more prepared, to not have such a big off weekend.

     

    QUESTION FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Ian Parks – New York Times) Stoffel and Kevin; Stoff you touched on your two years at McLaren, can you just expand a little on your relationship with Fernando, what you might take forward from those two years, having worked alongside an experienced double World Champion? And Kevin, could you just give me your thoughts on Fernando as a driver? I know you’ve expressed some disagreements in the past. Does that still hold true and what positives can you say about him?

    SV: Yeah, for me it’s definitely been a good experience to go alongside Fernando, let’s say. The way he prepares a weekend – obviously Fernando’s one of the most experienced drivers on the grid. I think as a rookie it was very valuable for me to learn from that, especially the way he prepares his weekend, through the practice sessions, how he’s building up to the race on Sunday, how he’s trying to extract the most so there’s a definitely a lot I’ve learned over the past two years which I can carry forward.

    KM: My respect for Fernando as a driver is very big. There’s no doubt he’s definitely one of the best drivers on the grid. Even though we’ve had some tough fights and a few arguments, there’s no damage to my respect for him as a driver. I think that’s it.

  • Formula 1 Heading to Vietnam in 2020

    Formula 1 Heading to Vietnam in 2020

    Formula 1 and the City of Hanoi, Vietnam have announced at Vietnamese Grand Prix for 2020.

    This is the first new race signed by Liberty Media since acquiring Formula 1. The announcement, says Liberty Media, represents Formula 1’s commitment to the Asia region.

    The deal for the Vietnamese Grand Prix is a multi-year deal and it will take place on a 22-turn, 5.565km track through the City of Hanoi. F1 worked with Tilke Designs to create a semi permanent street circuit, much like the Marina Bay Street Circuit in Singapore.

    “We are delighted to announce that Hanoi will host a Formula 1 Grand Prix,” remarked the CEO of Formula 1, Chase Carey.

    “Since we became involved in this sport in 2017, we have talked about developing new destination cities to broaden the appeal of Formula 1 and the Vietnamese Grand Prix is a realisation of that ambition.

    “We are thrilled to be here in Hanoi, one of the most exciting cities in the world right now with such a rich history and an incredible future ahead of it.

    “This is the perfect formula for Grand Prix racing and I look forward to this becoming a real highlight of the F1 calendar.

    “Our Motorsport team, working in collaboration with the City of Hanoi and promoter Vingroup, has worked to enable a circuit that will not only test the drivers but also ensure that our fans enjoy the racing spectacle.

    “We are really looking forward to seeing Formula 1 cars speeding around the streets of this fantastic city from 2020.”

    Nguyen Duc Chung, Chairman, City of Hanoi:

    “We are proud to be hosting the Formula 1 Vietnam Grand Prix, and showcasing the city of Hanoi to the world with its special combination of ancient and modern beauty from 2020.

    “It’s a further demonstration of Vietnam’s ability, as one of the fastest growing economies in the world to host events on a global scale and attract tourism to the country.

    “It provides an opportunity for inward investment to Vietnam and importantly to bring the exciting wheel to wheel racing of Formula 1 to the people of Vietnam.”

    Nguyen Viet Quang, Vice Chairman and CEO, Vingroup, Promoter:

    “We are excited to see that our work with Formula 1 to secure this deal has finally come to fruition.

    “An essential part of this collaboration has been making sure that we not only showcase the city of Hanoi but also deliver an exciting race for Formula 1 fans in Vietnam and around the world.

    “With the mission of “a better life for Vietnamese people”, VinGroup wants to bring this race to Vietnam because of the general benefits to the society such as more jobs will be created, the infrastructure of Hanoi will be upgraded, and other bigger worldwide events will be encouraged to take place in Vietnam.

    “For VinGroup individually, through the F1 racing event, we are going to proclaim the first Vietnamese car manufacturer, VinFast, to millions of audiences in the world.”

  • F1 2018: Mexican Gp Review – Verstappen Mighty in Mexico

    F1 2018: Mexican Gp Review – Verstappen Mighty in Mexico

    The 2018 Mexican grand prix hasn’t been the most dramatic race of the season but it was certainly an unusual one. For Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari the equation was quite simple as nothing other than victory could stop Lewis Hamilton from clinching the driver’s championship.

    Victory however was nearly always out of the question as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, dominant for most of the weekend, jumped into the lead of the race and never looked back. Though it was Daniel Ricciardo who started from pole the other Verstappen and Hamilton overtook the Red Bull driver before they reached turn one.

    It was fairly easy for Verstappen to clear off in the lead of the race and replicate his performance from 2017. Behind him Hamilton, Ricciardo, and Vettel were engaged in a close scrap for most of the race. Hamilton, with a Merc shredding its tyres, would eventually be out of the equation and off the podium but still in position to win the title. Though Vettel turned a much quicker pace on the Supersoft tyre in the second stint of the race Verstappen was already too far up the road. He was on the verge of taking second place of Ricciardo but the Aussie driver suffered a suspected engine failure on lap 62 bringing his number of retirements for the season to eight.

    0145Further adrift Kimi Raikkonen came home in third for Ferrari while Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas were fourth and fifth. It was a peculiar day in terms of performance for Mercedes who struggled significantly with tyre-wear throughout the race. Such was their lack of pace that Hamilton finished nearly eighty-seconds behind Verstappen while Bottas was lapped by the race leader.

    It was a good day for Renault with Nico Hulkenberg in sixth ahead of Sauber’s Charles Leclerc in seventh. While Fernando Alonso retired early on after hitting debris on lap one McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne finished eighth while Marcus Ericsson and Pierre Gasly completed the top ten. Unfortunately, the fervent crowd support for their local driver Sergio Perez wasn’t enough as the Mexican driver failed to reach the chequered flag.

    Other than a few anxious moments towards the end of the race, given Ricciardo’s suspected engine failure, Verstappen delivered a flawless drive to claim the fifth win of his career. The amazing fact is that at age 21 Max Verstappen has not yet reached his full potential. It’s an exciting thought then that even from dominant performances, like in Mexico, Verstappen could and probably will only get better with time.

    0015As much praise as Verstappen deserves for his performance the limelight too belong to Lewis Hamilton. It doesn’t feel all that long ago that a rookie British driver scythed around of Fernando Alonso into turn one at the start of the Australian grand prix in 2007. There would likely have been more than a few who would’ve predicted that Hamilton would become world champion but few would’ve imagined a tally of five world titles.

    The inevitable question is where Hamilton ranks in the list of the all-time greatest Formula 1 drivers. But how do you quantify greatness? Some would cite race wins or number of titles as the determining factor. If this is the most logical way of quantifying and calculating greatness then an astonishing five world titles has pushed Lewis Hamilton into the company of Juan-Manuel Fangio and the great Michael Schumacher. And he’s not done yet.

    All images courtesy of Pirelli Motorsport
  • 2018 Formula 1 Mexico Grand Prix: Post Race Press Conference

    2018 Formula 1 Mexico Grand Prix: Post Race Press Conference

    WORLD CHAMPION

    Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

    TOP THREE DRIVERS

    1 – Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing)

    2 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)

    3 – Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN (Ferrari)

     

    TRACK INTERVIEWS

    (Conducted by David Coulthard)

     

    Q: Max, Mexico loves you; you must love Mexico – your second straight win here.

    Max VERSTAPPEN: Yeah, amazing. The start was the key. To be honest with you, I didn’t sleep very well last night, so I was really determined to win today and luckily we did that. Yeah, amazing job by the team as well. We had the right tyres available and the car was working brilliantly.

     

    Q: You didn’t sleep well but you made up for it with that great drive. We saw your team-mate pull out with some issue. We heard you on the radio saying “what do I need to do, do I turn it down?” Nervous moments for you towards the end.

    MV: Yeah, of course, it was a shame to lose Daniel. I think we could have had a one-two, or at least two cars on the podium and of course then afterwards you want to make sure yours doesn’t retire.

     

    Q: A bit of a party tonight?

    MV: I’m going home, so really happy about that.

     

    Q: Well done, congratulations. Sebastian, congratulations on your podium, your first podium here, but I guess this is a reflective moment as we see Lewis Hamilton celebrating his championship. You pushed him hard all year but in the end it just didn’t work out.

    Sebastian VETTEL: No. Yeah, obviously not an easy day, but well deserved, congrats to him and his team, they did a superb job all year, so I think we need to stand there, accept that and say congratulations. Obviously I would loved to hang in there in a little bit longer, but it wasn’t the case.

     

    Q: You had the car at various points this year; you had some fantastic victories, where do you think championship started to slip away?

    SV: Oh David, I don’t know if I answer that question now. Let me say congratulations to Lewis.

     

    Q: Beautiful moment here between two great champions. We’re going to hear from our five-time world champion. Lewis, beautiful moment there, great respect between you two guys, you are a five-time world champion. You’ve had some time to think about it. That was a tough race, but you’ve just equalled Fangio and it’s only Michael Schumacher with more world titles.

    Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah, it’s a very strange feeling right now, but I think I firstly want to say a big thank you to all the fans here, really for making the Mexico Grand Prix as special as it is. So a big, big thank you there. Secondly I want to say a big thank you to my team. You know, Bonno said on the radio it wasn’t won here, it was won through a lot of hard work throughout the races. I’m so grateful for all the hard work back home. To Petronas, Epson, to Bose, everyone that has been part of it and ultimately to Mercedes. I’ve been with Mercedes since I was 13, so to complete this when Fangio had done it with Mercedes, you know, it’s just an incredible feeling and very, very surreal at the moment.

     

    Q: Do you want to talk about the difficult race you had this afternoon with the tyres or do you just want to keep talking about this amazing achievement? Where does this rate with your other four titles?

    LH: It was a horrible race! I got a great start and really was working my way up. I really don’t know what happened after that. We were struggling, both Valtteri and I, but I was just trying to hold, just trying to bring the car home. Honestly, I’m just so grateful to God today, to my family back home – I love you, thank you for all the support. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for all the hard work my dad did, all my family. Yeah, a humbling experience.

     

    Q: Enjoy the moment. And then finally, Kimi Räikkönen. Congratulations. One stop. That would prove quite tricky for you, but was that the best strategy for your car this afternoon.

    Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: Yeah, I think from where we started. I think the tyres lasted pretty OK, obviously not the fastest anymore, but there were times that was the best in the position were were.

     

    Q: This trip to the Americas has been quite consistent for you though, winning last time out in Austin, third place here.

    KR: Yeah, I mean it’s good. Obviously we always want to more, but I cannot complain too much. We have two more races to go and we’ll try to do better.

     

    PRESS CONFERENCE – TOP THREE DRIVERS

     

    Q: (Francisco Alcala – Global Com Group) What did you say to Lewis after the race?

    SV: I’m not a big sharing person. I congratulated him, I think he drove superbly all year and was the better one of us two. So I told him well deserved and to enjoy it – number five is something incredible. Mainly congratulated him and asked him to keep pushing for next year, I need him at his best to fight him again

     

    Q: (Christian Menath – Motorsport-Magazin.com) A question for Seb. If I remember correctly last year, after the championship was decided here, you were really down, and today again, even if it was for us all a bit expected it was going to happen. Can you explain why you are down when the championship is decided?

    SV: It’s a horrible moment. You put a lot of work in and OK, I get your point that you saw it coming. I did pay attention in maths so I could make the numbers, but still, you hang in there as long as you can. I’ve had three times now in my life that sort of disappointment, where you realise that you can’t win the championship any more and those are not happy days. You reflect not on one moment but the whole year: the work that goes in, the effort that goes in from the end of the last year until now and yeah, I think we had our chances. We used most of them, some we did not. But in the end we were not good enough.

     

    Q: (Arjan Schouten – AD Sportswereld) A question for Max, about your frustration yesterday. Was that only because of missing the pole or was it also because of missing the record from Sebastian?

    MV: No, the frustration was that I didn’t have an optimum package to fight for pole, because we had the same problem as in the second practice, so I never felt comfortable because of the problems and that’s why I was frustrated. In qualifying everything needs to come together and you try to optimise everything and clearly it was not optimised. I’m not there to be second or third. I want to win; I want to be on pole. At the end of the day the record for me is not a big deal, because the points and stuff are always on Sunday and that’s the most important thing.

     

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Max, a win today is another peak in a brilliant run for you from Canada onwards. What would you say is the main difference with you now as a driver compared with the start of the year and how fine a line is it between maybe overtaking or being caught in scrapes and the level of performance you’re at now?

    MV: The difference is I just listen to myself. I do my own thing, even if there are a lot of things written, I really don’t care. My dad always told me in go-karting, back in the day, if I was maybe overdriving or something, he would always tell me “Max, even if you think you are not going fast enough, it’s still fast enough”. So basically, for my feeling, I just backed it out a little bit and that seems to make me a bit faster.

     

    Q: (Jens Nagler – Bild) A question for Seb. Is this a moment to let sink in the disappointment or is it already the first moment to bounce back?

    SV: No. I don’t want to make a big deal about today. As with the question before, you could see it sort of coming, but for sure it’s different. I focus on my own, I focus on my car. It’s what you work for the whole year and when you are not anymore in control, it’s obviously not a great moment but I think it’s normal as well to have that moment of disappointment and that you are a bit down but I think I will be as strong as I can be in two weeks’ time heading to Brazil. Because that’s what my team deserves and that’s what all the guys at home in Maranello deserve and all on top all the people that have supported me, Kimi, myself and the whole team, all the tifosi all year. Maybe for now I’m not the happiest guy, but in two weeks’ time I’m allowed to step into the car that I always dreamt of driving, so plenty of things to be happy about.

     

    Q: (Julien Billotte – AutoHebdo) Question to both Ferrari drivers. You’re still in for the Constructors’ Championship. Could it help you make up for the loss of the drivers title?

    KR: I was hoping nobody was asking! Obviously that’s our aim, as it has been all year – but I don’t know what the points are and we can only do our best and hopefully we’ll say in the fight and can catch up. Two races to go, so we’ll do our best.

     

    SV: Yeah, as I said, I think in two weeks time we have the possibility to show once again what we can do and obviously we race for the team and as long we keep on catching, that’s good. We need some more points but I think last weekend was good for us, this weekend was good for us – so hopefully we can continue the last two races like that.

     

    Q: (Luis Vasconcelos – Formula Press) Kimi – you answered one question, might as well answer two – you lost a position to Sainz in the beginning, that sort of compromised you a bit and you lost contact, and your first stint wasn’t very good and then you have just the one stop race. How was it from your point of view?

    KR: Yeah, I think on the start, the initial start was OK, I was following Seb and then somehow that side of the road slowed down in the middle of the straight. I went on the other side but obviously I was behind Seb going through the first corner, and didn’t really want to get involved. I lost one place and got it back the next time around on the straight, so it wasn’t a big deal. It was tricky with them. I think I had more speed than the Mercedes in front of me, but tried to get past but just didn’t have enough of a good run on the straight and then yeah, my tyres basically gave up. The front tyres. It was tricky. We were planning to come in but yeah, then Mercedes came and we decided to do the opposite. Yeah, I knew that we were going to go for one stop from that point and I think the tyres, the second set was very good but obviously we needed to look after then a bit too, to make it to the end. Not an awful lot happened after that. Obviously I caught up with the Mercedes, past him, locked up at the same time and went straight and then obviously I think it was Ricciardo had some issue and stopped. Good end result, not the most exciting race but that’s how it goes.

     

    Q: (Arturo Lopez Escalona – El Sol de Mexico) Question for Max, what represents for you to win here at the Mexican Grand Prix for the second year?

    MV: What it means. It’s of course great. We knew last year we were strong and then coming into this event we had the same hopes – but of course it’s never easy to win a race. Yeah, of course, very happy to win it for the second time in a row, and yeah, it’s a special track with the fans, they’re very passionate and the stadium section as well. I think anywhere if you win a race it’s always positive.

     

    Q: (Jaap de Groot – De Telegraaf) For Max. You just said you were mainly disappointed yesterday because the car didn’t deliver in the way you wanted…

    MV: …no, the car did. The engine didn’t.

     

    OK. But today, how were you balancing between the doubt and the focus to win. I notice you were fine-tuning the state of the tyres and the engine constantly.

    MV: The only option was to win today for me. That was in my head and, of course, that’s why I was very disappointed yesterday but we made it up today, so of course I’m very happy with that.

     

    Q: (Louis Dekker – NOS) Also for Max. Does this make… this victory also a bit a Renault victory, a revenge? Because it’s better than yesterday. The engine also gave you the victory?

    MV: How do you know it’s better?

     

    I don’t know, I’m asking.

     

    MV: No.

     

    Q: (Fernando Alonso – Motorlat) We here that maybe the tyres are not giving enough chances to have open races. I see this weekend all words about the perfect point in the degradation and everything. Max or Sebastian, tell us this could be a constant thing in the next races?

    MV: I think it was a bit unexpected how the tyres behaved. Maybe with the hyper, yes but with the ultra, I think nobody really expected it to be like this. We came into this event with a few different tyre strategies but normally you always end up on the same tyres, more or less, for the race. But very quickly, in the weekend I think that we saw that the supersoft was quite a strong tyre and luckily I had two. I didn’t use any in practice, I just saved them for the race in case we needed it and clearly we needed it. So, it’s a bit of a guess.

     

    Q: (Carlos Alberto Velazquez – Reforma) Max, is the second time you win here. You’re the fourth driver that makes that accomplishment. What does the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez give you to have such success – and will you be prepared next year to come here and run for the Championship maybe?

    MV: That’s a very far ahead thought so I don’t want to speak about that yet – but what’s good for us, at this track, it’s a lot about mechanical grip and the aero is a little bit less important but also the top speed is not that important compared to other tracks, so we are not losing out that much on the straight, and yeah, it suits our car much better. We make up a lot of time through the corners. That makes us competitive. I enjoy driving here but I don’t really think this track is a particular favourite of mine in terms of my driving style or whatever. Of course, when your car works well, you can have a good result.

     

    Q: (Alfredo Lopez Ledesma – MomentoGP) Question for Seb. This 2018 has been your most difficult year in Formula One?

    SV: Maybe. I don’t know. I need to think about it but in some regards, definitely yes. Yes it was definitely different to other years but nevertheless I think we shouldn’t neglect the fact that we had a very strong package, we were able to win races, we’re not in contention any more for the Drivers’ Championship but we can fight for the Constructors’. So, even if it has been a difficult year, I think still it’s been a good year for us as a team. We’re still improving – but certainly there were also things that became apparent, needs addressing, needs fixing in order to do that final step that we are looking for.

     

    Q: (Victor Macin Serrano – ESPN) Question for Seb. Germany or Monza? Which moment is, in your opinion, is the defining moment of the season?

    SV: None of the two, to be honest. For me it was more Singapore. I think, yeah, from Singapore onwards we just didn’t have the pace to keep up with Mercedes for a couple of races and then obviously some other things happened on top that didn’t help and we couldn’t score the points due to mistakes that we did, mistakes that I did. So it didn’t help. I can’t be too hard on myself with what happened in Germany because it’s not like… I’ve done much bigger mistakes this year but obviously it was the most costly one. Unfortunately it’s part of racing: when you push you might be sometimes pushing a little bit too hard. I chose the wrong corner as well. But anyway, it’s behind me and I’m not really thinking about that too much. I consider it part of racing and it happens to others as well. So, but yeah, seeing that struggled in the last couple of weeks, just for pace and speed was probably more defining than that.

     

    QUESTIONS TO LEWIS HAMILTON

    Q: (Henry Bonilla – F1Latam.com) Lewis, once again, here in Mexico, in Latin America. What are you feeling?

    LH: Right now, it just doesn’t feel real. I feel like I’m going to wake up in a matter of moments. It’s been such a difficult year and such a great battle but a lot of work, like a lot of word and to try and raise the bar this year has been such a huge challenge and naturally… you know I’ve trained myself this year, I prepare myself mentally, don’t believe in mind coaches and all those kind of things and so, I really work hard to make sure I’ve got the right energy, the right balance in my life and this year, working on all these different aspects to enable myself to perform better. I think I had a great year last year and I was thinking to myself how can I raise the bar, how can I squeeze some more out of myself? And honestly, you never know what the formula is and there is no secret formula but somehow I managed to find that balance and that flow and I’ve had some of my best races of my career and I think that’s ultimately why I’m sitting here. But it doesn’t even register at the moment, being number five. Just getting my first was amazing and the third was incredible. People are mentioning Fangio so I think right it’s just kind of… it’s very very humbling as well because I’m conflicted emotionally, right now, because I’ve had this tough race which I wanted to win, got a great start and then it went from good to bad but we still finished fourth. It’s not a bad finish and ultimately it’s what we needed but in my mind, we’ve still got a team championship to win and today we lost some points to Ferrari and I really want to deliver for the team, so I’ve still got two races to win.

     

    Q: (Fernando Alonso – Motorlat) The question…

    LH: Your name is Fernando Alonso.

    Q: (Fernando Alonso – Motorlat) Yeah. A little longer but I shortened it.

    LH: I never thought Fernando would be asking me questions!

    Q: (Fernando Alonso – Motorlat) A pleasure for myself.

    LH: Can you drive?

    Q: (Fernando Alonso – Motorlat) Not that fast but I think I can drive. I have been in conference in Valencia in the test and you said you played many games and you are training like you said before, but you delivered this like one of your best years in formula One. What do you think is your best skill that you have developed this year?

    LH: Honestly, it was all round. I’ve obviously had the ability since I was very young. Since I’ve been in Formula One I’ve had the ability to drive like I do today but naturally I think every year you are always trying to raise the bar and when I say raise the bar, you’re trying to work on all areas, how you prepared, how you get yourself in the right mindset, how you deliver in the car with your feel. How you learn to balance the car and risk versus reward. How you communicate with the guys who you work closely with, to extract the best from them. All those areas are so important, even things like… I’ve got certain people who work very closely to me, I’ve got make sure I keep… how do I keep their spirits up, how do I keep them driven? If they seem me at a weekend and they know that I’m here to win – which, you know, sometimes you can arrive in a bad head space, we’re only human – but if you can try and focus on doing that each weekend it can really make a big difference to your weekend, so there are so many areas and I think for me, just being… the most personally in the car, I’ve been the most centred this year, been the healthiest I’ve ever been and I’ve had more energy than I’ve ever had. Part of that, I’m sure, is being on a vegan diet. It’s been fantastic and I’m so happy that I went that way. I wish I went there a long long time ago.

     

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Lewis, there have been lots of time this year when Ferrari and Seb probably had the faster package overall. You’ve won a lot of races but arguably they may be should have. The battle was so to and fro for the first half of the year. The fact that you’ve wrapped it up comprehensively with two races to go, how much of a surprise is that and how does that feel?

    LH: Yeah, absolutely. Through the year there were a lot of testing times for us. Even on weekends where we didn’t have the package and we were on the back foot but then came away with that belief within the team, still, that we could come away with something good, we’d come away with wins, even though we weren’t the quickest. It took some special laps, it took some special moments in the car and I honestly could just re-live those moments all the time. Some of those experiences I had in the car were really magical. I truly believed that we could win this championship but it has been the toughest battle that we’ve had collectively as a team. So much work has gone on in the background. These guys in the garage have just been flawless every single weekend, with our pit stops, with our decision-making in the background, strategy and set-up. That’s been key to… ultimately, for me, I feel like I can drive anything and I feel I can take the car to places that nobody else can. But to do that, you have to get the car in the right place and so that means ultimately you’ve got to work with the team, to help unleash what’s great within them so that you can unleash the greatness in yourself.

     

    Q: (Ben Hunt – The Sun) Could you identify a turning point, perhaps, this season, whether it was the German Grand Prix  and winning that, and following it up with that qualifying lap in Budapest? Was it round that sort of time?

    LH: What was before Hockenheim? Silverstone? Before that? Austria. France was good. There have been so many races that I don’t remember them all. I think naturally at the beginning of the year, we started out great in the first race and then we had that fall back and then we had some testing races after that. Then we had that DNF when I think we were leading the Grand Prix or at least one-two or whatever it was in Austria and then we the difficult collision at Silverstone but came back. I think when I came back at Silverstone, firstly being on your home circuit is always something so special and when you see that crowd that really lifts you up, they just… Ever since my first Grand Prix there but most importantly, the second one, 2008, I could see the guys in the grandstand. That’s probably the first time I started noticing people standing up and cheering me on. And that has never faded, all these years being going to the British Grand Prix. So coming back from last to second, for me, in my mind, was like OK, I think that might have been quite a confidence boost, but then of course we went on to some great races after that. Budapest, obviously, going into the break, it’s great going into the break with a win, particularly when we knew that we weren’t quickest at that point of the season. And we knew that that was more a confidence blow to the other team. And then Hockenheim, Monza… I think we just went from strength to strength after that and we just kept taking a step up. But look, we’re still here in Mexico and it was a tough race for us today and the Ferraris were quickest than us again. I think undenyingly, we’ve been very very close on performance through the year and I think it’s still arguable whether or not we’ve had the perfect package but I think, as a team, we’ve operated better than any other.

     

    Q: (Rebecca Clancy – The Times) What are your plans now, how will you celebrate, what happens between here and Brazil?

    LH: You know it’s going to sound really boring – which it is, probably – because I just feel very content right now. I just feel very happy. Jeez, I’m looking forward to going to sleep, honestly, but I’m really trying to cherish this moment because I know this moment will only last for a period of time and then you’re moving on to the next thing. Time is just so precious, this is a precious moment for me so I’m just to absorb it and really cherish it. I still have work to do. I’ve still got to get back to the factory and rally the troops next week to figure out how we can come back and win these next races. I have no idea why I struggled so much in these last two and we all feel the pain of not winning those races and we still have the Constructors championship to win, which I know will mean even more to all the guys back at the factory. So that’s the focus. But right now, I think tonight, I’ll leave this beautiful country, Mexico and Mexico City has always been good to me and the people here… the food has been great, the hospitality has been exceptional so I always enjoy my time here and looking forward to coming back. I’m probably going to come back some time in January to train and surf and enjoy myself but until then, I think… I’m looking forward to seeing my dogs, I’m going to go and see my dogs tonight, the unconditional love of a pet is something quite special. I think I’ve got a lot of friends around me so I’m sure we’ll come together and really try to embrace the moment but yeah, as I’ve said, I’ve still got races I want to win so a little bit conflicted.

     

    Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) There are lots of people, who now you’ve got your fifth title will say you’re the greatest of all time or you’re up there, given that you’ve won so many races, so many poles, five championships. You’ve never resorted to any dirty tactics. Do you think you’re Formula One’s GOAT (greatest of all time)?

    LH: No, I think, honestly I would prefer that term but I do when I look at other people that I admire who are doing great in whatever field they’re working in.  Right now, I’ve still got things to achieve, there are so many targets, so many things ahead. Now I can tick off, I can strike out one of the things that I put on my list of the year. It’s always at the top: win the World title, do everything for that. I think it’s impossible to say whether or not… firstly I could never ever personally classify myself as the best. Obviously, within myself, I know of my abilities and where I stand but ultimately… My Dad always told me, since I was eight years old, he said ‘do your talking on the track.’ So I just try to let my results and the results from the things that I do outside of my sport, hopefully, also contribute to that, so that people can hopefully create a decent opinion. But there’s still Michael’s… Michael’s still quite far ahead in race wins so you can have to say he is still the GOAT. Fangio, I think, is the godfather and always will be, from a driver’s perspective. To do what he did at that time when everything was so dangerous… my respect is so high for him. I feel very honoured to have my name alongside his, that’s for sure and naturally just every proud to have the Hamilton name up there. If I stopped today, the Hamilton name will always be there. If you could see how tough it was for us from the beginning and even this year, you know, there’s still fighting with those obstacles and still coming stronger and stronger each year. I feel like I’m still driving with that fierce fire that I had when I was eight years old which I love. So I’ll keep going until that goes, which I don’t think it’s ever going to go but I will just… my bodyclock will run out at some stage.

     

    Q: (Luke Smith – Crash.net) Lewis, following on from that, how much of your outside activities from Formula One this year really empowered you and helped you on track this year? You seem to be in a very very happy place right now.

    LH: Definitely, definitely. It’s been a special year in the sense of… I think for everyone and I guess I can only really talk for myself but I think being able to tap into your creativity is only a positive, there’s no negatives about that. Naturally people will have opinions for and against things that you do but one thing for me is that all of you will know – and I don’t do everything perfectly  and I don’t always say the right things – but one thing I do do is I do me. Only I can live my life the way I live it and it can’t be steered by anyone else and I try to do the right things in order to be my best. Having these opportunities to do these other things, tapping into a different part of the mind, naturally doing these things outside a race and it has nothing to do with being a racing driver, but I think it’s keeping the brain stimulated and knowledge is power, so naturally when you’re learning new things, when you’re experiencing new things you’re gaining knowledge as you travel the world and I only see that as a positive so I try and be a sponge and absorb from people like Tommy, who has built an incredible brand. Ultimately, on my list, there’s a new dream there, to do something like he’s done within that business. So we will see how it is ten years from now.

     

    Q: (Arturo Lopez – El Sol de Mexico) What does it represent to you to be Formula One World Champion? And here in Mexico?

    LH: I couldn’t have bet and told you it would have happened here in Mexico. It’s been strange because the first race I didn’t win, I think I came second and then I had a win in 2016 here which felt incredible. Did I win last year? No, we didn’t win last year, we finished eighth last year which was disastrous but what it’s proved to be, it’s such a difficult Grand Prix for so many reasons. One is the altitude, one is the traffic – you could easily miss the race with the traffic that’s here! You’ve got some good drivers here in the city, that’s for sure. But I always have such a great stay here, it’s been such a peaceful stay. I’ve been really really well looked after. It’s interesting, I was just outside doing the TV pen and everyone was smiley but the Mexicans were, like, bubbly and there’s a different spirit, there’s a great spirit within the culture of the Mexican people, as you can hear with the music. They’re celebrating and partying outside. I appreciate that and I respect that and look forward to coming back, hopefully, for many more years.

     

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, Racefans.net) Lewis, obviously matching Fangio’s record is a massive achievement but he did it with a variety of different teams, whereas you’ve done all your five with Mercedes power. Michael had two teams to get to seven. Could you imagine doing it with any team other than Mercedes?

    LH: Well, naturally I did it with McLaren which was obviously a different team so I have one it with two different teams. Michael had five with one team? He had two with Renault and then five with Ferrari, right? Renault, Benetton. So ultimately we’ve both done it with two teams, just he’s had two different power units. Three? What was the third one? (Voice off: Ford, Renault, Ferrari) At the moment, it’s very very difficult to imagine, envisage myself anywhere else. This is my family, this is where I grew up but I said the same thing when I was at McLaren. I think one of the reasons I wanted to move was to go somewhere else and see if you could do something special somewhere else. I knew I could but I needed to prove it to everyone else. Right now, I don’t feel like I need to go and be in another team to win a title in another team but you can never say never.

     

    Q: (Victor Macin Serrano – ESPN) Can you share with us, what you told to Sebastian Vettel after the race?

    LH: I didn’t really say anything to him. He came over and, the one thing he said was, ‘just don’t let off – I need you fighting with me next year’ – which I respect, naturally. I think for me, I just said, thank you so much for being such a strong competitor this year. But it happens so fast so I don’t remember everything we said but ultimately it was a true showing of great sportsmanship and respect between us, as I think has been there all year long. So, I think that’s great to have in multiple world champions, two competitors who’ve gone head-to-head. It’s been a hard year. He’s fought so well this year and I know he drove fantastically well today and I know he’d going to go from strength to strength so I I’ve got to keep… stay on my toes and make sure I keep trying to come back with a good blow in the future.

     

    Q: (Lawrence Barretto – F1.com) Congratulations Lewis. You’ve obviously competed against many guys for the world title. Where does Sebastian rank – or how does he compare as a rival?

    LH: Y’know, it’s very difficult to… it’s never a great thing to try to compare people because everyone’s unique in their own way. If you try to do that, then naturally that becomes headlines and it can be taken negatively. He is a deserving four-times World Champion and this year, the pressure he would be under in Ferrari who’ve not won a championship for many, many years… it’s a lot to ride on one’s shoulders. I think this year he’s… even though he’s had some difficult times, he’s still bounced back, like today, and that’s the true showing of a champion. I’ve been very fortunate to race against a lot of drivers and it’s all small percentages that separate us all. And that’s the great thing about this sport.

     

    Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Lewis, congratulations. Same sort of question. Do you think that Michael is beatable with seven titles and 91 victories?

    LH: It honestly feels… I’ve not really put any thought towards getting to that number – just becaue I’ve been trying to focus on getting this one. And even this morning, I woke up very relaxed but I didn’t know whether or not it was going to happen today. Lots of things could have happened. Engine could have blown up. Seb could have won the race. We could have gone to the next one. You could see it’s getting tough for us, these last few races. It’s not been great for us, so I was just really not trying to take anything for granted. So, the way I’ve always approached it, is I’ve just been really thankful for the ones you have. I’ve very, very fortunate to be up here now, obviously with more than most people have, and I don’t take that for granted. Whether or not I’m going to have the chance to win more, who knows – but I’m going to give it everything to do so – but I think just one step at a time. The 91 wins that he has, for example, that’s a lot of wins. But naturally… I don’t know how much I’m away? I guess 20 away now, aren’t I? There’s still a long way to go but I’m here for a few more years, so I’m hoping that I can at least get close. But even so, Michael was just such a genius in how he implemented himself into Ferrari and what he did with that team and yeah, I will always be a fan of him.

     

    Q: (Masahiro Owari – Formula Owari Masahiro) Last year and this year you are fighting the same driver and deciding the championship at the same Mexico Grand Prix. What is the biggest difference between last year and this year?

    LH: I think we had some strong races last year but I really wanted to, personally wanted to see how I could raise the bar, because each year you have to expect your opponents are going to do the same. Ferrari really picked up the pace this year and ultimately I think we’ve always… most of the time we’ve been trailing them slightly. Even if it’s only by a tenth or two, and do I’ve had to try and bring something extra, to dig so deep to another level, so that I could pull those performances out where we weren’t quickest but we won the race. Whether it’s through mental preparation or strength or whether it’s just a unified great job from the team. Strategy, all these different things. I think ultimately on the drivers’ side I am very, very happy and, within myself, I’m very proud of how I’ve delivered – but I’m really, really proud of how everyone around me has also raised their bar, raised their game. That’s been key.

     

    Q: (Jonathan McEvoy – Daily Mail) Lewis, it would be a great honour for any sportsman to go to the palace to be knighted. How would you feel if it ‘arise Sir Lewis’. Does that sound good.

    LH: Well, firstly welcome back. I think it’s the first time we’ve spoken for years. So firstly, let me acknowledge that I’ve seen some of the stories that you’ve written this year and I just want to say thank you for it, and I appreciate the great work that you’ve done. Y’know, we had some difficult years for sure. In terms of… honestly that is really not something that is on my mind, and not something I’m even contemplating. I’ve been very fortunately and very grateful to have met the Queen on a couple of occasions, which I’m just grateful for. I’m very proud, I don’t know if you notice that sometimes, when I’m on the podium I look back and see the Union Jack and I’m very proud to raise that flag, and which I’ll continue to do so. And hopefully try to make more and more Brits proud. And yeah, at the moment, A German has the most titles but I think I’m quite grateful and quite proud of the ones that we have as Brits and yeah, going to continue to try to raise the game.

     

    Q: (Rosa Torres  – The Paddock Magazine) Congratulations. Of course every championship is different – but which one was your favourite and also how to you compare this championship with the others?

    LH: I don’t have the greatest memory, so remembering what happened in every single year and what happened in every single year is… it’s always been different. Winning the first world title in Brazil, and the last corner, I mean, that was something I wouldn’t… that was so special in its own way. They’ve all required different bits of input. They’ve all required different manoeuvrability, different agility, different approaches, so they’ve all been unique, and I’ve been faced with different things. Stuff behind the scenes which no-one will never know about, just like for all of you sitting here, I’m sure there’s so many thing that you go through that no-one around you would really understand – but those challenges, I would say the biggest forces outside are the ones that can really impact. I would say this year, for me, from memory, this feels the proudest. This is definitely the proudest moment because there’s been a year when we’ve not had the fastest car at the majority of the races. And yet we’ve come away with more wins that I could have hoped for, more pole positions, and… ah jeez, I love driving and I’ve really enjoyed driving this year even more, and I think each year, being that I’m getting older and I’m getting to really enjoy more my work, the things I do. I worry about things less. I’m able to let things go quicker and move forwards and grow faster. I think that just comes with being old – which I’m sure many of you would know what that’s like.

     

    Q: (Yesme Cortez – El Economista) How would you like to be defined in the future?

    LH: How would I like to be defined in the future? I have so many things that I want to do, so many things. The racing is at the core of everything that I do and naturally I am always going to be remembered as a racing driver, but this great sport and this great opportunity that I have had has created a great foundation and an opportunity for me to do other things. I’ve always been one to want to have some positive impact; I don’t want to be just taking, taking, taking. I want to be doing some positive things for the future. So, if I want to be remembered for anything it’s by… whether it’s helping some kids getting through school, getting through difficult times. Whether it’s building a school, whether it’s encouraging education, whether it’s just helping people get through difficult times. It’s kind of difficult to put it into words but naturally I don’t want my time on earth to mean nothing. I’m sure that you all feel that way. You all want to know that your time was spent well and you didn’t squander it. And that’s my goal.

     

    Q: (Maria Jimenez – Record) Felicidades, Lewis. I think that throughout your career you have said how hard it has been to get you to a racing career for you and for your family, and now you are a role model for the new generation – a five-time world champion. What does that mean for you, and what responsibility do you think you have to this new generation of drivers as a five-time world champion?

    LH: It’s been a long, long journey and one that I’m really proud of and it’s not been perfect along the way. There have been many pitfalls and many mistakes made. But that’s ultimately enabled me to be where I am today. But it’s awesome to see young kids. I invited this one young female racing driver from Mexico this weekend. I had her come when she didn’t have tickets to come. It’s crazy for me to see this little sparkle in these young people’s eyes, who look at me as I once looked at several of the drivers when I was young – when I had the chance to meet Mika, when I had the chance to meet David, and Damon Hill and Nigel, and all these guys, and I was this kid, I imagine with this sparkle, saying “one day, I want to do what you guys do”. It’s a very, very humbling experience and it’s a beautiful privilege to have. I just want to keep on driving hard and keep encouraging kids. I really do still feel that within Formula 1, with the FIA, for example, hopefully I’m going to meet with Jean at some stage, because I feel there is some positive impact that we can have on young kids that are at school for example. Because a lot of kids that are racing don’t have an education, don’t get an education. I would say it’s over 50% probably. I’m just guessing there, but parents take the kids out of school to focus on trying to get that ultimate and then when it doesn’t happen you fall flat on your back. If I have any impact on this sport – obviously winning a championship is a great thing – but hopefully I can work on that with Jean, so that with these kids, even if they don’t make it to Formula 1, or as another racing driver, they can be an engineer. There are thousands of people within these teams, there are so many opportunities within all these organisations, so that’s something I want to get involved in. But it is really cool when I see these young… at this point in my career I feel like I have the most respect I’ve ever had from my peers and my respect for them has never wavered and that’s a great position to be in.

     

    Q: (Oliver Brown – The Telegraph) Lewis, many congratulations. Five is a monumental feat and I was touched by how on track you mentioned your father. In the emotions of the moment, how much do you think of him – he’s clearly watching – and of the struggles the two of you once faced and how impossible a dream this once seemed?

    LH: It’s a good question. You know, this has actually been a really difficult weekend, because my grandfather died on Friday, was it Friday… Thursday morning. Naturally, when someone passes away, it brings the whole family together, but he was the godfather of the family and so it just brought… my dad and me were already quite close, but it naturally brought us a little bit closer and I will always remember and I never will forget the things that he did in order for me to be here today and for our family to thrive. I really do aspire to be like him, as a strong, black man and as a father and as a human being for doing what he did in the difficult times the little that he had. I think that’s testament to where we are. I think all that work that he put in, my grandfather would be so proud of him, so proud of us and grateful that the Hamilton is there and established and will now go down in history, which is kind of crazy to think. Honestly, at the centre of who I am, I always remember driving around Rye House and my dad was the only father that would go out on the track and he would go and stand, when I was eight years old, he would go and stand where the quickest kid was sitting, and at the time it was a kid called Nicky Richardson. As an eight-year-old I looked up to Nicky. He was so quick and I was like “I’ve got to be better than him somehow”. My dad would go and stand where he was braking and he would move several metres down and say “this is where you have to brake”. No other father was doing that. I would go around and try to brake at that point and I would spin off and crash and spin off and crash. Eventually I could do it and that’s been at the core of… I’ve always been known as a late braker. Today, I didn’t utilise that, because I didn’t need to. Those core moments, those special moments are what I fight with today and are at the core of who I am.

     

    Q: (Francisco Alcala – Global Com Group) Lewis, first of all congratulations. I think it’s really amazing you have won your fifth championship. How thankful or what do you think about Valtteri right now as he had some involvement in order for you to get the championship today and maybe not in Brazil?

    LH: Absolutely. One of the most difficult moments of the year was in Russia for me. Being at the core of me I want to win the race, by winning the race. Being let by in Russia was a horrible feeling for, I would say. I think everyone in the team felt it. I think also for Valtteri it was not a great feeling. He just came up to me now, and we have such a huge respect for each other. I see how hard he works, he sees how hard I work, we don’t play games in between to try to throw off the guy. In actual fact, we work together. There are times were I’ve figured something out in my set-up and I’ll tell me and there are times that I can talk to him and be open. It’s the greatest partnership in terms of respect and teamwork from drivers that I’m sure has ever existed in Formula 1 probably. This year definitely there have been times when he has been fundamental in us winning races. Ultimately, the team don’t care which driver wins, so there are scenarios where he could have been up ahead and I’m the second driver and I needed to play my role. My goal, in my mind, was “OK, I’ve got to make sure I’m always ahead”. If it comes to a point that you need someone to support, it’s Valtteri. This year, he started out really strong and then he had some really difficult races. I think Baku, for example, was a huge hit for him. He deserved that win and then he got that tyre blow up. Yes, I’m very, very grateful to him as a team-mate and for the help that he has given me in achieving this incredible dream so a big, big thank you to him.

  • 2018 Mexico Grand Prix: Post Qualifying Press Conference

    2018 Mexico Grand Prix: Post Qualifying Press Conference

    DRIVERS

    1 – Daniel RICCIARDO (Red Bull Racing)

    2 – Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing)

    3 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

     

    TRACK INTERVIEWS

    (Conducted by David Coulthard)

     

    Q: Daniel, where did that come from? You left that right until the last minute. We didn’t know you had that pace. Where did you find that lap?

    Daniel RICCIARDO: I knew it was there somewhere. We hadn’t had the cleanest run through practice and I just knew putting the laps together would be crucial, as always, but I knew the pace was in the car, Max showed that all weekend from start to finish, so I just knew it was putting together a clean lap at the end. I still wasn’t convinced, it wasn’t the cleanest, but yeah, once I heard I got pole… I gotta relax a little, I’m tripping major nutsack right now.

     

    Q: Well, you’ve shown that you’re not just a Monte Carlo specialist. It’s your first pole at a circuit other than that, so great emotion?

    DR: Yeah, that one makes it special as well. Obviously Monaco is the only place I’ve ever done this, so to do it here… I believe it was super close with Max, I heard a few hundredths or thousandths so a big shout to the team, it’s a one-two. I don’t know the last time Red Bull got a one-two in qualifying, so it’s pretty cool.

     

    Q: Well, it’s the first time in the hybrid turbo era you’ve had a one-two, so congratulations on being part of that and good luck tomorrow. Max, I know you’re going to be disappointed with that. You’ve been the fastest man all the way through the various practice sessions and in the end Daniel pulled the lap, so tell us about that final lap for you? Where did it slip away?

    Max VERSTAPPEN: The whole qualifying was crap. Again, the same problems as FP2. Engine braking not like I want to, just rear-locking the car. We tried to make the best of it. I thought it was going to be enough with the problems we had but it’s still good to be second, so we’ll see tomorrow.

     

    Q: Well, we can feel your disappointment. You’re clearly not happy with the way everything is operating. Can you fix those problems for tomorrow?

    MV: I’m not sure, but I’ll drive around them.

     

    Q: OK Max, sorry you didn’t quite manage to get your pole. Lewis, you look a happy man. It’s not pole position but your main competitor in the championship is a bit further down. Third the best you had in the car today, or were there other tweaks that would have allowed you to take it to the Red Bulls?

    Lewis HAMILTON: No, really, really happy with it. Honestly, we had a difficult day yesterday and it was a big improvement today. Honestly, yesterday we were much, much further back, so I wasn’t expecting to be up as high as we got, but the team did a great job last night in analysing and moving forwards today. That’s as good as I could get, but I’m really happy for Daniel, he’s done a great job, so congratulations to him and yeah of course, being behind the Red Bulls is not a bad thing.

     

    Q: For the start, it’s a long run to that first corner, you’ve got motivate Bulls in front of you and you’ve got a championship to win, so are you going to be taking a slightly more cautious approach to the start of this grand prix?

    LH: Well, you saw what happened last year, with the red car behind. I don’t know, I think it really depends how we get away. But third place is a nice place to start, you get a good tow from the guys up ahead, so naturally I’ll be fighting to try to gain a position but of course I’ll be aware of the Bulls ahead.

     

    PRESS CONFERENCE

     

    Q: Daniel, it’s been a while since you last won in Monaco, describe your emotions right now?

    DR: I’m holding a lot in. I let a bit out once I heard I get pole. But yeah, I held a lot in, I’ve got to save some energy for tomorrow. But just super happy. It’s been a while since pole. It’s been a while since we had a pretty good weekend in general and we’ve been quick all weekend, from the start. And from the team’s point of view to get a one-two in qualifying is awesome. Obviously we have to finish the job tomorrow, but to confirm that pace in qualifying is really good. Obviously Max led the way through the practices. I knew there was a bit more in it and we just squeezed it out at the very end. It was a good fight. Just happy. Happy to put together a good run.

     

    Q: Were you surprised by your pace in that final run?

    DR: I don’t know if I would say surprised. I knew the pace was there it was just a matter of putting it together. To be honest, the first sector wasn’t that good, so I was surprised to have probably got the pole after that, but I saw the second and third sector were strong and that’s where I made the difference. But I wasn’t convinced after the first sector that I was on for pole, put it that way. I knew the previous lap wasn’t particularly clean and I was able to get a bit more out of it. It was fun, it was very close, but it felt good. Qualifying can be exciting sometimes and today it proved that.

     

    Q: Definitely exciting. Well done Daniel. Max, we’ve just heard that Daniel’s first sector on that last run wasn’t what he thought was brilliant. Just talk us through your final run in Q3, because you were on pole after the first runs?

    MV: It was just not good. I was struggling the whole qualifying, with the same problems I had in FP2, when I had a lot of rear locking, on the down-shifting and when I come off throttle. Somehow the behaviour was not correct. So we couldn’t do anything throughout qualifying, so I just had to lock a lot of tools, go forward on the brake balance to try and stabilise the whole car. It’s not how you want to do qualifying, normally you go more aggressive and be more aggressive on all the tools. That’s it.

     

    Q: How will those issues affect your race pace tomorrow?

    MV: We’ll find out. At the moment I don’t know.

     

    Q: Lewis, you said it was a difficult day for you and the team yesterday – so, thoughts after that?

    LH: This is a great day for us. Considering how bad yesterday was for us, and so I really want to say a big thank you to everyone who’s back at the factory who’ve been working hard overnight and also the guys here, to rectify the issues we’ve had and get the car back into a sweeter spot. Congratulations to Daniel. These guys were just too quick. They were in a league of their own in general up until qualifying and even in qualifying. If you look at his middle sector, there was no way I could get that. To be as close as I am, I’m really quite happy with that, and to be on third, it’s not a bad start.

     

    Q: Do you think you’ve got the pace to be able to beat them tomorrow?

    LH: I don’t think so. I think these guys do generally have the better pace. On tracks like this, for whatever reason, I guess the Renault engines working really well but more so the higher downforce level that they usually are able to achieve is definitely helping for sure. But I guess the race pace was not so bad yesterday but those guys again were in their own league in that section. We have improved the car so I’m hoping tomorrow we can still give it a fight and if we’re able to gain any ground at the beginning, then game on!

     

    Q: Big day potentially for you tomorrow Lewis, are you looking forward to it?

    LH: Yeah. Obviously last year we didn’t have a great race, and I’m hoping for a better race tomorrow. It’s a great place to be and a great place to race – even though overtaking’s probably not going to be really particularly possible – but we’re on a similar strategy so it’ll be interesting to see how it all plays out.

     

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

     

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Question for the two Red Bull drivers. Daniel, you mentioned that the first sector wasn’t that good. How good were the second and third sectors? How good did the rest of that lap feel? And Max, you mentioned the problem that you had. Given that you had that problem through qualifying and before, did you feel vulnerable going into the final runs and was there anything else on that final lap that meant you didn’t improve.

    DR: I think it’s hard to know around here. Even though we’ve got a hypersoft, it’s still quite a slick surface, so it never really feels like you’ve got a massive amount of grip, I think in general, so it’s actually hard to know really how good it feels or quick that sector is. I could just tell relative to my previous lap time, you have the live running lap times. I knew the fast stuff, kind of from Turn Seven to 11, I knew I… I felt like I nailed that, so that gave me a good impression that that part, I didn’t think I could get much more there – but the last sector, it’s so hard to tell. Particularly the hairpin, Turn 13, it’s… you feel you… to keep it tight, you feel like you go in too slow, so you’re like ‘ah, I could have gone in deeper’ – but then when you go in deeper you kinda lose on the exit. I knew it was a cleaner lap than my previous, put it that way. So, I knew I was putting myself in with a shot but I really wasn’t sure if it was good enough.

     

    MV: Let’s say it like this, I was still surprised that I was first in Q3, because I didn’t feel good at all. Like I said before, it’s really difficult to anticipate those things. I was driving around the issues – but in qualifying, that’s not what you want.

     

    Q: (Christian Menath – Motorsport-magazin.com) Question for the two Red Bull drivers. Usually, qualifying isn’t your strength. Race pace, you don’t have the disadvantage of the engine modes and you’re usually much better on the tyre wear than the other cars. Is there anything that can stop you? And do you expect a race just between both of you – and are there any special rules for that?

    DR: I think it’s probably too early to say it’s just going to be a race between each other – as nice as that would be. You never know on Sunday. It’s a long run down as well to Turn One, and even in general, once you get going, tyre wear’s been pretty significant here this weekend. So, I think if you are a quicker car, I think you can still overtake. Hopefully we are the quicker car all day. So yeah, I would say we’re in a good position, for sure, but we’ll keep it chilled for now and just do what we’ve got to do tomorrow.

     

    MV: Yeah, we’re in a good position.

     

    Q: (Francisco Alcalà – Global Com Group) Question for Lewis. Considering the position you’re start and Seb is starting fourth, does it cross your mind to play it safe at the beginning of the race?

    LH: Not really. Everyone’s going to be barrelling into Turn One to gain, so it’s a very, very fine line. If you go easy, you can get hit. If you go too aggressive, you can hit or still get hit. You’ve got to race it like normal and go in for the win. That’s what I’m going to be doing. I mean, that’s what we’re here to do, is to race.

     

    Q: (Pedro Torre – Top Class Magazine) Being in Mexico City at high altitude, how do you feel your performance will be tomorrow, the physical performance including the height and the possibility of rain tomorrow?

    LH: Well, rain is a great thing, even though that means they will still be very quick because they’ve got a little bit more downforce but that will maybe make it a little bit more exciting. Physically? It’s not a problem, it’s not a track where you have a lot of G-force, for example. There is just the braking zones but it’s not a particularly fast track. There’s not a lot of fast corners. That whole middle sector is so slow: turn one, two, three is super slow. Four, five,  six and then seven, eight, nine is physically very very easy but it is a long race and staying focused, not making mistakes, is still key so it’s not easy but I don’t see anybody going to be struggling physically because we train to quite a high level.

    DR: I agree. I think it’s such a long straight, even if it was physical, you’ve got so long to recover each lap. For whatever reason, as Lewis says, it’s just a lot of slow corners which normally for us in F1, the high speed stuff is what fatigues you, when you’ve got high Gs and constant corner after corner. Even though a little part of that middle sector is fast, for whatever reason it doesn’t feel like we’re under much load, I guess, because there’s just a general low level of grip here with the altitude. But sleeping you feel it, going to bed, you feel breathing is bit heavier. I’m just making it up! You’re looking at me funny! I’m just trying to add something for your story.

     

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Lewis, you mentioned it’s a great day for you guys after the turnaround. How much changed on your car, how different was the car today and given you’ve avoided having to use the hypersofts for the start tomorrow, how much does that change your chances for the race?

    LH: Honestly, it’s night and day difference. Yesterday we really were struggling. FP1 was OK but then once we got to FP2 it was not fun to drive, that’s for sure, and there were several different problems on the whole car, mechanical side, aero side, mostly mechanical side and a little bit aero and a little bit on the engine side of things. So big changes and improvements were made overnight and to come back in today and put us in contention all of a sudden – we didn’t think yesterday with that performance that we would be able to qualify on an ultra so that would have been a massive disadvantage for us tomorrow if we had to start on the hyper for example. As soon as we got into qualifying, I knew straight away the way the car’s feeling, I was like, OK we’re in a much stronger position to fight for position. I’m just glad that I was able to do the job, improve on my second run. Qualifying was pretty good for me.

     

    Q: (Alfredo Lopez Ledesma – MomentoGP) Lewis, my question is in 2015 and 2017 there have been problems in turn one. Will you be aggressive tomorrow to be in front of these guys or must you wait?

    LH: I’ve just kind of answered that question earlier so… It really depends what position I’m in. If I get a good tow from these guys and there’s an opportunity to overtake I’m going to take it. If there’s not, then I’m going to try and hold position. I’ve been racing a long long time so it’s very rare that I make rash decisions and silly decisions when it comes to those scenarios but I’ve not really given it any thought, to be honest, but I’m hoping to get a good start tomorrow and we’re racing together. I think Daniel did a great job. These guys are going to be quick tomorrow so gaining position would be hopeful but also I don’t mind those guys being where they are because that takes points away from both me and Sebastian so that’s OK.

     

    Q: (Christian Menath  – Motorsport-magazin.com) Daniel, did you experience any similar problems that Max had with rear locking during any part of the weekend?

    DR: I don’t think so. To be honest I don’t know the extent but I know, I think yesterday afternoon, Max commented in the briefing after the session but yeah, nothing, I don’t think, to what he felt.

     

    Q: (Louis Dekker – NOS) Daniel and Max, will you be giving Christian Horner a heart attack by fighting like you did in Baku?

    DR: No one wants to fight like Baku so hopefully no heart attacks tomorrow. Heart attacks of celebration and joy.

    MV: I don’t even think about Baku any more.

    DR: All done Baku.

  • 2018 Formula 1: Mexican Grand Prix

    2018 Formula 1: Mexican Grand Prix

    DRIVERS – Sergio PÉREZ (Racing Point Force India), Carlos SAINZ (Renault), Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN (Ferrari), Pierre GASLY (Toro Rosso), Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Sergio, it’s your home race this weekend?

    Sergio PÉREZ: It’s amazing. Since the first year we’ve had the Mexican Grand Prix it’s been big. We’ve seen in other countries that sometimes it backs away, but it doesn’t happen. Here the people, the media, everyone is so excited about this weekend. It’s been great, you know. The amount of support that I’ve received during the weekend is amazing and I think, once again, we’re going to have an amazing grand prix.

    Q: You’ve finished in the points every year since the race returned. How confident are you of a repeat this weekend?

    SP: That’s the minimum target, you know, to score the points here, but I hope that this weekend I do my best result through them. I think we should be string. We should be fighting to be best of the rest. Renault was very strong last weekend but I think we should be there and hopefully we score a lot of points for the team.

    Q: Pierre, if we could come to you please. Looking back at Austin last weekend, you ran some aerodynamic upgrades on the car, then took them off just before qualifying. Are you going to be using them here, what can you tell us about that?

    Pierre GASLY: Yeah, in Austin it wasn’t ideal with the weather conditions, so we a new package that we could not run until P3 and yeah, basically, we need more mileage, more running with this one to really understand how to use the package and extract the full potential, so we took it off before the qualifying. This weekend we are going to run it again. We’ve got only one part, so this time Brendan is going to get it on the car and hopefully we can learn a bit more about how to use it.

    Q: Looking ahead to 2019, it’s very clear what Red Bull Racing are going to get as far as you’re concerned but what about Honda, especially in light of recent upgrades they have introduced?

    PG: I think things look really promising. They are working really hard. We saw in Suzuka, we went to all the factories and you can see the dedication and commitment from the people. There is a big opportunity ahead of Honda. They’re going to be in a relationship with Red Bull. They have been struggling in the last few years but next year we are going to be in a position to fight for the top positions. They really want to make the best out of this situation. I think the progress they’ve made over the last few weeks with that new spec is really encouraging and they are still working on next year’s engine, trying to extract even more performance. For sure we need to give them time, for sure it’s super difficult to catch up with Mercedes and Ferrari but slowly they are catching up and I’m really confident they will keep improving and I’m really excited to see what they can do ahead of next year.

    Q: Thank you. Carlos, let’s start by looking back at Austin last weekend. It was Renault’s biggest single-race score of the season. Was that track specific or are you confident that you can repeat that this weekend here in Mexico?

    Carlos SAINZ: Let’s say that after some three or four races the team decided to do a bit of a rethink on how we approach weekends and how we can maybe score some better results and Austin was a great example of a good team effort but at the same time a track that was suiting us better – a lot more low-speed corner that our car works well on; a bit less power sensitive, that obviously in qualifying we feel it, so a combination of hard work but also a track that was suiting us better made us score a very strong result, which we needed for that fourth place in the championship. I think Mexico is another great opportunity to score a double points finish. It’s still less power sensitive; it’s quite a lot of low-speed corners, so it could present some good opportunities, but we need to stay as focused and as determined as we were in Austin for sure.

    Q: Let’s throw it forward to 2019. How are you preparations with McLaren coming along? Have you had any contact, or does that not happen until January 1st? 

    CS: Of course there has been some contact. There has been some organisation of how to plan the winter, but nothing to do with performance or… engineering talking, let’s put it like that. I think I’m fully committed to this project, to the Renault, until the end of the year – until, really, Sunday afternoon after Abu Dhabi – and I think my results in the second half of the season are proving it. We are scoring a lot of points, I think it’s 17 points since Hungary, and finally my season is starting to come together. I’m very pleased, very happy with how things are going here and I really want to finish my season with Renault, my time with Renault, on a high, like we are doing now.

    Q: Thank you Carlos. Max, I’d also like to look at Austin with you. Tremendous race by you; 18th to second. We saw you overtake more cars than any other race you’ve done. How do you reflect on last weekend? Was it one of the best races of your career?

    Max VERSTAPPEN: It was definitely a good one but it’s difficult to choose if it’s going to be the best. I also don’t want to really look at it like that. It’s always important to try to score the most points as possible, especially when you start at the back. I think we didn’t expect to really fight for the podium but looking at the year before as well, we were really competitive in the race and again it showed this time out as well. Doing the opposite strategy I think seemed to be working well and to be at the end of the race fighting for victory was very nice. And of course to hang on to second in the last few laps was challenging with the tyres I had, but also a lot of fun.

    Q: Well you won this grand prix last year and the RB14 is clearly performing well. Of the three remaining races this season, do you think this is your best chance of another victory?

    MV: This is definitely the best chance for us. We’ll try to set up the car in the best way possible and we’ll find out how we’re going to perform. I don’t think in qualifying we have a chance but in the race we anyway seem to be working a lot better, so I expect this to be better than Austin.

    Q: Thank you Max. Kimi, thank you for waiting. Great to see you back on the top step of the podium last weekend in Austin. Can you just tell us with the benefit of hindsight how much you enjoyed that race and everything that came after – and did you send a cap home for Robin?

    Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: No, it’s for the wife but I’ll bring it with me after this race. It was a great result obviously and a good race and we had to fight for it quite a bit, so I think it didn’t come easy. But I think it’s good for us and good for everybody. I think it was an exciting race. What else to say? We were happy. Hopefully this weekend we will be strong. The end result we’ll see on Sunday, but we’ll do our best.

    Q: This has been your best season since rejoining Ferrari in 2014. It’s also your last season with Ferrari, so how will you reflect on 2018?

    KR: I don’t know. Obviously we’ve gone through it and I don’t see much point to look afterwards at what we did. It’s not going to change anything and we’ll see where we finish. It’s not what we want in the end result, but we did our best and we’ll finish maybe third, maybe fourth, maybe somewhere behind that. It’s not ideal. But it could be worse.

     

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Fernando Alonso – Motorlat) It’s a question to everyone. How do you think about the relationship between the experience and the young? Because here we have this mix of drivers, with Kimi like the most experienced, and Pierre like the rookie. But all of you have an opinion and how is the age working for your growing in the results you have with your team. What are your thoughts about that?

    Q: Well, Kimi, you recently turned 39 and you’ve just won a grand prix, so how is age helping you?

    KR: I don’t know if it’s helping or harming but it seems to be working still OK. I guess a certain amount of experience helps, that’s for sure. But I think in this sport it’s not probably that necessary to have a massive amount, because you can do a lot of things on simulators. We are doing basically the same tracks. If it’s 5 kilometres, or four, or whatever it is, we are all going to learn it. It’s not like 10 million miles will help more than the shorter distances. In rally it helps a lot more, the experience, but I think for me it’s helpful. I feel better, for sure, than when I started, in the first year. But I guess there is a certain points when it doesn’t make such a big difference anymore.

    Q: Max, you’ve achieved a lot at a very young age. How difficult was it for you when you first came into Formula 1?

    MV: Well, for me, I think it’s still the more experience I get, the faster I’ll become, so I haven’t stopped learning.

    Pierre?

    PG: I think, for sure, age is probably not that important – maturity is the main thing. For sure, the experience is useful. I’m only in my first complete season and I don’t know how I’m going to be after five years, but I can feel already the difference now, compared to a year ago when I came in Malaysia for my first race, so you just get more confidence, you know how things work. Probably after four or five years things become a bit more automatic. I’ll see that in the future.

    Q: Checo?

    SP: I think experience helps in how you can direct a team, how you can build it around you, how much progress you can make with your car, with the set-up. I think experience really helps and makes a difference. I think it’s definitely a good bonus. As Kimi said as well, you get to a point where nothing really changes. Your speed and a bit of experience always helps as well.

    And Carlos?

    CS: Yeah, I agree with Checo there, that experience helps you a lot to get to know yourself, how to extract the maximum potential of yourself, within a team and within a car, within a set-up. With more experience, the faster you get, as Max said. But at the same time it gives me a lot of tranquility to see that a guy that is 39 years old can win in Formula 1. There’s a lot of time ahead for many of us and seeing Kimi winning last weekend also showed that Formula 1 is one of those sports where you can be successful at a later age.

    Q: (Lawrence Barretto – F1.com) Kimi, can you just talk us through the 24 hours after your victory? How did you celebrate? What did you say to your family and to your little boy when you had a chance to talk to him?

    KR: They were very happy when we talked. We had a small party. It takes a long time to recover these days, so that part is definitely not the nice part – but the first part is always fun. Not really much, just a few friends and that’s about it.

    Q: (Janne Palomaki – Iltalehti) Kimi, your victory last Sunday was received in Finland with overwhelming joy and collective euphoria. Even some political leaders joined in congratulating you. How did it make you feel – and were there any especially surprising congratulations for you?

    KR: I haven’t really looked that much on the news so obviously I don’t know who has. I’m happy if people are happy. The main thing is that I feel good, what I’m doing. The rest, some nice, some not, and that’s absolutely fine. Yeah, I think obviously it’s great. I don’t think we always have the biggest support from Finland. So, I don’t know, when we get it, we’ll take it – but, like I said, I don’t know exactly if somebody congratulated. Not many people have my number so it’s not going to be that direct. Like I said, I don’t read too much stuff on the ‘net, so… I’m more than happy and will take all the good wishes on board. We go forward and see what we can do.

    Q: (Jim Vertuno – AP) Checo, Formula One is back in Latin America. You’ve been the only Latin American driver now on the grid for a couple of seasons and it’s been a long time since there’s been a champion. What do you see as the future for Latin American drivers in F1? Is there one – and what sort of obstacles do you think they face right now?

    SP: Well, I think being in Formula One for whatever nationality or any driver is very hard, y’know? To reach Formula One and to maintain in Formula One is very hard. As you say, it’s only me at the moment and it’s just hard. I see some others coming through, through the series but the journey to reach Formula One is very hard – especially for the Latin Americans. Because we are the ones that have to go to Europe at a very young age, sacrifice a lot more than the European drivers, in a way. It’s very hard – but there are some coming through. We’ll see whether they reach it or not – but it’s just how Formula One is. It’s very hard to reach it.

    Q: (Rik Spekenbrink – AD Sportswereld) Question for Max Verstappen. You return here as the last winner. You were in that situation only once in Spain last year. Does it change something in your approach, in self-confidence, in your love for a circuit – or is it just business as usual.

    MV: It’s the same.

    Q: (Alfredo Lopez Ledesma – MomentoGP) My question is for Max. Christian Horner told yesterday that the Honda engines was 0.6 faster than the Renault unit at Austin. Do you really think that Red Bull-Honda will be a real challenge for the championship next year?

    MV: It is, of course, difficult to say, because we still need to develop a very strong car. So, we’ll find out next year. I think initially we may be not strong enough to really fight for a victory but I think throughout the season we’ll definitely catch up. That’s how we’re planning. So hopefully it will work out like that.

    Q: (Carlos Alberto Velazquez – Reforma) Question for Kimi. In the last three races here in Mexico there has been three different winners. It’s time to you and Ferrari to win. Do you feel that this weekend as confident as in Austin to make all the Ferrari Mexican fans happy this weekend?

    KR: For sure as a team we’ll give our best – but we cannot guarantee anything. Right now we’ll work as normal from Friday to Sunday and then at the end of the race we’ll see what we get out from it. But we’ll do our maximum and hopefully we’ll be up there fighting for the victory.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, Racefans.net) Sergio, over the five years that you’ve been at Force India, you’ve been able to establish yourself as a major player for the team, both through results and although through your commercial partners etc., But for next year, your team-mate is highly likely to be the son of the team owner. How do you think that will affect the team dynamic?

    SP: I don’t think it will change. At the end of the day, the interests of all the team, even the team buyer, the team owner is that the team is very successful. So, for that you need both cars to be at 100 per cent and for the team to develop as quickly as possible. So, for that you really need full performance. So, I think if that happens, he’s coming in to a great team with great people, engineers, where he’s going to grow a lot. I see great things for the team. I think we have all the guidance, we just need the budget and I think we can be a massive surprise next year.

    Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) To all the drivers, except Kimi. Do you think you would have won the Championship if you had been driving for Ferrari this year?

    MV: I’m not driving for Ferrari so I’d prefer not to comment.

    Pierre, anything to add?

    PG: Similar. It’s difficult to say something about a car you’ve never tried – but probably with my experience it would have been difficult.

    Checo?

    SP: Very, very hard to know. Certainly I would have been a lot closer!

    Carlos?

    CS: Impossible to say. Nothing. I don’t know. If I try the car I’ll let you know. Impossible to say.

    Q: (Louis Dekker – NOS) Max and Kimi, do you think this circuit is a true Mercedes circuit or can all three teams fight for victory? And does it make your life easier that Lewis doesn’t need a win?

    KR: I think that if you look at the past years, all three teams being up there, and then it really depends on the small things whoever came out on top. It’s impossible… it’s pointless to start guessing right now who’s going to be up there, or if one team is going to be better than another. We don’t know. If we look at previous races it can go either way. I don’t know if it’s going to be any easier if he only needs three points to get the championship but who knows?

    MV: I don’t know. It will be close between them in qualifying and I think we will be a little bit behind but in the race we definitely have a chance, I think. And about Lewis, I think as a driver you always want to win so I don’t think that changes a lot.

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Carlos, Kimi and Pierre: you guys are all switching teams for next season. The Abu Dhabi test, after the race, is an opportunity to get first experience of that new team. Have you thought about driving for your new team in Abu Dhabi and do you believe that that will happen?

    CS: Yeah, as you said, it’s a good opportunity to try this year’s car – obviously not next year’s car which is not the same. I’m focussing on these three races. I think my management and company are looking into whether it’s possible or not but at the moment it’s not decided yet or nothing has been clarified.

    Q: Kimi, any decisions about you and Sauber?

    KR: We’ll see. I think we’re quite open to any decisions.

    PG: At the moment it’s not really decided so we’ll see what happens in the next four weeks but it will be a good opportunity to start working with the team ahead of next year.

    Q: (Jaap de Groot – De Telegraaf) Max, could you tell us what the positive and negative effects are of racing at altitude, technical and physical?

    MV: I think the engines will be a little bit closer because it’s just a bit more difficult for them to breath. Downforce-wise you lose a lot of performance and then it’s more about mechanical grip and stuff because even with the biggest wing here you have less downforce than in Monza and I think our car is very good mechanically, anyway, also aerodynamically. Of course, that’s less of a factor so that’s why I think we are normally more competitive on this track than others, even though there is a super long straight in the track, so I think that just explains a lot. Physically it’s not a big deal because it’s so low grip.

    Q: (Francisco Alcalà – Global Com Group) What are your thoughts about Fernando Alonso leaving this season and will you miss him at the end of it?

    PG: Of course. Fernando is a legend of Formula One. I used to watch him before I even started karting, when I was eight years old. For me he’s always been a guy I’ve looked at when I was young. He’s been on top. He won championships with a French team and I remember he was big news, all over the magazines back in France. He’s a fantastic driver, for sure it’s a shame to lose a character like him but he probably has other challenges ahead of him and I’m sure we will keep hearing great things about his future.

    MV: Yeah, I think Fernando is a winner and he wants to win races so he didn’t see that happening in the near future and of course he has already tried for a few years so I think I can understand why he’s leaving. Probably some new advantage where he can probably win again. I think that will motivate him very much and then we will see what happens in the future, if he comes back or not.

    KR: We have had some good battles over the years. It’s how it is, unfortunately, and the fact is that we’re all going to stop at some point. We always know that’s coming and us older ones have to go at some point. That’s how it goes and I’m sure he will find some exciting racing for him and who knows what happens in the future.

    SP: Yeah, as Kimi says, at some point we are all going to stop so I think for Fernando the time came. He’s had a tremendous career, he’s a tremendous character, a great guy, one of the guys I get on with so we will definitely miss him but you never know, maybe he comes back in the future, maybe he doesn’t but he’s definitely one of the legends of the sport.

    CS: The fact that he’s leaving I think is a big loss for Formula One, to not have one of the best drivers or the best driver in motor sport on the grid at the moment is a big loss so I think it is something for Formula One and everyone to consider why one of the best drivers is leaving and why we cannot have a bit more competitive grid where many drivers can fight for wins or for podiums. I think it’s a thing to consider and something to think about for the future.

    Q: How much of an influence did he have on you becoming a Formula One driver?

    CS: Obviously the biggest influence on anyone. I followed Formula One, I met him back in 2005, I also remember meeting Kimi back then. Since then, I really decided that I wanted to become a Formula One driver and gave it all to get here. I managed to compete against him for the last four years which have been a dream come true and of course we will miss him.

    Q: (Ben Hunt – The Sun) To all drivers, although Kimi, you might chose not to answer it: are you a bit surprised by the mistakes that Sebastian Vettel has made this year and do you think that he has thrown this championship away, given the commanding lead he had at the early stages of the season?

    CS: Well, I think it’s always difficult to judge the performance of any other driver and car because you don’t know what they are going through. Of course, there have been some mistakes that we’ve all seen but I think it’s very easy to judge it from the outside and not know what is clearly going on in there. I really respect Sebastian, I think he’s a four time World Champion for a meaning (reason) because he deserves to be a four time World Champion and he will come back eventually. I think he might have gone through a tough moment but I think he will be back.

    SP: Yeah, similar to Carlos. I think Sebastian is a fantastic driver. It’s very hard to judge the performance of someone when you’re not in the team and you don’t know exactly what’s going on. So it makes no sense for me to say. Obviously we have seen some mistakes. Probably at the end he was just desperate, trying to achieve what was probably not possible but he’s a four time World Champion for that reason so he has a great team and he will be back to fight again and he has a great opportunity to fight Lewis. Mercedes also have a fantastic car so it was very hard for him.

    KR: Well the first thing is that sometimes it happens and he pushes and pushes and sometimes he gets it wrong and unfortunately it happened to him a few times. I think we’ve all gone through it, it’s part of the game.

    MV: I can only look at myself. I think it makes no sense to comment on another driver so I don’t want to piss anyone off.

    PG: I think it’s part of racing. You’re always driving at the limit. I think he probably over-performed with the car he had at the beginning of the season. A couple of times he managed to win races which probably they probably didn’t have the potential to win and then of course, expectations were really high. He did a couple of mistakes in the second part of the season. I think he’s the only one who could answer why. When you’re fighting for the championship, you’re so much on the limit all the time, trying to achieve things, as Sergio said, was probably not achievable with the car he had a couple of times and then things happen. They all say he’s a four time World Champion, I think he knows how to manage a championship. It’s not the first time he’s in this position but he’s the only one who could answer that question.

  • 2018 USGP: Post Race Press Conference

    2018 USGP: Post Race Press Conference

    DRIVERS

    1 – Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN (Ferrari)

    2 – Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing)

    3 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

     

    TRACK INTERVIEWS

    (Conducted by Martin Brundle)

     

    Q: Kimi Räikkönen, congratulations, you’ve made a lot of Formula 1 fans around the world very, very happy today, maybe not quite as happy as you are.

    Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: Who knows, maybe they are happier even. No, honestly, it’s been a good weekend. I think the car has been pretty good all the time. I got a good start. I needed to push hard. It was tight a few times and in the end the tyres were not in the best shape but I think it was a bit similar for Max, obviously Lewis had more tyres left for the end. I had enough speed; we kept it consistent and just tried to keep the tyres alive until the end, so a long time, you know, but here we are.

     

    Q: Your first victory since Australia 2013. It’s been a long time coming. You must be more pumped up than that?

    KR: Obviously I’m much happier than finishing second. I’m happy but let’s see… later on. But great job.

     

    Q: Three critical points: the start, then when you were running a very wide car… the second one actually was when you were pretending you coming into the pit lane and Lewis had to come in instead; he was going to do the opposite to you, and then obviously holding him up for about eight seconds. Everything put together, that’s what made you the victory.

    KR: I think it was obviously coming in at the right time and having enough tyres both times. It was a bit of a balancing act but we did it pretty well, well enough to win it, so it was OK, and a good battle and I think that’s what we all want as drivers and also the people here.

     

    Q: OK, well done again. Max, P18 to P2 – great drive.

    Max VERSTAPPEN: Yeah, a bit unexpected but a good start, a good first lap, and then very quickly we were back into P5, P4 and we could just follow the leaders and we had really good pace. We made the right call to undercut Valtteri and from there onwards we could do our own race. I think in the end we could put a bit of pressure on, but unfortunately in the last three or four laps I ran out of tyres on the supersoft compared to the guys on the soft around me. But yeah, still very happy. I destroyed my shoe; I think I was pushing a bit hard, but it felt good.

     

    Q: Take us through that battle with Lewis right near the end of the race, through 14, 15, 16 and 17 and Turn 18?

    MV: So at that time I was really struggling with the rear tyres. I locked up through Turn 12 and then there was a good fight through the Esses, through the hairpin and in the right-hand corner I was just pushing as much as I could but hanging on but clearly also Lewis was already on the edge, so happy to stay in second.

     

    Q: Congratulations. Lewis, the championship goes on for another week, but you had some adventures during that grand prix. How do you feel about the race?

    Lewis HAMILTON: Well, first of all a bog congratulations to Kimi, he did a great job today. No mistakes, he had a great start and managed it all the way. Also Verstappen did a great job as well. He was on a slightly better tyre than us at the end so naturally a bit of a struggle. I naturally thought we would have been able to do better but this is the best we were able to do in the end. But it was great that we actually got to do some racing at least but yeah, we just have to keep working, keep pushing for the next race.

     

    Q: That pivotal moment where you were told to do the opposite to Kimi and you came in on lap 11. It gave you a long way to go didn’t it? You did a cheap pit stop under the Virtual Safety Car, but you just ran out of tyres.

    LH: Yeah, I think ultimately I came out and the pit window was very, very close, but then after I did my stop it was 12 seconds and it was way, way too far to catch up. I’m not really quite sure how the strategy ended up like that. It’s always difficult. You only have a certain amount of life with the brand new tyre to make a difference and once you put 12 seconds up there’s none left. But anyway, I’m really happy. We still got a top three. It’s still close; Ferrari picked up their game this weekend, so we’ve go to push hard for the next race.

     

    PRESS CONFERENCE

     

    Q: (Luis Vasconcelos – Formula Press) Two questions for Kimi. How difficult was that balancing you were talking to Martin about, of pushing very hard at the start of your second stint to catch Lewis and to have enough of a gap to be in front and saving those tyres until the end of the race for the last 10 laps with the two guys behind?

    KR: Yeah, I think it was already during the first stint, maybe one lap, two laps, and then you try to take of tyres, fuel, things like that, but it’s more guessing, obviously you kind of go by feeling. At a certain point the tyres are going to fall off and there is not a lot you can do. We had a pretty good battle. I tried to stay as far as I could. I could hold him back. And then once we did the pit stops obviously I just needed to keep the gap. I caught up a little bit and then keep the gap and aiming for certain lap times and looking after the tyres, because it will be an issue in the end. So you never know how it’s going to play out, especially after a Friday like we had. I was pretty confident after the first stint that it will be OK, but like we saw it got pretty close and 10 laps I was a bit probably not the most happiest guy in the world. But the closer we got to the end, the closer they got to me, it’s more dfificult for them and then it was OK.

     

    Q: (Luis Vasconcelos – Formula Press) And the second question is what’s more satisfying: getting the win and, as you said, shutting your critics out; or knowing for now that for a long time none of us is going to ask you when is the next time you are going to win a race?

    KR: (Laughs) it might be next weekend already! I don’t know. I’m happy with how it went. I’m happy for the team. Obviously we had a pretty rough two races and I’m proving people certain things. I might be getting older but it’s not too bad still. Maybe I’m OK to be [here] a few years more. I enjoy it, so we are here to try to win. I always try to do it, but obviously it’s not easy, otherwise anybody could do it. So, I think this weekend we have been pretty solid in many ways. I just had a good feeling with the car. We’ll see what happens in the next race, but so far it’s been OK. I don’t complain a lot. We’ll have for sure some fun tonight and we go next week to the next one.

     

    Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) Lewis, do you think you had the speed to win today, had you been on the same strategy as the other guys?

    LH: I think it would have been… Kimi, one he was ahead, I didn’t have the greatest pace to really challenge him. Obviously, I was relatively close, I think, after the… in that first stint, second half. We were kind of exchanging lap times and kept beating each other’s times. And he was on the better tyre but he eked it out for quite some time with that safety car. Pace-wise, I think we were very, very close – but the whole deficit, they kept putting me so far behind, I could have told you exactly what was going to happen once we had those big gaps that we had to catch. With the tyres, it’s a very, very aggressive circuit on tyres and yeah, I think it we would have pitted at the same time, or around the same time, we would probably have come out behind him and we would have been racing right to the end on the same set of tyres. So, ultimately… yeah, it’s all if, but and whens. He did a great job at the end of the day.

     

    Q: (Joey Barnes – Motorsports Tribune) Kimi, your last win, five years ago, you weren’t quite known as the family man. So, now that have this one, how special is this, that you get to share it with your family?

    KR: They’ve been asking for a while, so more interested in the Pirelli cap than probably the win itself. I know that we can buy it also but I know it’s not fair play to bring them if I had to buy it. So yeah. I have a lovely wife and kids and I’m sure they’re happy. I’m not sure if the kids… they probably fall asleep during the race but the wife probably looked at it. I’m more than happy for all of us. It’s nice. Yeah… I don’t know. It’s nice to win again – but like I said, it doesn’t change my life or they don’t look at me differently. My son asked the previous race that he wants a new Pirelli – the same tyre from the qualifying – because he wants to play with it. Again, I’m sure they’re happy and I’m happy to help them, more than happy. We’ll have a nice talk when we get home.

     

    Q: (Christian Menath – Motorsport-magazin.com) Question for Lewis, you said you knew what’s going to happen with these tyres when you have to catch up this much. Do you mean the Pirelli tyres or the soft tyres in particular? Because we saw that it was blistering quite a lot when you pushed at the beginning.

    LH: I was meaning the tyres in general but the soft tyre was not a great tyre for us today. I was actually a little bit surprised at the end that we were put back on a soft tyre, knowing that Max was on a supersoft. I knew that… when you compete with someone that has a slight advantage then you know that you’re at a deficit but I was hoping I would close the gap in time but again, as I said, the tyre wouldn’t last as long as it is to catch a 12 seconds gap, was a lot to ask for.

     

    Q: (Jaap de Groot – De Telegraaf) Question for Max. At the end, when Lewis tried to overtake you, it was a sensational part of the race. Could you describe in detail how you underwent that action.

    MV: So, following Kimi that closely, of course it’s not great for my tyres, so I was struggling a bit more with the tyres. So then Lewis came close and yeah, we had a few corners where I had to close the door a little bit. Then he tried around the outside – but I was on the edge already in the fast corners so I was just sliding a lot. Then I saw also that Lewis ran out of room and then, of course, if you go a bit wide you get a lot of marbles on the tyres so it takes like a lap before they have grip again.

     

    LH: Was it close between us? I think I gave you too much space

     

    MV: I think you could have squeezed a bit more! Yeah!

     

    LH: I never know with you. I didn’t want a coming to come together…

     

    MV: A bit of wheel-banging is… I was also thinking ‘I don’t know what Lewis is going to do here!’

     

    LH: I couldn’t see you!

     

    MV: It was alright – I was just really struggling with the tyres the last two or three laps but, yeah, made it a bit more fun!

     

    Q: (Les Kiser – Speed City Broadcasting) Lewis and Max, we saw your tyres going away. Lewis, we saw you go wide, as you just mentioned, on the last lap. If the race was one lap longer, Lewis, what in your opinion would have been the result of that lap and Max, the same?

    LH: I think I was too… I was catching towards the end but we probably needed another few laps to be honest. That wide moment meant that I picked up a lot of dirt on my tyres and it took at least a lap to get rid of it, to get rid of that top surface so you lose a lot of temperature and everything so I don’t think any extra would have really made much of a difference but a few more laps, if we were able to extend it, these guys were on older tyres so it would have been interesting in that respect but ultimately we ran out of time.

    MV: Yeah, if the race would be a few laps longer or a lap longer, I think at one point you have to start to do a two stop but we planned the strategy around the amount of laps we had.

     

    Q: (John Haverlin – ESPN Albuquerque) Lewis, as you were battling Max towards the end there, were you thinking about – heat of the moment, OK, I’m racing for position or were you thinking about how the championship could be clinched if you were able to get around him?

    LH: Honestly I was trying to win the race but you look at the two guys next to me, they’re not fighting for a championship so I had to be very very careful how I navigated around them. Championships are not won by fighting and making silly mistakes so that’s really… I was trying to… as I said, I went through that corner, I gave him way too much space just to be sure that I didn’t get clipped, for example, didn’t get taken out because I didn’t know if you would understeer into me or could be aggressive. I didn’t know. If that was me and Seb, for example, I would have been a lot more tighter and more aggressive if we were fighting for the championship, for example, but there was no need. The key was that I at least finished ahead of Seb and for me it doesn’t matter when you win the championship as long as you get it done. Ultimately we wanted to win the race today and I think going backwards two steps is not a good result but as I said, you can’t win them all, you can’t always get them perfect.

     

    Q: Just on the wheel-to-wheel racing, Max does it come into your thinking when you’re racing Lewis that he’s got a title on the line at the moment?

    MV: I think at the end of the day you always try to be sensible, yeah.

     

    Q: And similarly Kimi, with you, when you were defending from Lewis, I think you said on team radio about not doing anything silly.

    KR: Yeah, for sure my purpose is not to be any more aggressive against him than anybody else. I don’t believe in doing crazy things. I want to do my race and do the best that I can do. If that impacts the championship then that’s how it is but I will not do any crazy stuff to be a part of it. My job is purely to try to do win, I’m here for that and I will play as fair as is possible and that’s how it’s going to be and how it’s always going to be. We know what is fair and what is not and I got a bit close once because I lost a bit of grip but there was nothing crazy going on.

     

    Q: (Peter Windsor – Peterwindsor.com) The first question, Kimi, I’m asking on behalf of Heikki Kulta who I’ve just spoken to. He can barely talk he was so excited but he wanted me to ask you what you were thinking and what it felt like to be the listening to the Finnish national anthem?

    KR: Obviously I wanted to win, that’s for sure. I wasn’t sure if it was going to happen or not because sometimes it’s been close and something maybe happened.  With five laps to go it was going to be OK because I knew my tyres were still OK and once they get close enough,  it’s so difficult to follow. It’s nice to hear it, for sure, especially if you’ve won. Obviously that is what you always want, at any race we come to, all of us want to win, but like I said, I’m happy for that, it was a great day to prove some people wrong and having a good race but it doesn’t really change anything for me. It’s just a number. Life goes on.

     

    Q: (Peter Windsor – Peterwindsor.com) Lewis, you mentioned how aggressive the circuit was with tyres and you talked a little bit about the championship. Is there an argument for saying that the strategy that actually they had on the pit wall was a conservative strategy, possibly defined by the championship rather than specifically trying to get you to win the race, which leads me to my real question which is how much pre-race was the strategy potentially affected by your championship rather just wanting to win on the day?

    LH: My strategy was the same, because I wanted to win the race. We were on pole position, same straightforward approach going throughout the weekend but in strategy they were talking about different scenarios as we do every weekend but there’s a different feeling, for sure, with the performance and decisions that were taken today as opposed to previous races but I don’t think we needed to make any changes. I don’t know why they would not want to win the race. I think they did want to win the race, it just didn’t play out the way that we had planned and I think it already started from Q2. I think that tyre was the wrong tyre to start on. We had already seen, a long long time ago in the year Kimi starting on a softer tyre, I think it was in Austria. We already knew there was a big difference between the start performances on these different tyres yet we fell for something that we already knew was potentially not the way forward and obviously lost position to him and then wasn’t able to keep up because he had clean air and a better tyre. There was definitely a lesson learned for us and we’ll definitely go to the drawing board but performance-wise it wasn’t our greatest weekend but we’ve had some incredible weekends this year and still to get a third, I’m still grateful for that but naturally starting first and finishing third is never a good thing.

     

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Lewis, given you were told by the team that Seb had spun on the opening lap and you were in a good position, were you surprised that the title hasn’t been clinched in this race? And to Kimi, you mentioned about proving people wrong; do you think you’ve proved that you should still be in a Ferrari next season?

    LH: I’m not surprised, I finished third. My job… I had to win the race today. I’m not really sure what happened in the race behind but obviously he did a good job to come back but as a team, we clearly struggled. Valtteri struggled to keep Seb behind, even when Seb was obviously… must have been quite far behind, so performance-wise we were definitely off this weekend but I think Kimi’s given me a lot of confidence, so that I can keep getting better. He’s 38? 39?

    KR: 39. Next year 40, so… I’ll invite you to the party.

    LH: Hope I get an invite for the 40th.

    KR: We can call.

     

    Q: And Kimi, do you think this result shows that you should still be in a Ferrari next year?

    KR: No. For sure I didn’t mean on that side. I think people don’t understand I’m actually very happy where I’m going. I had my time with Ferrari, I won the championship with them. I won many races with them and for me, as a driver, I want different challenges, I want different things and I’m actually very happy to go there. It’s roughly 40 minutes from my home. For sure my family will be happy, I’m happy to be with my family. I think it’s probably the best thing. I wasn’t really disappointed with the decision at any point. The only thing that I was interested in was to know what was going to happen and that’s the only thing. The rest, I’ve been long enough in F1 to know that things… it doesn’t matter if you have contracts or not, things happen for different reasons but I think the end result is that I’m very excited about it.

     

    Q: (Luis Vasconcelos – Formula Press) Kimi, you’re now up to third in the championship and Ferrari closed the gap to Mercedes. The Constructors championship is far more open than the Drivers’ championship. Are these two important goals for you, one more important than the other or do you just want to win more races until the end of the year?

    KR: I can only do my best. Whatever the end result is, that’s how it’s going to play out. For sure, if we have a chance to fight for a championship I will do my job and that would be  absolutely perfect for all of us but we can only do our best, I said that before the race and before many races and you know, whatever the end result is, that was our best and if today we would be second or third, it wouldn’t really feel too bad because I knew that I did the best I could and today was like this so I’m happy about it. We’ll go next weekend and try to do the best that we can. We keep fighting until the last race and then we see what happens after that.

  • F1 2018: USA Gp Review – Masterful Raikkonen Lassos Texas Win

    F1 2018: USA Gp Review – Masterful Raikkonen Lassos Texas Win

    The United States grand prix weekend produced a race for every F1 fan to relish, regardless of where loyalties may lie. There is little doubt that the Circuit of the Americas produced a race that will be long remembered as, so far, the most absorbing and exceptional of the 2018 season.

    It didn’t start off that way as torrential rain-washed out Friday’s free practice sessions. This ultimately meant that drivers and teams were in unknown territory as far as tyre degradation was concerned. Instead of terabytes of data team strategists had to rely on the feel and feedback of their respective drivers.

    Saturday qualifying went the way of Lewis Hamilton but the top three were covered by less than a tenth of a second. But while Sebastian Vettel qualified a mere 0.060 off Hamilton as a result of speeding under the red flag during Friday’s practice session Vettel was demoted three places on the grid. This promoted Kimi Raikkonen, who was only 0.071 adrift, onto the front row. While Valtteri Bottas shared the second row of the starting grid with Daniel Ricciardo the sister Red Bull of Max Verstappen was all the way down in 18th after having broken the rear-suspension in the first session of qualifying.

    With Vettel in fifth Hamilton seemed set for victory and a fifth world title. But Raikkonen swooped into the lead and held off the Merc relatively easily. But as Raikkonen seized the lead of the race Vettel, once again, found himself spinning on the first lap after banging wheels with Ricciardo. It dropped the German down to 15thand seemingly handed the title to Hamilton.

    0148Despite being second to the number 7 Ferrari Hamilton started on the more durable SuperSoft tyre as opposed to Raikkonen who was on the Ultrasoft compound, which should’ve forced the Finn into the pits earlier than the Mercedes driver. However, a virtual safety car (VSC) was deployed to recover the stricken Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo.  By this stage Verstappen, true to form, had roared back into contention and ran comfortably in the top six.

    Under the VSC Hamilton pitted while Raikkonen carried on. Because of the reduced speed of the cars on track during the VSC Hamilton effectively gained nine second on Raikkonen. At the time it looked as if Ferrari, by not pitting, had handed the advantage to Mercedes on a silver platter. The Ferrari strategists seemed sure that with so much of the race to run Hamilton would need to pit again. It didn’t seem a smart move though as Hamilton closed down Raikkonen by two seconds a lap. But the Finn is by far one of the most experienced and savvy drivers on the grid and was able to hold off Hamilton and cost him a significant amount of time; thereby effectively wiping out the advantage he’d gained with the cheap pitstop under the VSC.It turned out that Ferrari were right as Hamilton dived into the pits for a second stop on lap 38. He rejoined in fourth behind teammate Bottas and Red Bull’s Verstappen while Raikkonen took back the lead of the race. Meanwhile Vettel had recovered to fifth and was closing down Bottas, who ceded position to Hamilton, at a rate of knots.

    What followed was, arguably, the best eleven laps of racing that the 2018 season has seen so far. Hamilton needing second to win the title and on significantly fresher tyres demolished the 12-second gap to Verstappen who in turn was never more than 1.5 second behind Raikkonen. But the Brit could go no further once he ran into the Dutch roadblock in the shape of Verstappen. The penultimate lap was the closest Hamilton came to second-place as he went wheel-to-wheel with Verstappen for several corners. But the resolute defending of the Red Bull driver was enough to keep Hamilton in third where he eventually finished.

    0151The Verstappen/Hamilton fight afforded Raikkonen some breathing room as he went on to take the chequered flag in what is undoubtedly a popular win. So spectacular was the race that even Hamilton who started from pole and finished third was clearly chuffed with the day’s racing in the post-race interview. Verstappen too was thrilled with yet another stunning drive through the field to the podium.

    Elsewhere, Vettel recovered to fourth while Bottas trundled home in fifth. It was good day for Renault as Nico Hulkenberg and Carlos Sainz finished sixth and seventh. Esteban Ocon finished eighth on track but was later, along with Haas F1’s Kevin Magnussen, disqualified for exceeding fuel-flow regulations. It meant that Sergio Perez inherited eighth as Brendon Hartley and Marcus Ericsson completed the top ten.

    Where has Ferrari sudden resurgence come from? It turns out that the upgrade package, introduced in Singapore, was the catalyst for the team’s downturn in pace over the last three races. It was only after on Friday in Texas that Ferrari reverted to the car they ran in Belgium that the pace re-appeared. It’s a case of too little, too late for the Italian team though as Hamilton needs to outscore Vettel by only five points to win the 2018 title.

    This victory for Raikkonen has been a long time coming and it put on display the best of his considerable talents. It’s even more poetic when you consider that on the very same day in 2007 he became world champion. Those who are more than casual viewers of the sport will recognize that at the age of 39 Kimi Raikkonen clearly hasn’t lost any of his skill or speed.

    All images courtesy of Pirelli Motorsport
  • 2018 USGP: Thursday Press Conference

    2018 USGP: Thursday Press Conference

    DRIVERS – Daniel RICCIARDO (Red Bull Racing), Fernando ALONSO (McLaren), Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes), Romain GROSJEAN (Haas)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: Lewis, we’re going to start with you. You’ve been hugely successful here in the past and it looks like they’ve had you busy here as well this week, so just talk us through what you’ve been up to in New York this week?

    Lewis HAMILTON: It’s just been the normal promotion stuff. I was there with IWC and with the team at the NASDAQ conference that we had… and then a bunch of other TV stuff I just did.

    Q: Well, America seems to be a place you have quite an affinity with, and you’ve won the last four races here, as well as the Drivers’ title in 2015. Does it feel like it’s all coming together again for a repeat this weekend?

    LH: Not particularly, no. It just feels like another race weekend we have, and we want to win, so it’s a simple goal for us, we just arrive to try and do the same thing. The weather is up and down and our goal is really just to perform as we have in previous races, we’re not thinking about it in any other way.

    Q: Thank you. Fernando, you’ve got a huge following here in America after your Indycar exploits, but how special will this final US race in Formula 1 be for you this weekend?

    Fernando ALONSO: Yeah, it’s always special racing here, with all the fans. Hopefully we’ll have a good show on the weekend. As Lewis said, the weather is a bit up and down on Friday and Saturday especially, hopefully that will mix things a little bit and we’ll see a good race on Sunday. In our case I think we different targets, to try to score points after two races out of the points. It’s going to be challenging but we’ll try.

    Q: You’ve spent a fair bit of time in America this year. Will you be spending even more time here next year? Can you tell us anything about your 2019 plans? 

    FA: Yeah, I don’t have 21 races in F1 to travel around to, so with more free time I will come to the States… for a holiday. A little bit more.

    Q: How about from a racing perspective?

    FA: Let’s see. As I said many times, the Indy 500 is still very attractive, as it was last year, and after winning Le Mans this year, it’s even more attractive to try to achieve it in the short term. Still working on plans for next year and as soon as they are finalised you will know.

    Q: Daniel, you also seem to really enjoy it over here. We’ve seen you’ve been at a Longhorns game this weekend. Is this one of your favourite events of the season?

    Daniel RICCIARDO: Yeah, it is. I love it. I don’t know, I’ve always enjoyed coming here. The football was a really cool experience. It’s amazing how many people go to a college game, how the capacity is that alone. It’s cool to experience new things and yeah, I’ve had a good week!

    Q: Well, this season you’ve had two race victories but no podiums alongside that. Is it realistic to expect you to change that record here this weekend.

    DR: Yeah, I think so. I think we’ll have a decent car around here. It’s weird, yeah I know, that I haven’t had any actual podiums. So yeah, we’ll try to make it happen. Last year I was going pretty strong in the race but then we had to stop with some mechanicals. It’s definitely a fun track to race on. I enjoy Austin alone, but the circuit as well is really good for racing. You can overtake and it’s pretty unique, so I’m happy if it’s kind of wet for Friday and Saturday but I kind of feel if the race is dry Sunday it will still be pretty exciting.

    Q: Thank you. Romain, we’ve talked about the affinity these guys have with America, but it’s a home race for Haas, and you’ve got just four races left to try to overhaul Renault in the Constructors’ Championship. So us there a lot of pressure on this weekend?

    Romain GROSJEAN: I think the pressure is always on, to be fair. Different levels, obviously for the top guys to win the championship, and for us to go and try to get Renault in the Constructors’. It’s a great weekend, it’s going to be very busy, a lot of marketing commitments, but I think it’s a good that we’re here, racing here for an American team and coming this year with a competitive car compared to the first two years us great.

    Q: If I could just ask you about your own form. You had a tough start to the season, but then I think you scored 31 points in the last nine races. Just how did you go about turning that around?

    RG: Thirty-nine. I got eight stolen in Monza.

    DR: He’s not still bitter!

    RG: No, I think everything is going great since Germany. It was a rough start to the season and things didn’t go my way. A bit of bad luck and bit of mistakes and all together it makes like a snowball effect. At one point I managed to stop that and come back to where I wanted to be. I’m really enjoying driving the car. I think we’ve had some really good races and I’m looking forward to the four last ones and here especially.

     

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Christian Menath – Motorsport-Magazin.com) Lewis, I know you’re not looking at the championship all the time, but if we would do an overlay from last years championship to this year’s championship it was pretty tight all season but then after the summer break the car and you personally, you really kicked off. Is this just a coincidence or is there anything – that you are understanding the tyres better, the team is understanding the car better? What is your explanation for that?

    LH: Yeah, it’s probably just a coincidence that it’s exactly the same but we are improving the car the whole year long. We are improving our knowledge of the car and how to get the most out of it. If we knew what we knew in the second half we would do a lot better at the beginning. That’s just how it is in the sport. That’s how it always is. It’s been the same since I started in 2007. I think it’s probably the same for everyone. Not really much more else to say.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, Racefans.net) For all of you, though Fernando I know this doesn’t really affect you for next year. The 2019 regulations state that the drivers weighing under 80 kilos will be ballasted up to 80 kilos, that ballast to be carried within the sort of cockpit area. How do you feel about that? Is that correct or should drivers be allowed to take advantage of their physique, as they can in other sporting activities?

    DR: I personally feel that they are just getting us prepared for more races in America.

    LH: NASCAR.

    DR: All of us will enjoy our food a little more! I’m not complaining about it. It’s not like we’re going to, let’s say, take the piss, it’s more just a lot of us now tend to starve ourselves on race weekends and even training we can’t really do much strength training because we would just put on mass. I think it will just allow us to train harder, eat harder… Eat harder? Eat more. But it’s not like we’re going to have beer bellies or anything, we’re just going to be stronger and I think that’s only a good thing.

    LH: I disagree. I think there are going to be some people with bigger bellies.

    DR: Well, the small guys can afford to do everything!

    Q: Romain, your thoughts on the weight?

    RG: I think it’s a great thing. I’ve been the same as… Daniel and Lewis are quite tall. I think it hasn’t been great to starve ourselves and not eat as want to, so a few kilos of margin is going to be great. It will be a challenge for the team, because getting to the minimum weight for the regulation with the 80 kilos for seat and driver together is going to be tricky, but on the other hand it’s going to make our lives an awful lot better.

    Lewis, any further thoughts?

    LH: I think it’s great. It’s definitely going to open the doors up for people like Will Ferrell and all those who weigh a lot more to come in! It’s always been something we’ve all worked hard to keep in shape and it has been something we’ve worked really hard at; to make sure we’re not overweight. I guess we can eat more pancakes. I think we will prepare more and we can all be a little bit stronger next year. I guess for the people who are struggling to come under the weight; for example there are some of the taller drivers who struggle to be less than 80 kilos. I guess it doesn’t really make much difference for them otherwise.

    Q: Fernando, you won’t be racing here next year, but you have raced in other categories where weight balances are different. Do you think this is a good move for Formula 1?

    FA: Yeah, I think it is. In Formula 1, I’m obviously not one of the tallest, so it’s more a question for the tall guys and I think it’s fair for everyone, so I think it’s good. In other series, in WEC in particular, where the weight is free, that normally gives and advantage to the lighter and smaller guys, and probably that is unfair in a way, so I think Formula 1 is doing great on that.

    DR: Ricky Bobby.

    LH: Ricky Bobby.

    DR: I caught it, it’s alright.

    LH: I noticed. No one else watched Talladega Nights. Ricky Bobby. No? Overweight NASCAR driver. NASCAR drivers can now come over to Formula 1, which is cool.

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Daniel, we know you’ve not had the smoothest season, you’ve talked about that before. Your 2019 team, Renault, hasn’t had the smoothest end to the year either: they’ve been quite honest about falling behind on the engine side and the car side. That situation’s changed, obviously, since you agreed to join them. How much of a concern has it been watching their performance, and how encouraging is it to hear they’re planning an all-new engine for next year?

    DR: It’s encouraging, obviously. When I signed, I knew that there was work ahead but I know that they’re putting a lot of effort into making things better and expanding a lot of departments and trying to make ’19 stronger and ’20 and whatever. Yeah, the way the last few races have been this year, obviously, it would be nice to see them improve every race and whatever but I honestly don’t look into it too much yet. I think ’19 is a new car and it’s going to be a fresh start again, so I’m not spending too much energy on that at the moment. Obviously, all I can do is, once my year’s done is try to be fully immersed into it all and try to help as much as I can and see how things go from there.

    Q: (Jon Massengale – Speed City) We’ve got a lot of American fans excited about the Haas F1 team, the momentum they have coming into Austin for good points – but all four of you up there talk about excited to race in the United States. I want to ask, what can we do to continue the momentum to grow the sport here in the United States?

    RG: Well, I think, to me the obviously, answer is to get more races in the US. I think most of the time it’s really hard for the audience to watch the grands prix, it’s the middle of the night. It’s not easy to grow the fan base. I think more races in the US. I think races a bit more exiting as well. If you look at NASCAR, you never know who’s going to win the race. In Formula One I can tell you it’s going to be the Mercedes or Ferrari winning on Sunday. I think that could be improved – but definitely more races in the US to get closer to the fans would be the first thing.

    Lewis, your thoughts on how we can grow it here?

    LH: I agree with what he said. We do have the one race and this is a big, big country with a lot of sporting heritage. They love intensely-fought games but also have something to look forward to – because there’s a build-up to multiple games. We only have that one race here, so the people, for example in this city or people in the close States that fly over for this one grand prix, which happens once a year, it’s like a festival. You can’t really get too excited about one festival in a season. So, that’s probably something that Liberty will be working on for the future.

    Fernando, your thoughts?

    FA: More or less the same. Try to get more races here, hopefully one American driver into F1 soon, and that will help. I think it will take a little bit of interest into the sport and have a little bit more unpredictable races is more or less what they have here. To have people expecting the unexpected until the end.

    And Daniel, your thoughts on growing the sport here.

    DR: I have to agree with all that. Currently they don’t have an American driver. We can do our best to put on an accent and fill those boots. [Approximation of Texan accent] I can try all I can – I don’t know how these boys can do it but I’ll give it a red-hot crack and see how we go.

    We wondered how long it would be before you did that…

    DR: It was only a matter of time!

    Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Lewis, what’s your explanation for how you’ve taken off, collectively, since the summer break. Is it just stepping forward with the car? Is it personally? Is it mistakes from the opposition? What is it? What’s the biggest factor do you think?

    LH: I haven’t really thought about it much. It’s a combination of so many things. Naturally, as a driver, you do improve. Or, at least, I’ve noticed in myself, I can’t speak for everyone – but I’ve noticed I improve throughout the year. How you conduct yourself, how you perform within the team, how you’re able to maximise in the car. If you go back through all the years, you know I always say that by the second half of the season I should be better, and most of the time that’s usually the case. I think also, as a team, we’ve collectively done a better job in every area. And then, the other side, for sure, has not done as good a job in that respect, coming into the second phase. So, I don’t really have a massive explanation for it. My knowledge is as good as yours in that sense.

    Q: (Ben Hunt – The Sun) Lewis, you said you’re concentrating one race at a time – but you do stand on the brink of winning a fifth World Championship. What does that mean to you, were you to do that this weekend here in Austin?

    LH: Again, really as a team, none of us are saying how cool it would be if it happened this weekend or the next, we’re not focussing on ifs. We’re focussing on making sure that we deliver. There’s still 100 points available. We can just never be complacent in life, and in a Championship as intense as this. We expect Ferrari to punch back hard here this weekend, so we can’t be relaxed in any way, shape or form. We’ve got to make sure we come here and raise the bar again. So, I’m definitely not thinking this weekend, how’s it going to feel if we do the job. Because I’ve got to do the job and that just adds more pressure and you just don’t need more pressure. So, focussing on making sure that I drive the best that I’ve driven all year long and we get the car where we need to get it. It’s going to be wet, I think, all day tomorrow, as far as I’ve heard, and potentially on Saturday, so it’s going to be a tricky weekend. So, nothing is a given.

    Q: (Jim Vertuno – AP) Lewis, given that this season has been a chase for a fifth championship, what does the name Fangio mean to you, his place in history and can you imagine yourself trying to drive the cars he muscled around the track back in his era?

    LH: Imaging myself driving some of those cars back then? I have driven some of those cars. Stirling Moss’s car I’ve had a go in, some of the Silver Arrows they had, around the old Monza circuit, for example, with Sir Stirling, which is pretty intense. It’s always really strange to hear the drivers’ mental philosophy back then. Sir Stirling would say you’d want to fall out if the car’s going to crash: you hope that you get thrown out the car. It’s a much more confined space for us. It’s all about being stuck in and being safe. I would have… I don’t know if the 50s was a particularly good time, wasn’t a great time for black people either, so probably wouldn’t have been racing back then, but I’m grateful to be in this era and with the technology that we have and seeing the cars advance. I’m so grateful to be part of this era. Fangio is always… he’s like the godfather of the drivers’ sport for us. He’s the godfather for us, one of the greats from the beginning and will always be admired in the sport. It is crazy to think that I’m embarking on a similar number of championships that he had.

    Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) Fernando, just on Lewis, when you first met him in 2007, did you think this guy would have the credentials to go on and match Fangio, win five titles and all the races? And Lewis, we saw you issued a post in Instagram, just defending Sebastian. Do you think his criticism has been a bit unjust this year?

    FA: Well, probably at that time it was difficult to image what the future could bring for Lewis, and for any of the guys on the grid. But yeah, definitely, he had showed the talent from day one, and fighting for the Championship in his rookie year, winning in 2008. Probably at that time, we all agree that five or seven World Championships will be possible. Then, obviously, was a little bit down due to the performance of the car for a couple of years. And then, yeah, switching to Mercedes at that time, we all were thinking that maybe was not positive – because at that time Mercedes was struggling in 2013, and things like that. So, it’s up and down, the feelings. I’m happy for him because he showed the talent from day one. He was able to win races when the car was there to win it but he was able to win races in some of the seasons when the car was not in the top of the form, like 2009 and things like that, he’s still winning a couple of grand prix a year. It’s impressive – and now it’s time to enjoy for him, so I’m happy.

    And Lewis, your comments defending Sebastian after Japan?

    LH: I think if I was in the same position they would probably do the same thing so it’s more as drivers we are all members of the GPDA and I think we all just need to stick together and I think the respect that we have for one another I think is probably the greatest that it’s been for many years. At least in the years that I’ve been in Formula One. I think ultimately as a four-time World Champion, it is the most intense year that we’ve had. So every hiccup is magnified, naturally, as it is perhaps in any sport at the top. But there have been many – or several – times that I’ve been in the firing range and Seb’s always been really respectful and supported me, so I thought it was only just to do the same.

    Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Two questions, the first for Lewis. Can you explain to us why you do love America so much? And the second one for Fernando; can you give us your top five of the World Champions and what does it mean for you to have one driver equalling Fangio with five titles?

    LH: I don’t know if I love it more than everyone else loves it. So many people come out here and… I grew up watching… movies are something I’m massively into… grew up watching these great movies which were filmed here in the States and then dreaming, as a kid, of one day coming to the States: I think it wasn’t until I was 17 and I finally went to New York and loved it and the more and more time I spend out here the more I enjoy it. I love the big roads they have, they do everything generally bigger and better in most cases. They’ve just got some great cities, good energy, good people, music is the centre of the universe for entertainment here so there’s many many reasons. The food is great, they’ve got the best pancakes out here.

    FA: I guess it’s difficult to do the top five.

    LH: Yourself?

    FA: Not really! Probably Michael, Fangio, Senna, Prost, Lewis, probably this will be the top five, probably, that come to my mind but it’s difficult to compare different times and different ways to win those championships. Lewis winning five now and being the same as Fangio, as I said before, it’s a great achievement and if one had to do that in our generation, I’m happy that it’s Lewis because he showed the talent and he showed the commitment, as I said before, when the car was dominating he delivers and won the championship. When the car was not good enough to win the championship, he still put in some performances to show his talent and that’s difficult to see in our days.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, Racefans.net) Fernando’s already been to Indianapolis but when we as a motor sport of community think of the US we generally think of the Indianapolis 500. A lot of Formula One World Champions, race winners etc have actually raced at Indianapolis. Could you imagine yourselves ever racing there?

    DR: Yes and no. The thought of it sounds good. Ovals creep me out a little bit. I won’t lie. It would be cool. I don’t know. I would at least like to have a go, like maybe just a test. Let’s see how things go but yeah, it was cool watching Fernando do it, don’t get me wrong and part of me was like trying to picture myself being there and doing it but yeah, maybe one day. At the moment I don’t say it’s something I’m looking to do in the near future. I don’t know. Probably the older I get, the more scared I’ll become, so if it doesn’t happen now maybe it won’t ever happen. I don’t know.

    RG: I’ll join Daniel. It sounds cool, looks cool, it’s a great race. Ovals, yeah…

    DR: Who thought turning left could be so hard?

    LH: I kind of feel in a similar way. I would definitely like to try it as I’ve never really driven an oval before and the cars are incredibly fast and (I) always want to go faster. I probably will get a chance to have a go. I’m sure if I wanted to have a go I could but it’s never been a series –  naturally, growing up in Europe, it’s never been a series that you grew up aspiring to be in, it was always Formula One being it was the highest technology and has always been – at least growing up – the thought was that it was the highest grade of drivers that you wanted to compete against but they’ve got some great drivers there as well. I think I would prefer to try NASCAR.  Watkins Glen, I’ve always wanted to have a go up there, beer cans in the side. I have driven a NASCAR years ago at Watkins Glen which was awesome so that’s something I could do potentially. I honestly have no desire to do any other racing beyond Formula One if I’m really honest but maybe that will change when you do stop, because you do it your whole life and temptation is always going to be there, I’m always going to be a racing driver at heart.

    FA: Well, they need to commit to the race. I think if they just want to do a test they will never do the race after testing the car, because it feels quite bad. It feels quite difficult. The car is self-steering to the left, you go on the straights and you are turning right and it feels very weird to drive the car, but then in the race it is just a different thing. You wake up your competitive instinct and you forget about all these weird things that those cars have and it’s a lot of fun. It’s part of history. I think the biggest thing is to go out of your comfort zone and drive something that you don’t feel ready to handle, ready to control and that adrenaline is magic.

    Q: (Craig Slater – Sky Sports) To the two World Champions, Lewis and Fernando: there’s been a lot of attention on Mick Schumacher winning his Formula Three series. I wonder how you feel about him progressing into F1, one being whether the Schumacher name will be an asset or a burden to him?

    LH: I don’t think it will be a burden. I think naturally for any of the champions when they have youngsters come through, naturally Michael is named the greatest driver of all time, he’s got the most titles, so there will one hundred percent be a Schumacher back in Formula One, partly because of the name, but secondly because he’s doing a great job. He’s obviously got a lot of talent as his Dad had, just like Keke and Nico, just like when Fernando has kids I’m sure an Alonso will be here again. Even if I have a kid who wants to race and even if he’s no good he can make it Formula One because of the name. But no, he’s doing a really great job and he’s a really great kid as well. He’s come to… and been a part of our team a couple of weekends, I think it was last year, very attentative. He’s got a great talent as his Dad had so I don’t think it will be a burden in my personal opinion. I think it could be great for the sport.

    FA: Not much to add. I don’t know him. Obviously I never met him, probably. You only see the results from the outside and he has a great talent and he will be good for the sport, to have the Schumacher name again in F1. Let’s see what the future brings, not putting extra pressure on him which I’m sure he has enough already. Let time decide.

    Q: (Chris Bils – Austin American Statesman) Lewis, you’ve had so much success here and really your name has become synonymous with this track. Is there anything in particular, over the years, besides winning that you’ve enjoyed about coming here and also you were talking about the food, pancakes, is there anything that you like to eat while you’re here?

    LH: They don’t make tracks really like they did in the olden days. The older circuits that you’d go to, you’d dream of going to, watching the legends drive there, so some of the new tracks aren’t really that good but this is one of those that is, it’s got great character and from day one when we arrived here, there was a massive crowd that came who I’m sure, at least half of them, probably were new to the sport which was great so it had the impact it was meant to have and I think every year it’s kind of been growing but just driving the track is a massive challenge and also you can actually race here, you can follow which is one of the downfalls of some of the circuits: it’s harder to follow. So I think that’s really why I’ve enjoyed it a lot because I’ve had the chance to have races here, real races and obviously there is that great sporting heritage here and people are genuinely super enthusiastic about sports, no matter which sport it is. And the last race here that we had, the whole spectacle, I think, was probably the best of the whole year, the whole build-up and everything I thought was great. It’s great to celebrate the culture wherever you go. I think there was negativity I think I heard after the race about how American it was but I was like ‘we’re in America, we’ve got celebrate America at this Grand Prix particularly’ and I think that should happen in all the countries we go to.

    Food-wise, I grew up… for a period of time I lived on an American airbase in England and chicken wings… this guy my Mum was dating did the best chicken wings ever and I used to come out here and have that but I don’t eat chicken any more, being as I’m on a plant-base diet so I don’t know how that’s going to go while I’m here, I might be living on pancakes all weekend but I don’t mind that.