Tag: qualifying

F1 2023: Hungarian Gp Review – Red Bull’s Record-Breaking Streak: 12 Wins and Counting!

There aren’t many superlatives that remain to be espoused in honour of the Red Bull team. So, we’ll give you the stats instead. The latest win in Hungary has taken Red Bull to a record-equaling twelfth win in a row. They share this auspicious record with the 1988 McLaren. The difference in 2023 is that there are still eleven races to be run. There’s no telling then where Red Bull’s record of consecutive wins will end.

A seventh win in a row for Max Verstappen has also taken him into some elite company. From Ascari, to Michael Schumacher (twice), to Seb Vettel and Nico Rosberg, Verstappen joins a short list of drivers to win seven grands prix consecutively. The outright record of nine wins, is held by Seb Vettel. There is every expectation that Verstappen will blow past this record in relatively short time. This weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix could well be number eight.

The Saturday qualifying result would have come as a surprise to many given the current run of form. Lewis Hamilton delivered a truly impressive lap to snatch pole position by just three thousands of a second. It was the Brit’s first pole since the Saudi Arabian Gp in 2021, some 33 races ago. The resurgent Hamilton brought with him a real sense of optimism that he could perhaps challenge for the victory. But it was nothing more than a short-lived fantasy.

A poor start from Hamilton saw him drop behind not only Verstappen but also the two McLaren’s of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. And although he showed a good turn of pace towards the end of the race it wasn’t enough to recover to the podium.

As it were, once Verstappen took the lead, he disappeared into the distance quite rapidly. In fact, the Dutchman was leading by more than half a minute by the time the chequered flag appeared. In second place Norris drove yet another impressive race to hold off Checo Perez for a second consecutive podium finish. Perez, who qualified a lowly ninth, delivered the drive of the day, according to the fans’s vote, to finish third. The Mexican driver unquestionably pitched up on Sunday and delivered a drive that reminded everyone just how good he can be.

Hamilton’s late charge saw him finish fourth ahead of Piastri in fifth. George Russell, who had to endure a qualifying faux pas, recovered from eighteenth to sixth place. It was yet another forgettable day for Ferrari as Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz trundled home in a lowly seventh and eighth; Leclerc having been demoted from sixth after incurring a five second time penalty for speeding in the pitlane. Aston Martin’s recent drop in performance was underlined too as Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll finished ninth and tenth.

The returning Daniel Ricciardo was rock solid in the AlphaTauri. He both outqualified and outraced teammate Yuki Tsunoda to finish thirteenth in what has been described as a very difficult car to drive. To deliver a performance such as that after only two days in a completely new car and environment is a perfect start to his return.

Formula 1 heads straight to Belgium this weekend for a race around the famed Spa-Francorchamps circuit. Regardless of the weather conditions, which is notoriously unpredictable in these parts, there is unlikely to be any genuine threat to Red Bull’s dominance. At this point only unreliability or a freak turn of events are likely to stop Red Bull from owning the top step of the podium once more.

All images courtesy of Pirelli Motorsport

July 24, 2023
F1 2023: Bahrain Gp Review – Verstappen picks up where he left off

The more things change, the more they stay the same. At least this is how most of the F1 field would feel after a complete domination of the opening race for the 2023 season.

Red Bull ended pre-season testing without any great fanfare. But the defending champions were probably well aware of their own pace and what they might deliver in Bahrain. Despite appearances that Red Bull does not have the quickest qualifying car, to which there is certainly some proof, Max Verstappen and Checo Perez still locked out the front row of the grid.

It was an equally straightforward start for Verstappen who led easily at lights out. It wasn’t quite the same for Perez who fell behind Charles Leclerc at the start. The Ferrari driver had opted out of a second Q3 run in Saturday qualifying to save a set of new soft tyres for the race start. It paid off too as Leclerc took second place. The strategy advantage didn’t come too much as it was evident straight away that Leclerc couldn’t live with Verstappen’s pace. By lap 13 the Dutchman had pulled a 10 second gap and never looked back.

Behind the leading trio of Verstappen, Leclerc, and Perez was Carlos Sainz. However, the Spaniard didn’t seem to turn up this weekend and was well off the pace of the top three. Fernando Alonso had started fifth but was tagged by teammate Lance Stroll in the opening lap. Surprisingly, Alonso carried on without damage but with a bit of work to do if he was going to put the Aston Martin into a position worth shouting about.

If you know Fernando Alonso, you’d know a few things about him. He’s had a knack of moving to teams at the absolute wrong time for most of his career. And to be fair, he has also been a highly destructive character within those teams. The time at McLaren and his treatment of the Honda mechanics is the perfect example of this. But. When he is on it there are few better to watch. This weekend he drove as brilliantly as he has ever done.; and that’s saying something given that this weekend marked his F1 debut a staggering 22 years ago. Aston Martin too have produced a car that Alonso has deemed “lovely”. It is genuinely competitive at this stage of the season, and it has made Alonso a very happy boy.

An audacious move up the inside of turn 10, where only Juan-Pablo Montoya had once dared to overtake, saw him snatch fourth place from Lewis Hamilton. As it were, an engine issue brought an end to Leclerc’s race and Alonso was now hunting down Sainz for the final step on the podium. The pair raced within centimeters of each other before Alonso scythed passed the Ferrari and into third. It’s no surprise at all that the two-time champion was voted driver of the day by fans as he not only drove a stonking race but that at the age 41 years old.

While Sainz trundled home in fourth it won’t have been considered a good result for Ferrari. The team promised much more in pre-season. Granted, there is still the matter of 22 races to go this season, so there is some time yet. Hamilton was fifth for Mercedes but the once near-invincible team is clearly struggling, again, in 2023. So much so that Toto Wolff has seemingly already written off the season.

In sixth place was Alonso’s Aston Martin teammate Lance Stroll. The Canadian driver deserves some big props for coming back from two fractured wrists and a broken toe just twelve days ago. It’s a mighty effort to finish as high as he did, and that without any testing in the car either. George Russell was seventh in the other Mercedes while Valtteri Bottas continues to shine as an Alfa driver in eighth. Pierre Gasly salvaged ninth for Alpine while Alex Albon took the final point in tenth, for Williams.

Both McLaren cars of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris failed to reach the chequered flag and Esteban Ocon, who racked up several time penalties, also racked up a DNF. Logan Sargeant, the American rookie, finished a solid twelfth for Williams.

It’s on to Jeddah in two weeks with everyone already scratching their head about how they’re possibly going to beat Red Bull. It won’t be an easy prospect especially if you consider that the first non-Red Bull car finished roughly 35 seconds behind Verstappen and the first Mercedes was nearly a minute behind. There’s a long way to go yet in 2023 and so many incredible stories to tell. The question remains: Who is ready and able to take the fight to Max Verstappen and Red Bull?

March 5, 2023
F1 2022: Singapore Gp Review – Top Notch Checo Wins

For the first time since 2019 Formula 1 has returned to the city streets of Singapore.

As the most physically and mentally challenging track on the calendar the Marina Bay circuit also ensures itself as the longest race of the season just about every year. In 2022 the race again ran to its two-hour time limit thanks to three full safety car appearances and two deployments of the Virtual Safety Car (VSC).

Saturday qualifying delivered a scintillating battle which saw the top three of Charles Leclerc, Checo Perez, and Lewis Hamilton separated by a scant 0.054 of a second. Max Verstappen too would’ve been in that mix but for a rare miscalculation from his Red Bull team. As it were the Dutchman had to abort his final flying lap in quali to ensure that enough of a fuel sample was available for FIA scrutineering. If not, he would’ve been excluded from qualifying and sent to the very back of the grid.

While Leclerc has proven himself as a masterful qualifier the Ferrari driver just isn’t able to consistently translate pole into wins. after an hourlong delay, thanks to a torrential downpour, the race got underway. Perez took full toll of this and snatched the lead of the race at lights out. For much of the opening stint Leclerc seemed able to match Perez’s pace and the pair quickly dropped Carlos Sainz and Hamilton in third and fourth.

It wasn’t as clean a start for Verstappen who dropped outside the top ten with a poor getaway. Nevertheless, the reigning champion found his groove and began to climb back up through the field. That was at least until the switch to dry tyres. He misjudged an overtake on Lando Norris, locked his wheels, and went straight on at turn 7. It dropped him down the field and required a pitstop to replace badly flat-spotted tyres.

Although the rain had abated for some time the Marina Bay circuit was incredibly slow to for a dry line. Still, it prompted George Russell onto the dry tyres. The Merc driver, way down the field after starting from the pitlane had little to lose. It took some time for Russell to start turning quicker laps than those on intermediate tyres but it provided valuable feedback as to exactly when the switchover should happen.

While Perez and Sainz turned an unmatchable pace at the front Hamilton was bringing himself into contention for the third step on the podium. But the 7-time champion went straight into the barriers of turn 7 and took himself out of podium contention. The damage wasn’t too bad though but he had to pit for a new front-wing.

By lap 39 it was clear that the race would run to time instead of its allotted 61 lap distance. The lap counter changed to a timer with roughly 35 minutes to go on the clock. By this stage only fourteen cars remained in the race. Up ahead Leclerc was doing his utmost to take the lead off Perez but the Mexican kept his cool and the coveted P1 position.

Towards end of the race a notice flashed up that Perez would be investigated after the race for a safety car infringement. As it turns out the Red Bull driver was pinged for not staying within ten car lengths of the safety car. Although he had pulled a more than 5 second gap to Leclerc it leaves a bitter taste in the mouth to think that the official result was delayed until well after the completion of the race. It’s clear that the new race director hasn’t quite yet found his feet.

No less than five safety car periods, two of them virtual, interrupted the action of the Singapore Grand Prix. This and treacherously slippery conditions on the hardest tracks on the calendar was beautifully handled by the race winner. Checo Perez delivered a stunning drive than easily ranks as the best of this career, to date.

Leclerc had to settle for second eventually as Sainz completed the podium for Ferrari. McLaren too made the most of the safety cars and finished fourth and fifth with Norris and Daniel Ricciardo. Lance Stroll scored some welcome points in sixth ahead of Verstappen in seventh. Seb Vettel made it a double points scoring day for Aston Martin in eighth ahead of Hamilton in ninth. Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly took the point in tenth.

It’s on to Japan this weekend where race win for Verstappen will assure him as the 2022 driver’s champion.

October 3, 2022
F1 2022: Hungarian Gp Review – Verstappen Wins Again

Despite starting tenth on the grid Max Verstappen executed a brilliant Red Bull strategy to pick up, easily, the most impressive win of his 2022 season.

The script for Saturday read like a horror story for Red Bull who not only saw Checo Perez in eleventh but also had Verstappen confined to tenth with an engine issue. On the other hand, Saturday qualifying couldn’t have gone better for George Russell who delivered a stunning lap to snatch a maiden pole position. To say that Russell’s pole came as a surprise would be understatement.

He shared the front row of the grid with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz with Charles Leclerc in third. The feeling was though that Russell’s joy would be contained to pole, and that Ferrari simply had too much pace for the Mercedes. But regardless of pace there is still the matter of acing every call and decision that needs to make during a grand prix. An area that Ferrari has struggled in for several years.

For the second time in seven days Ferrari has done its level best to make the worst of a good situation. Yet another blunder on tyre strategy saw the team pit to cover those immediately behind despite being on the more durable medium tyre. Still, Leclerc especially showed great pace and overtook Russell for the lead of the race. Meanwhile, Verstappen was delivering laptimes that would soon bring him into contention. The second round of pitstops again came early for Ferrari and this time they put race leader Leclerc on the hard compound tyre. It should be noted that earlier in the race both Alpine drivers and the Haas of Kevin Magnussen struggled to switch on the hard tyre – a clear indication for all that it simply wasn’t suited to the track and ambient conditions. There will be those that say that Ferrari had no medium tyre to put on Leclerc’s car, but al alternative option was still available to them. They could’ve run longer on both medium stints and fit the soft tyre for a short final stint. But again, the Ferrari strategy team simply made the wrong decision, which cost them not only a potential victory but a spot on the podium as well.

Ferrari’s strategy blunder left Leclerc defenseless against a rampant Verstappen who took the lead of the race on lap 41. However, the Dutchman, owing to a clutch issue, spun in the penultimate corner of the lap, handing the lead back to Leclerc. It was short-lived though as Leclerc struggled to heat up the hard tyre Verstappen was back past the Ferrari driver in a handful of laps. With Verstappen well in control of the race Sainz and Hamilton made a final stop for soft compound tyres. Russell took second place off an exposed Leclerc on lap 54 prompting the Monegasque driver into a late pitstop for soft compound tyres. Meanwhile, Hamilton, also on soft tyres, made impressive progress to pass Sainz on lap 63. His pace wasn’t quite enough to catch Verstappen but there was the treat of Hamilton going wheel-to-wheel with teammate Russell for P2. Owing to Ferrari’s strategic errors both Mercs found themselves on the podium for the second race running.

Behind the top three of Verstappen, Hamilton, and Russell was Carlos Sainz in fourth ahead of Checo Perez in fifth. Charles Leclerc eventually trundled home in sixth while Lando Norris was seventh for McLaren. In eighth was Fernando Alonso while Alpine teammate Esteban Ocon was ninth. Seb Vettel, who announced his retirement at the end of the year, was tenth for Aston Martin.

The ability of the cars to follow more closely for longer periods on a circuit such as the Hungaroring is a great advert for the 2022 spec cars. On a circuit that is so notorious for its lack of overtaking that it’s knows as ‘Monaco without the barriers’ it shows that progress has been made. What then of Max Verstappen? The performance by him and Red Bull in Hungary was simply sublime and indicative of a team and driver at the peak of their considerable powers. With an 80-point lead and only nine races remaining in 2022 the second title beckons for a driver who, stunningly, seems to be getting even better.

All images courtesy of Pirelli Motorsport

August 1, 2022
F1 2022: Miami Gp Preview – America to the fore

In the 21st century there have been many new circuits and venues added to the F1 calendar. From India to South Korea to Singapore to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. But still the American market and F1’s popularity in the States remained limited. That is until Liberty Media took over the sport’s commercial interests and, possibly, the creation of Netflix’s Drive to Survive series. As it stands now the US is set to host three grands prix from 2023 including this weekend’s race in Miami.

The Formula 1 paddock’s trip to Miami promises to be an American-driven spectacle. The circuit, named the Miami International Autodrome, is set at 5.4 km with a total of 19 corners and is situated in the center of the Sunshine State’s sporting heart. The Hard Rock stadium, which has hosted two Baseball World Series and six NFL Superbowls, is the focal point of a track that organizers hope will encourage “great racing and overtaking opportunities”.

In addition to also being the site of the Miami Open tennis tournament, F1’s arrival has clearly energized the fans as tickets for the event are selling out at record pace. But what of the circuit and its layout? With three long straits it could mean three DRS zones and the chance to see overtaking on a street track. Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly, after testing the circuit on the simulator, thinks that “it looks pretty awesome. I really liked the layout. Quite a lot of high-speed content, quite challenging, unusual type of corners, extremely long corners, very long”.

Ferrari and Red Bull arrive as expected favourites to a circuit that should reward those that have been able to limit porpoising. For Mercedes it might yet be another difficult weekend. Andrew Shovlin, Merc’s Trackside Engineering director, believes they’ll have to chip away at the problems rather than expect a sudden turnaround in form. Nevertheless, the team are expected to bring some new bits and pieces to the car this weekend which they hope will begin to move them in the right direction.

It’s an opportunity too for Haas to showcase their progress on home soil. Drafted in at the last moment Kevin Magnussen has, to date, shone in the 2022 car. It’s about time then that young Mick Schumacher up his game and score his first F1 points. Otherwise, the former F2 champion runs the risk of becoming an also-ran and could very well be under pressure to maintain his seat.

The semi street track will also be a good barometer of how much progress McLaren has made since a dreadful opening two rounds in Bahrain and Jeddah. There may well be a good chance of seeing Lando Norris well up the grid on Sunday.

At 11, no country has hosted F1 at more venues in the same country than America. It’s an ambitious project to transform downtown Miami into a truly global sporting mecca.

May 5, 2022
2019 Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix: Post Qualifying Press Conference

DRIVERS

1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)
2 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes)
3 – Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing)

TRACK INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Paul Di Resta)

Q: Lewis you can see it’s a pretty good reaction you’ve got. I guess it’s the best way you could sign off this season on a Saturday – pole position, the first time since Germany as well.
Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah, it’s been such a long slog trying to get this pole position in, but we just kept our heads down and just continuing to try… the guys have been doing a great job around me, the other drivers, so it was really juts trying to focus on continuing to do my job. Yesterday was quite wobbly, so I had to really recompose myself last night and come back today focused and managed to really dial in the car with great work from the engineers, mechanics continuing to do a great job and yeah, what a crowd. Every time I come here I seem to get a lot of love here in Abu Dhabi, and also there are a lot of Brits here as well, so a big thank you to everyone.

Q: And how nice is it to get a car that you fully focus on? It’s looked in shape all weekend and I think that’s credit to the team. You do never give up do you?
LH: We never give up. There’s always room to improve. There has been a lot of growth in this whole year, I think for so many people within the team. I can obviously speak for myself, there’s been a lot of growth but also these last couple of races there’s been a lot of growth, from a driver’s perspective, and just constantly looking for those small milliseconds. You know, Valtteri 2.0 has been rapid also this weekend, so I’m glad that we’re in this position. Of course to end the qualifying season with a pole, which has been a while, you know we’ve only had four earlier on this year, so… It’s been a special car and it’s the last time I’ll get to qualify with it so I’m glad I did it proud today.

Q: And Max is obviously lining up alongside you; continue on that battle that you had in Brazil that kept us on the edge of our seat?
LH: Absolutely, yeah. I think we’re in a slightly better position this weekend. Obviously, Max is continuing to drive well, but I’m looking forward to battling with him for sure.

Q: Valtteri, it’s a front row but at the same time you obviously take a grid penalty. I guess nice to be out there and show what Mercedes are capable of but just feel short at the end?
Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, as a team it’s been a really strong day and we saw yesterday in the qualifying [simulations] that we have a good pace. Didn’t feel quite as good today as it did yesterday with my car, struggling a bit more with sliding, but I think Lewis made some good improvements since yesterday and he put some good laps together in the qualifying, so he was quicker. In any case, I’m going to start last with my 40-place grid penalty or whatever, so we’ll find the fighting spirit for tomorrow.

Q: Surely you must relish that challenge. You’re going to be a nuisance in some people’s mirrors, and you’ll be pushing all the way, you got a little bit of insight yesterday, do you believe that you can come through and get on the podium?
VB: I believe. Anything is possible. We do have a good car and normally Sunday is better than Saturday for us so we’ll give it all I have for sure.

Q: Max, front row start. I know you just came short today, it wasn’t quite there at the end, Mercedes have looked supreme, but a good start and you’re already in the battle with this guy that you were battling with in Brazil.
Max VERSTAPPEN: Yeah, I think today was the best that we could do. I think we all know that. Mercedes is quite dominant here. We tried everything we could. I think overall pretty happy. Still good to start on the front row. Of course I would have like to actually qualify there. I think still a lot of chances for tomorrow, so we’ll see what happens.

Q: How did the car feel yesterday on the long runs? Do you think you are competitive enough to race them?
MV: From our side it felt alright, but we always know that Mercedes are very quick on the long runs. We’ll just wait and see what happens tomorrow.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Lewis, an emphatic performance by you, the car seemed to be performing well, how good was the lap?
LH: Thank you. It definitely was a very good qualifying session for us. It’s not been the easiest in terms of qualifying for us throughout the year. It’s been something we’ve just been chipping away at. Considering we’re not developing the car currently I think we just really tried to see what we could pull out of the car this weekend and it’s well suit to the track and it’s been feeling good. Yesterday was a little bit difficult. I had to re-centre myself for today. Yeah, I think the best thing is when you get to Q3 and you pull out two good laps. I think my first lap it felt special and then the second one obviously was an improvement, so I can’t complain. Just a big thank you to all the team for their continued efforts and even though we have both titles won they continue to push and strive for better and that’s inspiring for me, so I’ve been doing the same thing.

Q: It’s been a while for you, since the German GP your last pole. How much satisfaction does this give you?
LH: Yeah, of course. It feels longer than the German Grand Prix. If I’m really honest I don’t even understand how I got the German Grand Prix pole. But yeah, it’s been really hard, particularly since we have come back from the break. The competition has been spectacular; all drivers have been doing an amazing job. I don’t think my qualifying has been terrible but it’s just not been at my usual standard perhaps, so of course it’s incredibly satisfying to know that we have put the work and to end my last qualifying session with this car, which has been a real incredible journey with this car this year, so to finish it off on the front row, there’s not a better feeling really. Obviously that’s not even half the job done. Tomorrow we’ve got to battle with the Ferraris and the Red Bulls but I think we put ourselves in the best position possible so incredibly happy. Honestly, it’s really strange, you say it’s 88 [poles] but it honestly feels like the first, I don’t know why. It feels super-fresh. Maybe because it’s been so long since earlier on in the season and I’m glad to finish on five poles in the year.

Q: Valtteri, great lap. The car seemed to improve as the session went on.
VB: Yeah, the lap was OK. I think still it felt like Lewis was a bit too quick and I think we were slightly different with set-up as well by the end of the qualifying. Honestly, I felt a bit more comfortable yesterday with the car overall. But obviously for me, anything I was trying to keep in my mind was for the race because, in any case, whatever happens today I knew I’m going to be starting last with my, I don’t know how many place, grid penalty, 40, or something. So, I mean, I tried, obviously, as hard as I could. In Q2 I did only one run to save a new tyre set for the race, one set of Softs, if needed. But yeah, Lewis did a very good job, so congrats for the 88^th – it’s a big number. Massive respect for that. But yeah, I’m just really already looking forward for tomorrow, because it is going to be compromised.

Q: Valtteri, what is the plan for tomorrow. Can you plan your race, or are you going to have to react to what’s going on around you?
VB: For sure, we’ve tried to make a plan and the whole weekend, trying to optimise for the race because, like I said, qualifying result doesn’t really matter for me today. So, everything we’ve done with the tyre choices, and everything we’ve tried to optimise that. We’ve had many ideas for the strategy, and obviously it’s going to be a challenge, coming up from there – but I do look forward to it. I’m sure it can be fun trying to come up.

Q: Final thought Valtteri. How are you feeling? You’re not sounding great.
VB: Feeling better already than a couple of days ago. I’ve been quite ill this week, I think since Monday night, so when I travelled here it got worse – but in the car it doesn’t matter. The adrenaline kicks in and you feel normal.

Q: Max, at one stage during the session you reported suspension trouble. Was there any problem with the car?
MV: No, it was just to check. Because I hit one of the orange inside – the high ones. So they would have a look at it, not that it would catch us by surprise, or anything.

Q: And just tell us about your Q3 session. How good was the lap? How was the car performing?
MV: I think the lap was really decent. There was not much I could do better, I think. I mean, there is never a perfect lap. It was good. I mean, I was just driving to the limits. We just seemed to lack a bit of grip, compared to them. Especially, they are very quick in the last sector. And there are a lot of off-camber corners. They are always very dominant here on this track, and we tried to be as close as we could and unfortunately we were just lacking a bit too much in that last sector. But overall, I think I’m pretty pleased. To be third in qualifying, second on the grid. Of course, I would have preferred to be there on pure pace but for us I think it was a pretty positive weekend.

Podium here last year. Do you fancy your chances of getting on the top step tomorrow?
MV: I guess you will always try but you also have to be realistic and I think Mercedes is very quick – but we’ll give it everything we have, tomorrow in the race.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Lewis, you said that it felt like it’d been longer that Germany since you were on pole. Just wondered if it’s a weight off in any way? If it’s something you’ve thought about through the season, or is it a case of you get the pole now and only then you realise, ‘damn, it’s been however many races’?
LH: No, there wasn’t a worry through the season. Of course, I’m well aware that you can’t win them all. I’ve been extremely fortunate and done a relatively decent job over the years – but yeah, I think just with understanding the car and ultimately just squeezing out the best: not over-driving; not under-driving; trying to find the right balance throughout the year. And plus, obviously we’ve had some great opposition. Opponents that are doing a great job – but yeah, I think Austin was probably the last time the car was able to be on the front row, which Valtteri did but I just wasn’t there, so it’s frustrating when you miss those sessions. I think it was the same in Japan. But, it’s great, as I said, these last two races particularly, I’ve done a lot of experimenting. With my driving style and with the car. Just trying to see if I can eke out a little bit more. And I think I’m closer to it. Not 100 per cent but I’ll apply what I’m like this year into next.

Q: (Christian Menath – motorsport-magazin.com) Question for you Max. You said you have to be realistic tomorrow. So, you’re starting on the Medium tyre. The gap on the Medium seemed to be a bit bigger than on the soft to Mercedes. It’s probably going to be a one-stop race. The track is not fantastic for overtaking. Do you see any chance of getting first tomorrow?
MV: Sounds positive! No, my lap was not fantastic on the Medium. In Q3 it was almost half a second and on the Medium it was sixth-tenths. So, its not a big deal. It’s going to be hard. I’m not going to lie but like I said, we’ll try everything we can as a team and we’ll see where we end up.

Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Valtteri, with this car in this circuit, is it possible to be in the top three tomorrow as well?
VB: Everything is always possible. There’s no point for me to set any limit really for tomorrow. So for sure, we’ll have a good fighting spirit. Take every opportunity there will be tomorrow and for sure there will be some. We’ve seen crazy races this year – look back two weeks in Brazil. So anything is possible. Look forward to coming up and taking those opportunities and most important having fun in the car.

Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) Lewis, yesterday Mattia Binotto said that you were an outstanding driver and the fact that you might be available in 2021 to sign can only make him happy, so just your reaction to that, and whether that might give you something to think about over the winter?
LH: Well, this is the first time I’ve heard of that. I think that’s the first compliment I’ve had from Ferrari in these thirteen years.
MV: It’s because you’re beating them.
LH: I honestly don’t remember them ever mentioning me ever so thank you, I’ll take it, doesn’t really mean anything, it’s all talk but yeah, it’s nice that finally… it’s taken all these years for him to recognise maybe but I’m grateful.

Q: (Andreas Haupt – Auto, Moto und Sport) Lewis and Max, from what you’ve seen so far this weekend, do you see Ferrari as a potential threat or are they just too weak here this weekend and is it all between you tomorrow?
LH: Yeah, I think their long run was good, huh? I think their long run was strong. I don’t actually know where they are.
MV: Charles will start third.
LH: His Q2 run was good on the mediums, wasn’t it, so they’ve obviously got pace. I think it’s going to be close between us all. Not to be negative, but I just wonder if… this track is awesome and this event is awesome but I wonder if it’s time they did a subtle adjustment to it to make it a bit easier for us to overtake, maybe. I don’t know. It’s a hard place for us to follow. We’ve got these great long straights which are good.
MV: Yeah, the atmosphere is great…
LH: I don’t know what they have to change but…
MV: Less off-camber corners.
LH: Yeah, maybe. Banked corners would be good.
MV: Yeah.
Q: Your thoughts on Ferrari, Max. Leclerc fastest in Q2 on the medium tyre?
MV: Yeah, of course he also went for a second go at it but yeah, they will be there. I don’t worry about it too much, you just find out during the race. Go to bed, sleep well and have fun tomorrow.

Q: (Ben Hunt – The Sun) Just following up on Phil’s question to Lewis: it’s all very nice, compliments, but are they wasting their time being nice to you? Are you going to turn them down or are you listening to anything that they have to say, positive, negative? Would you be interested in talking to them about your future with regards to Ferrari?
LH: No, it’s positive. What was the first part, sorry? I think it’s never a waste of time to ever being nice to someone. As I said, it has been a long, long time and a team that I’ve always appreciated over the years, so to earn their respect from someone from there who’s obviously very high up is obviously not a bad thing. I think they’ve got two great drivers as is so who knows what the driver market’s going to be doing over the next year. But if I’m really honest, I’m not really focused on that right this second: trying to make sure I finish off strong. I’ve got this incredible group of people who hire me where I am and I feel like I just continue to owe it to them to give my heart to them and my energy 100 per cent to them, particularly as I’m still in contract and negotiations haven’t started yet. I honestly don’t know how the next phase of the months is going to go when it comes to contract. It’s very odd that you have to do it almost a year before it ends and it can’t be done towards the end but that’s just the way it goes but we shall see.

Q: (Beatrice Zamuner – Motorlat) Fernando Alonso earlier said that he’s going to keep the door open for 2021, so what would your reaction be to a comeback of a driver of his calibre?
LH: I’d be more just happy that I won’t be the oldest here! So welcome an older dude, he can come along. Fernando’s obviously a well-accomplished driver. It’s interesting to see in the past, obviously, with drivers wanting to come back, like Michael, and it’s something you’ve done your whole life so… I haven’t spoken to Fernando so I don’t know how he’s been feeling or how much he’s missed it, but I don’t think it would be bad for the sport. Ultimately, there’s a lot of young kids on their way up and there’s only 20 seats, so he has also had his period of time there, but if there’s no other good youngsters coming through then… there definitely is space for some that are currently here that probably could be replaced. So I would welcome it.
VB: Agree with Lewis, nothing really to add. Same thoughts.
MV: Yeah, absolutely, I mean Fernando’s a great driver but you should only come back…
LH: You said something about him coming back.
MV: Me?
LH: Yeah. You said that… come back… with me.
MV: Is that so?
LH: You know, in my first season.
MV: You were equal on points, wasn’t it?
LH: In my first season.
MV: Yeah, that’s right. You did a great job. No, but he’s a great driver, I think you can agree on that, right?
LH: Of course.
MV: And it would be good to see him… if he could come back but only in a competitive car otherwise I think it’s just a waste of time for him. But I think he knows that himself so…

November 30, 2019
2019 Formula 1 Russian Grand Prix: Post Qualifying Press Conference

DRIVERS
1 – Charles LECLERC (Ferrari)
2 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)
3 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)

TRACK INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Jenson Button)

Q: Charles, all I can say is, wow! What a dominant performance. All of the way through practice, yesterday, today, qualifying – you really are on a role.
Charles LECLERC: Yeah, the car felt amazing. It definitely feels great to be back on pole. I don’t know if it’s the best track to start on pole. The straight is very long after the start. Tomorrow the start will be very important as always, but here probably even more, because of the straight length.

Q: It’s still the best place to be in. The last person to score four [consecutive] pole positions for Ferrari was Michael Schumacher. That must make you feel pretty special?
CL: Yeah it definitely feels very, very special, but I don’t really want to think about those kind of stats for now. I just want to focus on the job. There’s still a long way to go until tomorrow. It’s definitely a good start, we’ve been competitive all weekend long and the race simulation seems positive too, so it’s looking good for tomorrow.

Q: Congratulations. Lewis, I must say, all the way through qualifying, obviously the Ferraris have had the upper hand, but as always you pulled the lap out there at the end and got the best out of the car?
Lewis HAMILTON: I’ll tell you, it was a tough qualifying session, because these guys have some crazy speeds on the straights. They go to another level, you know. That whole party mode you talked about us having, they have something else beyond that – jet mode! Nonetheless, I gave it absolutely everything I had at the end and the team did such a great job to just tinker and push forwards. I’m so glad it came together. I wasn’t expecting to get on the front row for sure, so I’m really, really happy with it nonetheless.

Q: And the great thing for you guys also is that you have the medium tyres for the start of the race. It looks like you knew they would be quick in qualifying so you’ve gone for a slightly different strategy for the race.
LH: Yeah, well we know that they are on a slightly lower drag level this weekend plus they have that power, so we’ve got to try something. You’ve seen the last couple of races we’ve been behind all the way, so we’re fortunate enough to opt for another strategy and I think the team have done a really good job with putting us in that position. It’s a long way down to Turn 1, so it’s not always the best for starts on the harder tyre, but I’m going to try to two the hell out of Charles if I get the chance. But it’s going to be hard because they get good starts as well.

Q: Sebastian, not the easiest qualifying I’m sure. Q1 was pretty tricky: one little mistake and all hell broke loose after that. But, P3, you’ve got the run down to Turn 1 and I’m sure that after the last race, with the strategy and winning that race, there are still a lot of opportunities tomorrow?
Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, definitely. Obviously I’m not entirely happy, I think I couldn’t extract the absolute maximum from the car. As you said, it was a bit disruptive in Q1 but by the time we got to Q3 I thought it was OK. You spoke about Turn 1, it’s a long way, obviously we’ll see. We’re on different tyres strategies compared to the Mercs, so I think the race will be decided tomorrow. The speed is there so let’s keep it up.

Q: As you said, there’s a long straight down to Turn 2. You guys are pretty quick in a straight line too. For us it’s going to be great watching, but it’s going to be pretty crazy for you guys into Turn 2?
SV: Yeah, first you need a good start; then you worry about the rest, sort of thing. Let’s see. Obviously there’s potentially an advantage if you are behind but I guess if you are behind you always tend to say that, so let’s see what happens.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Charles, you got progressively quicker as the session went on. Where were you finding the time?
CL: I don’t think I had any clean laps before the one of Q3. The first lap of Q3 felt very good. The second lap: very good until Turn 16, where I lost rears, and I lost a little bit of lap time. But overall the car was just coming together. The balance was better and better. I was adjusting a little bit the aero balance and I just felt more and more confident.

Q: And what about your confidence for tomorrow’s race – the long run pace of your car?
CL: I believe that the long run pace yesterday was extremely positive, I think probably the most positive of the whole season, so this is looking good. But it’s going to be an interesting race. I mean, Mercedes are starting on the medium, so I think the strategy will play a role. I think we did the right choice to start on the soft, but we will see tomorrow.

Q: Good luck with that and well done today. Lewis, if we could come on to you. You sounded very happy at the end of the session, happy to split the Ferraris for the second week in a row. How good was your lap?
LH: Pretty decent. It was a pretty good lap. Honestly, it was a really good lap. Last time, Singapore felt like a really good lap as well, it’s just… I was just saying to Charles out there that already by Turn 1 we were already three tenths down or something like that, so it’s very, very hard. But nonetheless I pushed, we pushed, as hard as we could and I was really, really happy with the lap. It all came together. That last one was the best of the weekend – as it should be – and no mistakes or anything like that, so I really feel like I got everything and maybe a little bit more from the car to split the Ferraris once again, which is not an easy task.

Q: Charles thinks it’s going to be a strategic battle tomorrow. Do you feel the same way?
LH: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. I think the team did a great job to put us on the mediums and naturally from the two tyres there’s obviously a delta and the softer the tyre the better the start. So it will be a little bit tough off the start tomorrow. But even if we were in the lead, if we were on pole for example, they are just so fast on the straights by the time we get to Turn 1, which is the little kink, they blast past us with the jet fuel or whatever it is. So, yeah, it is about strategy, which is why we are on a different tyre and I hope that we can utilise that and keep the pressure on. If you’ve seen the couple of races we’ve had we’ve been right with them but I’m hoping tomorrow we can really give them a good fight.

Q: Sebastian, coming to you, it seemed a good opening lap of Q3 for you but then it seems to slip away on that second lap. Is that a fair assessment?
SV: Not really. I was quite happy in general. Obviously a bit disruptive with Q1 where we got a bit unfortunate with yellow flags and stuff. I thought by the time we got to Q3 that was fine. I think overall I was pretty happy with the car. I just felt that there was more in the car that, yeah, I couldn’t get to. Nevertheless, I think tomorrow is a long race. I think we have good pace for the race. It will be very interesting with the Mercedes on different tyres to start with, so let’s see what happens.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Lewis, how important was it to be on the first row for tomorrow’s race? And would it be crucial to be at the second corner first, before the Ferraris to avoid what happened last week in Singapore?
LH: Time will tell. But, of course, if I’m able to try and somehow keep Seb behind, and there’s only one car ahead, for example, that changes things on top. So, naturally we’re going to push as hard as we can but it’s going to be very, very hard. Down to Turn One it’s a long drag – but I’m sure we’ll have a good battle, one way or another.

Q: (Christian Menath – motorsport-magazin.com) Question for all three of you. You all sounded pretty confident that you’re on the right tyre, even though you have different ones. Can you explain why you are confident this is the right tyre you’re starting on? Do you think this has to do with the car that the tyre suits better to your car – or is it only strategic reasons?
CL: On our side I think the start is very important here and we thought that the benefits of starting on Soft was big. And then there was not much difference, in terms of degradation, from the Soft to the Medium. So, yeah, we thought it was worth it to make it our start tyre.
LH: I just wanted to be on something different.

Is that what it now takes to beat these guys? You’ve got to roll the dice?
LH: I don’t know. I haven’t beaten them for a while! So I can’t tell you. I’ll tell you at the end of tomorrow.

Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) To all three. Charles, this is your fourth pole in a row. You were asked downstairs, you’re the first person to do that for Ferrari since Michael, which is obviously pretty special. Are you on a roll at the moment in qualifying where you feel like you can’t do anything wrong, and everything comes together. And to Lewis and Seb, you’ve both had massive success in Formula One, been on this sort of run – what does it do for you as a driver when you have this sort of succession of poles?
CL: Of course I felt confident going into qualifying but at the end anything… I mean at one point it’s going to end, so whether it’s now or later, I don’t know. So, the only thing I’m trying to do is focus on myself, try to have exactly the same procedure as I’ve had since the last four races and not… yeah, I definitely don’t come in the car thinking it will be easy and that it will come together alone. I just try to keep working as I did in the last few races, and then hopefully the lap time comes.

Lewis, how does it feel? The importance of momentum, invincibility when you’re on a roll?
LH: I don’t know – I’ve never felt invincible. Of course, when you get on a roll, it doesn’t really make… from my experience, it’s nice, for sure but it doesn’t make a difference. So if it’s separated: one pole; one second; one pole, it doesn’t make any difference to me. But he’s stealing all the poles right now, so it’s going to be very, very hard to beat their poles when they’re so fast on the straights but we’re working at it.

SV: I don’t know – it’s been a while for me! Yeah, I think you take every session separately, so you’re not really trying to look back. I think it’s just about nailing every session.

Q: (Dzhastina Golopolosova – The Paddock Magazine) Question to Charles. Mercedes dominated here for five years and today you showed that you can break this trend. What do you think about tomorrow?
CL: For now… I mean the race it tomorrow. It will be very important to stay in front, and they were also strong in the race pace, as they’ve always been since the beginning of the season, so, it obviously feels good to be on pole here. I think Singapore was a big surprise for everyone, for us to be in front and here, I think we felt we had our chances, considering how quick we were in Singapore. Yeah, I mean it feels good to break that but we need to finish the job tomorrow.

Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Charles, Jenson already mentioned the record that you equalled today with Michael Schumacher but I want to consider with you that there was this past 19 years from that and there are some other guys, for example Seb, who are with you that couldn’t do that. So how is your feeling, to think that today is an historical day not only for you but for Ferrari?
CL: As I said, it feels good but it doesn’t change my approach to the other weekends and as Seb and Lewis said, every time you go into a session, you take it just normally, without thinking about the others, the last poles I’ve had. So yeah, obviously it feels great but I don’t want to think about these things and I just want to focus on the job ahead.

Q: (Giusto Ferronato – La Gazzetta dello Sport) For both Ferrari drivers: in Italy probably now many people are thinking that you have found the solution to win all the races. Is this correct or they are too optimistic?
CL: I think we need to keep our feet on the ground. Obviously at the moment we are in a good momentum, we are having really good performances but at the end it doesn’t change… Mercedes are still quite ahead in the overall championship, which at the end is what matters the most. I think we need to keep our heads down, keep working. Of course at the moment it seems that it’s working our way but I will not say it will be like this for the rest of the season, so we need to keep working.
SV: Not much to add so maybe too optimistic. I think we need to wait until tomorrow. I think at the last race obviously it was difficult to pass. I think Mercedes was faster than us in the race so we will see what happens tomorrow with different strategy.

Q: Sebastian, is this the best Ferrari you’ve driven?
SV: I think the car got a lot better since the beginning of the year when we started to really struggle. Obviously we had a bit of a high at winter testing. I think we understood what it takes and I think the step in Singapore in particular seemed to help us and allowed us to make another step forward. But I think the ’17 car out of the box was probably the best so far.

Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Sebastian, have you looked at all the data with Charles on the exercise of pole and have you found where he is better than you since the return of the summer?
SV: Well, obviously in qualifying here and there. I think we didn’t have the best sessions on my side. I think obviously today Charles was faster so it’s pretty easy to see where he’s faster but it’s a little bit here and there. I don’t think there’s any pattern standing out, saying that he’s always faster in the same type of corner. As I said, obviously the last couple of races was closer than maybe it looked on the result so we will see what happens tomorrow. Usually come race day I’m getting more and more confident in the car and pace has never been a problem in the race so we will see what happens.

Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Lewis, you’ve mentioned the deficit you’ve got at the moment to Ferrari and where you feel that deficit is so how deep are you having to dig inside yourself for a lap like this? You had a big gap to Valtteri today for example and you said your Singapore lap was also very good.
LH: Yeah. Honestly I feel like that maybe the last couple of laps have felt worthy, like pole-worthy in terms of how this has come together and optimising within the car. Naturally obviously they are faster than us and Charles has done a good job but I mean in terms of being as close to the limit as possible and yeah, I think I’ve just been getting more and more comfortable with the car, I think in this second half of the season, a little bit more comfortable with it, even though we’ve lost a little performance compared to them but there’s still work to do collectively, in all of us, including myself so we just keep working on that. Please don’t write that the wrong way, pole-worthy, I was meaning in terms of what do you… putting the perfect lap together, I feel like each time I’m getting as close to that as possible and then you finish the lap and it’s quite a long way off pole but it feels like quite an achievement to get in between the two Ferraris who have a bit of a delta to us at the moment.

September 28, 2019
2019 Italian Grand Prix: Post Qualifying Press Conference

DRIVERS
1 – Charles LECLERC (Ferrari)
2 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)
3 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes)

TRACK INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Paul Di Resta)

Q: Charles, you must have to pinch yourself at the moment, to come here on the back of that win in Spa, to claim pole position in front of Ferrari’s home crowd. And when you get that reception when you draw up, it must be incredible?
Charles LECLERC: It feels unbelievable. Already on Wednesday in Milan was just incredible and today to see so many people feels absolutely amazing. Happy with the pole but it’s a shame that at the end there was a big mess. I hoped for the last lap but that was enough with what happened for the pole.

Q: A pole is a pole, regardless of what happened. But tomorrow there’s a big day ahead. Do you feel that you’ve got the pace to take the win to these home fans?
CL: Yeah, I think the pace was quiet good actually during the race simulations in FP2 so it’s looking positive, better than in Spa, so let’s hope for a good race tomorrow.

Q: Lewis, I know you’re never happy unless you’re getting pole position, but I guess that at the end of the day Ferrari were always going to be strong here. You’re on the row and at the same time you missed out on the last run because of all the tactics for getting that tow. How do you sum it up?
Lewis HAMILTON: To be honest, I have to be grateful that I’m on the front row. We get to have a fight with the Ferraris tomorrow, which is nice. We’ve split them, so as a team it’s a really good position for us to be in. It is definitely a bit of an anti-climax that we couldn’t all go out and do that last final lap, that’s one of the most exciting ones we have. It’s crazy with this timing that we have, the system we have, where everyone backs up, everyone is trying to get a position and they times us out. They basically timed us out. It’s interesting – get pole position in the first run and then just time everyone out.

Q: I know normally you look for free space in qualifying but it seems like the two has been extra important this year. Is it strange as a driver to have that tactic when you go into a session, knowing that you have to be four or five seconds behind someone?
LH: Yeah, definitely. I mean on the out lap it’s dangerous for us all. There are people slowing down, you don’t know who is alongside you and that. It’s definitely risky business out there but it’s kind of enjoyable at the same time. But for us we are down on the Ferraris in a straight line, so we particularly need. I think others also do. I think it’s with this new wing, the drag is much bigger this year, so everyone is focusing on that. But honestly just to be up here on the front row, we can give them a good fight tomorrow.

Q: Valtteri, that was quite a difficult session. You almost had a lap cancelled, just before the red flag came out but it got reinstated, and luckily because that last run didn’t come off.
Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, I was quite unlucky there and also I had a yellow flag in the first run in the last corners so I had to lift off and I believe I lost the pole because of that. Obviously the last run was a bit of a mess for everyone. But the pace was good. Happy still to be very much at the front because it’s tomorrow that counts.

Q: How much fun are these cars to drive around Monza. Is it a place you enjoy?
VB: It’s always good fun. Definitely enjoying it and for sure I’m going to enjoy tomorrow.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Charles, it was very close, less than one tenth of a second separating all three of you on the panel. But you’ve done it, you’ve got pole at Monza, so how does it feel?
CL: Obviously the feeling I got when I went out of the car, hearing the crowd cheer so loud is absolutely amazing. On the other hand a bit of a shame for the team, Seb couldn’t do his second timed lap; he was very quick. I felt like a 1-2 was an opportunity even though these two guys were extremely quick and it was very, very close. But yeah, the whole qualifying was a big mess with all the slipstreaming and having the best one. But very happy with this pole position.

Q: And throwing it forward to tomorrow’s race, do you think you’ve got a closer fight on your hands than you did last week at Spa?
CL: Yes, I think the race pace was more positive compared to what we had the Friday in Spa, so on that we are pretty confident. But the start will be very important, as always. But there is quite a long way here from the start to the first corner so the start will be very important.

Q: Well done, good luck tomorrow. Charles has described the quali session as a bit of a mess. Just talk us through what happened at the end of Q3 from your point of view.
LH: Well, it’s then same as has happened for some races now. The drag is a big issue here, the tow is a key to getting a good lap. Everyone was slowing right down and also blocking the way, so you couldn’t really get through. It was pretty dangerous. I nearly crashed a couple of times trying to stay out of the way of the guys that were braking ahead of me and then people trying to come past me. Nonetheless, Charles did a great job. I was a little bit unfortunate with Kimi spinning in front of me, so I had to lift in the last corner. That was really our pole lap lost there. It would have been nice to have obviously been able to compete on that last lap, get to really thresh out the cars and see who really had that little edge right at the end.

Q: Was there more time in your car?
LH: Definitely. Definitely. But I’m sure it’s the same for all of us. The track progresses so you can find little bits here and there. Also, I was quite close behind Kimi, so I was losing out a little bit through the corners, so you are trying to find the right compromise. But tomorrow there’s still a long, long way to the finish line so we’ll try to put ourselves in the best position. This is great for us to be able to separate the Ferraris and we can work together as a team tomorrow and try to overhaul him and fortunately not have the Ferrari in the way this time… Vettel.

Q: Valtteri, another quite messy qualifying session, with your first time having to be reinstated and then what happened at the end of Q3, so do you feel that the whole thing was a bit of a compromise for you?
VB: It definitely was. I think it was compromised for sure for many drivers so in that kind of messy session it’s always good to be ending up in the top three. The same for me as for Lewis, and I was actually more far back. I had the yellow flags for Kimi so I had to lift off properly and I also feel I lost the pole there. It’s annoying when it could have been possible but it could have been a lot worse today. I hope we can really learn something from the last run because everyone pretty much missed their lap. There were two cars going slow at the front and no one could get by. So not ideal but we are here, very much close to the front and it’s going to be a good fight tomorrow.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Christian Menath – motorsport-magazin.com) First part of the question for you Charles: could you talk us through, I think you were behind Seb at the beginning of the lap then did you decide on your own to just go flat-out and make it to the line on time? And for both Mercedes drivers, did you think about ‘OK, I have to go fast now otherwise I won’t make it,’ or is it something that you’re just relying on the team what they say to you?
CL: To be completely honest, the plan was that, in the first run, Seb was giving me the tow and in the second run, I will give him the tow. So, I actually went out of the box in front of him, and then there was the huge mess after Turns One and Two and the McLaren and a Renault – I don’t know whoever that was – they stopped in the middle of the track and we had nowhere to go. Seb overtakes me there, because of the mess, because obviously we were aware it was quite tight on time, and then I stayed, basically, behind Seb, until the last straight where I’ve heard also on the radio “you can overtake Seb,” so I overtook him – but I had no time for me either to start the lap, so yeah, it was a shame – but I don’t think I could have done much more.

And for the Mercedes drivers, how reliant were you on the pitwall? Lewis?
LH: Well, naturally, you’re listening to your delta, understanding whether you’ve still got time left but I tried to get through… I was supposed to be behind Valtteri but I overtook him, knowing that I needed to get further ahead, but I couldn’t overtake everyone, they were weaving and braking and it was like trying to avoid carnage all the time. So, we had a couple of people I think were holding everyone up, trying to, I guess, let people by but yeah, a bit of an anti-climax, I think, probably for all of you. Maybe they should have extended the session or something like that, so we could finish, or something – I’m not really sure how we’re going to get around this. Everyone’s brake testing and slowing down to let others past, just to get a tow. I’m not sure how we’re going to get around that in the future. But… yeah… in hindsight I wish I just went out earlier. Just got out there and got a clean lap. That would have been great.

Valtteri, anything you can add from your point of view?
VB: No, it’s the same. Same view for me. It was a bit of a mess and I was also just behind other cars, exit of Turn Two, and things started to go very slowly and, short on time, and everyone was pretty much in the same boat.

Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Lewis, we heard you over the radio after Q3, and again down on the grid, that it was an interesting tactic from Ferrari – because obviously Charles was on pole after the first run. Do you think it was intentional? A clever play from them to back them up? And how unflattering do you think the whole thing looked for F1?
LH: Honestly, I don’t know how many cars were up ahead, so I don’t know… Charles just said it was a couple of other cars up ahead so maybe it was them – but ultimately it worked out well for them. I really don’t know what else to say. It would have been nice to just finish the lap and both put the pedal to the metal but it didn’t happen and we move forwards.

Lewis, how did it look for Formula 1, just to follow up on Scott’s question?
LH: I don’t think it looks good but I’m not a fan so I’ll let the fans decide on that. I think fans get excited, at least I remember I used to get really excited about watching qualifying and all the way down to that last minute, so it’s down for you guys to have an opinion. For me, just as a driver, I would have loved to have obviously driven more qualifying. One of the best stages of the weekend. I think some drivers didn’t even have a lap – is it true that Seb didn’t even have a lap? Is that right? Yep, it is the way it is.

Q: (Luke Smith – crash.net) This is the second race in a row now that this has happened. Lewis, you used the word ‘dangerous’ both at Spa and here as well. For all three of you, do you think a qualifying format rethink it required to avoid situations like this happening again?
VB: Well, these two tracks, we’ve seen this is really specific on the tows and I think Spa and Monza are the biggest gains on the straightline speed you can get really, being behind another car, and here especially. So, I don’t think it’s going to be an issue in most of the tracks, like at the next race where, for sure, everyone just tried to find a clear gap. But for tracks like this, it’s always been a bit like that, and maybe now a bit more extreme, with the cars getting more draggier and more of a gain being in the slipstream.

Charles?
CL: Yeah, as Valtteri said, it’s only on a few tracks during the season where we have this issue. I’ve got no quick fix to try and help this quickly – but maybe we can all think about to to try and understand. It has always been like this. I think slipstream has always been that way. I don’t really know what to say. We just need to analyse a little bit more, the situation. I think today was special, was definitely not the intention from our side. Obviously there was also Seb that was capable of having the pole position and we obviously didn’t want to sacrifice one car for the pole of the other so, yeah, it was quite tricky. I definitely think that situations like after the second corner shouldn’t happen when there are two cars side-by-side. I cannot go at 20kph, we couldn’t pass and I think most of the drivers behind wanted to pass but didn’t have the opportunity so, yeah, these situations have made a big mess towards the end and that’s why so many cars didn’t make it to start their laps. But yeah, that’s it.

Lewis, your thoughts
LH: I don’t really have an answer, to be honest. I don’t remember every qualifying session this year but it was similar last year, I think. We were all trying to get a gap, which continues to be key. In some places, you want a bigger gap, in some places it’s all about the tow, so each track’s specific. I always through they could do something different on weekends anyways, different weekends, depending on the track but it’s highly unlikely that’s going to happen.

Q: Do you think we’ll see such an extreme case going forwards, looking at the last seven races?
LH: I’m sure it’s going to continue. Positioning is key. If we were to… everyone going out as late as we just did there, for example, with two minutes to go, it’s going to continue to be an issue in places where you particularly need a tow. It won’t be until someone crashes that they’ll change it, most likely.

Q: (Godina Zsolt – f1vilag.hu) Charles, Sebastian is going to start from P4 tomorrow. How difficult will it be to keep behind the Mercedes cars compared to Spa?
CL: Well, it’s obviously going to be very, very difficult because, first of all, they are quick, secondly, slipstream and DRS are very important here – but I think the race pace looks better than what it was in Spa, so on that we are pretty confident – but for sure it’s going to be very difficult to keep them behind. As I said, I think a very good start from myself and also from Seb will be very important for the good result of the team tomorrow.

Q: (Carlo Ferraro – Fuoritraiettoria.com) We saw more than half of the Formula Three field getting grid penalties for driving unnecessarily slowly on their warm-up lap. Do you think this may or should happen today as well?
LH: Honestly I don’t know. It’s not our… it’s the system probably needs to shift a little bit maybe. I don’t think they should start handing out penalties. We just need to look upon it and reflect a little bit and see what we can do to make it better, make it better for the fans and make it less dangerous. Like they already made a change today that we have to finish the out lap within a certain delta time but even that’s still too slow. There’s improvements we can make, for sure, for safety but also for the spectators to watch.
CL: Yeah, I agree and today actually is quite difficult. If you put the penalty to one, you put the penalty to the 10 drivers that were in Q3 because we were all together.
VB: Nothing to say, really.

Q: (Simon Istvan Janos – V4NA) We have seen a very nasty accident this morning in Formula Three at the Parabolica. There was a very high kerb. It has been removed by Formula One qualifying; what was your impression of the accident, very close to Anthoine’s accident, within one week? And my other question is if you, as drivers, were consulted before removing it today?
VB: Yeah, obviously a big accident. I saw it afterwards. At least from me… no one asked me if the kerb should be taken off or not but my view would have been for sure because we’ve seen an accident like this so for sure and it was actually not making any difference to the track limits because people were going off the track before the bump so it was in the wrong place and wrong height obviously. I’m sure there’s a lesson learned. It’s a super high-speed place and if you hit it at the wrong angle obviously those kind of things can happen so… Definitely not so good for safety that one but I’m sure something learned today.
CL: Yeah, I think it was maybe a bit pointless to put a kerb like this, once they said they would look at the track limits there, because anyway if you go out, you have your lap and the next lap deleted. But I was quite a fan of gravel there in the past. I think that was quite a good fix for every track limits.
LH: Did you drive here with the gravel?
CL: Yup, in Formula 3.
LH: Yeah, I agree with him. It was much better when it was grass and gravel on the exit there because I remember you used to come into that corner, you kind of… you were a bit nervous going in too deep because you might end up in the wall. The grass would pull you out wide and you’d pay the price for pushing beyond the limit. So now you can go beyond the limit and that’s the biggest – for me – the biggest problem with all these run-off areas that are tarmac now. We didn’t need to be consulted about the kerb. It’s a band-aid on the issue of putting tarmac there in the first place. I don’t think they needed tarmac round there.

Q: (Joe van Burik – Racing News 365) Lewis, on Instagram you shared an image of an article featuring Max responding to quotes from Nico Rosberg, being a critic of his driving style in Spa. What do you think of a former World Champion being so explicit about how modern day F1 drivers talk?
LH: I don’t really think much of it, to be honest. I thought it was really funny – I think Max is generally a really funny guy so I was cracking up when I saw it. It’s interesting because obviously we know what it’s like – all the drivers have all been here and know what it’s like being criticised from the public and when [they are] in the sport moan about being criticised by people from the outside and then when drivers retire they become those critics, so it’s an interesting dynamic. And also some of those… unfortunately drivers become irrelevant when they retire and ultimate have to hang on to utilise other people’s light to keep them in the light and so… but that’s the way of sport, I guess.

Q: (Fabio Seghetta – Tutomotorsport.com) Charles, did you think that you had more advantage over the Mercedes cars during free practice or do you think that this gap has been reduce during qualifying?
CL: I think they’ve been quick all weekend, to be honest. I expected them to be very quick today. The straightline speeds are not as different compared to Spa. I think we were surprised to see them so quick on the straights during free practice. I think it was the same in qualifying, so yeah, I think it’s been the same from free practice to qualifying.

Q: (Giovanni Messi – News Formula One Italy) Charles, do you think that here Ferrari can be better race pace than in Spa, looking also at the time that we see in free practice yesterday ?
CL: Yeah, as I said earlier, I think in FP2 the race pace was a bit more positive compared to the race pace that we had in FP2 in Spa. It looks a little bit better but again, here the tow and the DRS has a bigger effect, so it’s going to be difficult to lead.

Q: (Christian Menath – MotorsportMagazin.com) Considering the weather forecast for tomorrow, for rain, did any one of you change the set-up for the rain, raise a bit more wing than you would usually have gone for for qualifying?
LH: Position is everything, so you want to go quick on the straight so no, you want to take absolutely everything off as possible to go as quick as you can.
CL: Same for us.
VB: Yup.

September 7, 2019
2019 Belgian Grand Prix: Post Qualifying Press Conference

DRIVERS

1 – Charles LECLERC (Ferrari)

2 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)

3 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

TRACK INTERVIEWS

(Conducted by Timo Glock)

Q: Well done for today. You seemed to be totally in control of the weekend so far and you got a really good lap in. How did it feel like in qualifying for you?

Charles LECLERC: It felt good. Obviously the first sector was not exactly what I wanted, especially in the first corner, we had to go very slow to prepare the lap because there was a lot of traffic. I struggled for that a bit, but after that from the second corner onwards then we were very strong and it felt amazing.

Q: It seemed like you were the only guy who stayed out of trouble on the out laps, because everyone struggled to find a clean spot, but you managed it really well, or not?

CL: Yeah, that’s what I asked actually when I was in the garage – to not really care about the slipstream, it was just too much of a mess to prepare the tyres and the lap overall, so ~I wanted to be alone and yeah, it worked out, so I’m happy.

Q: Good feeling for tomorrow for the race?

CL: Yeah, we were struggling a little bit more during the race pace yesterday, so we need to work on that. But, yeah, looking at the pace today I’m pretty sure we will be strong.

Q: Seb, well done today, P2. I think when I saw you in the middle of the same like Charles, you struggled on the out lap to get the tyres into the right window. Was that the key problem today?

Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, I mean in the end it’s good that we secured the first row. To fight for pole, I was sort of in the queue; it doesn’t help, but no excuses. We look forward to the race tomorrow. I think we have good pace in the car, so hopefully we can show it also over, what is it 44 laps?

Q: But you didn’t seem that happen on the long run pace yesterday. You think tomorrow it’s going to be OK when it’s a lot cooler?

SV: Yeah, I think it should be better. The car was better today, so we’ll see. Obviously temperatures should drop overnight, which makes a difference, but it’s the same for everyone.

Q: Thanks. Lewis, first of all I think we need to talk about your mechanics. They did an awesome job.

Lewis HAMILTON: Absolutely. P3 was a terrible session for me. Of course, it’s painful because you know how many people work so hard to build those parts and then you know how hard the guys work to put the car together and I knew that was going to be a tough challenge. But my guys are just faultless, they always work and give 110% and I’m so grateful for that. After that I was really just trying to pay them back with a good qualifying session. Considering I missed P3 and a lot of P1 actually I’m really grateful I’m up here.

Q: You were nearly crashing, I think even Valtteri on the out lap, because it was a mess as well. Was it for you hard to get the tyres in as well, because everyone seemed to be affected by that?

LH: Yeah, that was a bit slow. Obviously he was trying to keep the tow of the car in front, so I was trying to hold behind him and everyone was behind me, so it’s really tricky. But nonetheless Ferrari have done a great job today, Charles did an exceptional job and I hope we can bring the fight to them in the race tomorrow.

Q: I think your long-run pace was very good yesterday and there is a chance for you on the long straight to attack the Ferraris straight away. Are you happy that it’s going to be 10 degrees cooler tomorrow? Is that helping you out?

LH: I don’t know, I’d have to ask my engineers. Either way I’m going to give it everything and hopefully give these guys a good race.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Charles, many congratulations, you dominated all three segments of qualifying. Can you tell us how it feels to be on pole by seven tenths of a second?

CL: It obviously feels amazing. It was very tricky, especially in Q3 I struggled quite a lot, the start of the lap was always very, very messy, because there was quite a lot of traffic with all the cars around but in the end I managed to do the full lap correctly and I’m very happy. I definitely did not expect to be that much ahead, but very happy with my lap anyway.

Q: Well, came close to winning in Bahrain earlier this year, so given your level of dominance so far this weekend how confident are you for tomorrow?

CL: I don’t know. I think we have been quick since FP1 but once we did the race simulations in FP2 we weren’t as quick, so I think it’s not going to be easy tomorrow. We will try to give everything. The gap is quite big today but it doesn’t mean it will be like that tomorrow, so we will working hard to improve on the race run we did yesterday and we will see.

Q: Well done again. Sebastian, you said on your cool-down lap “what a mess”. Can you just describe the session and particularly Q3 from your point of view?

SV: Uhh, messy! I think I was getting into a sort of a rhythm, maybe it took a little bit longer for me today to really get a hold of the car but it felt quite good. But then in Q3 it was quite messy, with everybody trying to get a tow and a lot of queuing for the last corner, which made it very tricky and, yeah, obviously the tyres then are not where they were probably supposed to be and being further back it I think it wasn’t ideal. Anyways, Charles did a better job today, also with that, so now looking forward to tomorrow. I felt the car was quite good, which is the most important thing so let’s see tomorrow with the change in ambient conditions, in track conditions, what the race is going to be like.

Q: Thank you and good luck tomorrow. Lewis, it’s been an impressive comeback by you and the team after your crash in final practice. First of all, any lasting physical effects from that crash and how was the car in qualifying?

LH: Firstly, it’s been an interesting weekend so far. We struggled obviously a little bit in the first session with some problems and then, yeah, I made a big mistake this morning with the change we made and it just didn’t feel great out there and obviously I had that incident. But the guys did an incredible job, incredibly diligent, to perfection – taking the car apart and rebuilding it. There’s so much pressure on those guys through the weekend and naturally I don’t ever want to put them in that position, but I think they relished the challenge and so really proud of them. So going into this session I was just hoping that I’ve got the car in the right place and ultimately hoping I can pay them back with a good qualifying session and I think today was really smooth and I think the team did an amazing job in terms of where they put us out there. It was a little bit tricky when everyone was slowing down but nonetheless, congratulations to Charles, he’s been so quick all weekend. But I think in the long run we can at least give them a bit of a challenge tomorrow. I think a bit of the straight speed, which is where generally all the speed is, it’s usually not there so much in the race, so hopefully we’ll be there or thereabout with them tomorrow and can put in maybe some interesting strategies, we’ll see.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Christian Menath – motorsport-magazin.com) Question for you Seb. You said you didn’t get into the rhythm very fast; it took a bit of time for you. Do you have an explanation for that – because yesterday it looked like you lost quite a lot time on the straights?

SV: No, not really. I don’t think we lost time on the straights. I think nothing out of the ordinary, so… No, I think it was quite tricky to get the car where I wanted it to be for one lap, and it was better in qualifying. I struggled a bit yesterday afternoon, this morning, but, as I said, by qualifying it was fine and then obviously towards the last part of quali it was a bit messy again, not ideal preparing the lap, so yeah, I’m not happy with the final attempt, it wasn’t clean. So, yeah, I’m not worried, I think pace-wise it was looking quite good and let’s see what we get tomorrow. Obviously a big change in terms of temps. Let’s see how we adapt.

Q: (Erik Bielderman – L’Equipe) Lewis, when you don’t claim the pole position, like today, do you head into the Sunday’s race in a more excited mood because of the challenge that awaits you?

LH: When you’re on pole, you’re always the happiest, naturally – but nonetheless, yeah, I’m happy that we have a fight. I think we knew that coming here, that it was going to be challenging. We didn’t know where the Red Bulls or Ferraris would be but we knew the Ferraris would be extremely quick given that they’ve been fastest on all the straights throughout the year. That’s a big gap: seven-tenths is a huge margin but nonetheless I think in the race trim it looked like it was a lot closer. So yeah, I’m excited that I’m in a position where hopefully I can try and battle these guys tomorrow. That makes it more fun for us, for me – and for the fans, hopefully.

Q: (Godina Zsolt – F1Valag.hu) Charles, congratulations, you said a few weeks ago that Sebastian is doing a better job in terms of tyre management. Were you able to work on that this weekend, and don’t you think that this could be the key to win this race tomorrow?

CL: Well, I’ve been analysing quite a lot Hungary. Actually, maybe it looked worse than it actually was but there’s definitely some work to do on my side on this. So, we’ll see if tomorrow it pays off. I changed a few things – very small things – but details always makes the difference at this level. So, yeah, we’ll see tomorrow if it’s any better.

Q: (Jerome Pugmire – AP) Question for Charles. Obviously you’ve come close to winning in Bahrain and also in Austria. Bahrain was nothing to do with you. What have you taken from those two races; those two close calls that you can perhaps take into tomorrow to give you a bit more of an edge?

CL: I mean obviously Bahrain was nothing to do with me, so not much to take from there. Austria, I think there were lessons learnt but I think I already showed it after in Silverstone, as I already speak about the aggressivity (sic) level I had with my opponents – but apart from this, nothing. I guess, at first it feels a bit weird when you are coming to Formula 1 and you do your first laps in the lead. So, the more laps I am in the lead, the more comfortable I am. And this feels good.

Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) Possibly to all of you. When you were queuing up in your out-laps, what was more important for a perfect lap afterwards: to get a good tow or to have the tyres in the window? And was it possible at all to achieve both targets?

LH: On the perfect scenario you got the tow and the tyres in the window. In Q3 I don’t think so, no because everyone was backing up. Obviously we had that really slow section with Hülkenberg, I think it was, and then Valtteri and myself and then again in the next one, everyone again was backing up into the last one, so I think the second one was a little bit of a better position, a chance, but still, it’s very, very tricky. I don’t think they were both… they were optimum for all of us.

Q: Charles, how was it for you?

CL: Yeah, at first I really targeted the perfect slipstream for the first run in Q3 but after that I really felt that the tyres weren’t ready for Turn One and I actually lost quite a bit of time. So then, for the second run in Q3, I just asked the team to send me whenever the car was ready, to be alone and to try to do the job alone, without slipstreams, which I think, yeah, in my opinion, on my car, it felt better to have the tyres in the right window than having the slipstream. So, we went as soon as possible – but obviously we found anyway some cars in front.

Q: Seb?

SV: Well, obviously it was more important to get the tyres in the right position for me. Or in the right place. I was, on both laps, too close to the cars in front and the tyres not right to start the lap with. So yeah, it was a lose-lose. The straights were good – but I was too close and lost quite a lot, I think also in Sector Two.

Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Lewis, coming here, obviously Mercedes has the upgraded engine across for you and Valtteri and the customer cars. Two out of six of those cars have now had failures: Pérez’s car on fire and then Robert’s in the Williams in the qualifying. For you, going into tomorrow, does that present any concerns or do you just trust your team to analyse it and make whatever countermeasures they need to make.

LH: I don’t know the details of why the engines have gone, so I have nothing to worry about currently because I don’t know anything about it really. I’m sure, when I get back, I’m sure they’re trying to analyse it and they’ll give us a bit of an idea – but still, I’ve just got to keep my head down and do what I do and what will be will be. There’s not much I can do about it, so there’s no point worrying about it.

Q: (Luke Smith – crash.net) Charles, you spoke earlier in the season about your need to focus on qualifying and the build-up through all three sessions. I guess a third pole of the season proves your strategy is working; a sixth race in a row you’ve out-qualified your team-mate as well. Do you feel that you’ve cracked the code to F1 qualifying now?

CL: I’ve done some changes on qualifying and yeah, I definitely feel the difference, and feel it’s going the good way. As I said in Hungary, now I need to focus a little bit on the race because in some races I haven’t been as good as I wanted to. So, now I’m trying to focus on that, to rebalance a little bit and we’ll see how it goes.

Q: (Viktor Bognar – Magyar Szo) In the past weeks, in the mainstream media and social media it’s all about burning the rainforest and efforts of the global climate change. Do you think that Formula One should or could do something more to raise awareness to this problem? And do you agree with the way how Formula One promotes efficiency and sustainability at the moment?

SV: I think it’s a very important subject. I feel that Formula One has a wordwide operating platform and should do a lot more. I don’t think that just promoting the efficiency of our engines is enough plus I think unfortunately a large part of our technology inside the car will not go onto the road so you can argue about the necessity. So I think – not just on track but also off track – I think Formula One could do a lot more and should set an example because I think it is a very serious matter and serious subject.

CL: OK, to be honest it’s only my second season in Formula One. I’m not completely aware about how everything works on the engine so maybe I need a bit more experience to understand all of this.

LH: I’ve been here for a long time. I don’t really know what their current plans are but I think they are working towards a goal in trying to improve the carbon footprint that we have as a sport. But I think up until now the job we’ve done in the sport – they haven’t done anything, particularly I think when Bernie was in place, there wasn’t a lot being done then. So we are in the position where we are now, beginning to shift. If you look at the V8s and the V10s, we are now using a third less fuel than we used to use in a race distance, so that’s already a step forward but there is absolutely more that we can do. Also, on things like the amount of plastic that’s used throughout the weekend – I’ve got three bottles right here. I’m not opening them, but someone will drink these and that becomes waste so I think the amount of waste that comes out of a race weekend, also through all these weekends, we can do a lot about that and so I’m trying to encourage Ross and his team to make a change. And as a team, I’m pushing Mercedes to be the leaders in that, so hopefully soon you’re going to see some positive changes from our side.

Q: (Jerome Pugmire – Associated Press) Lewis, we very rarely see mistakes from you. Can you put your finger on what happened there? Was it a loss of concentration? Can you figure out what happened, you made that mistake?

LH: You’re looking way too deep into it, man. Shit happens. I’m only human. I think my track record has been pretty good but it sometimes happens and yes, it’s frustrating and it never feels good, whether it’s in your first year or if it’s in your 13^th year whatever, it doesn’t really make any difference but you can always learn from it. So there’s always a silver lining, there’s always an opportunity to pick yourself up, to rebuild and there’s always an experience with your guys and I think today was a massive challenge for the team. I think they did an exceptional job and I’m really happy, generally, with the job that I did in qualifying, so collectively it’s a positive. But I go in the back of the garage and I see my broken parts and I’m like ‘oh my baby’ but they’ll fix it, they’ll fix those parts hopefully or maybe I’ll have to put them up in Toto’s office or something and sign it and say sorry.

Q: (Christian Menath – Motorsportmagazin.com) This queuing thing in Q3 seems to be a bigger topic this season. There were quite a few occasions now where things happened like this. Do you think you need some stricter rules, what is allowed there? At some point it looked a bit ridiculous when other cars were on their fast lap and came and they were queuing up, five, six, seven cars whatever.

SV: I’m not in favour of any more rules. I think we have too many anyway.

CL: I didn’t personally feel that it was worse than last year, at least. I felt that last year was as bad, actually. Everyone is trying to have a tow, which is normal but yeah, I agree with Seb also. I don’t think it should be another rule written in the book for this particular case.

LH: I don’t remember ever going that slow before last year.

SV: I think what should change, actually, what we should take from this – seriously – is that tyre-wise we shouldn’t be so much on the limit so obviously you’re fighting for a tow and so on but you’re also fighting to get into the optimum window which years ago it wasn’t that critical, whereas now it is. So you’re fighting for the best spot on the track which will hit the climb or the peak next week in Monza for finding the right tow because it does make a difference but it has also been part of those type of track, let’s say. But I feel if we had better tyres we could play with probably a bit more speed and so on.

LH: I agree with Seb. Every weekend they put the pressures up so high it’s crazy, which again makes it a little bit harder for us but the tyres are so hard so getting them working, and they’re talking about taking blankets off for the future, we’ll never get temperature in the tyres if they do that. I think this year is definitely the slowest we’ve been. Today felt a little bit dangerous at one point because we were going round turn 15 on the kerb and there was a car coming and I couldn’t move, go on the grass. I was stuck behind Valtteri and I think the next… Hulkenberg or whatever. I can imagine if I was on a lap and I was coming round that everyone was crawling around at five miles an hour it would be a bit of a worry and a bit of a distraction so I’m not really sure what we can do to stop it from happening but maybe we have to be on the pit speed limiter or something like that. You shouldn’t be able to go five miles an hour or two or whatever we were doing because we were literally going as slow as possible to let people past. I did it in Austria, I think, to let everyone by because I was the first car out there and the tow is so strong this year with this car. They talk about the front wing being easier to follow, it’s just caused a lot more drag. This is a draggier car this year so the slipstream is even more powerful or the tow is more powerful than we’ve ever experienced.

August 31, 2019
2019 British Grand Prix – Post Qualifying Press Conference

DRIVERS

1 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes)

2 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

3 – Charles LECLERC (Ferrari)

TRACK INTERVIEWS

(Conducted by David Coulthard)

Q: Valtteri Bottas, pole position here at Silverstone. It’s been a while – Barcelona your last one – but you must be particularly proud of that one?

Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, it feels very good. It just reminds you of why you do this, these kinds of feelings, but yeah, it’s been pretty close all weekend, and today, with Lewis and just really, really happy to get a good lap and be on pole.

Q: Put us in the cockpit. You had the provisional pole you would look at the overlay and realise that Lewis had made a mistake at Brooklands and you know you have to dig deep and find something. You didn’t manage to improve on that time but where was your mind on the lap in terms of know how good the previous one was?

VB: Yeah, I knew the first lap was good but it was not perfect. Honestly I should have improved on the second run. I didn’t quite get the lap together, especially in the first part of the lap, but I’m glad it was enough. It’s not easy to get a good lap together, it’s easy to do mistakes and I think everyone was struggling a bit, so happy to be on top.

Q: I’m not sure the crowd are happy with what you’ve done but congratulations?

VB: Thank you.

Q: Lewis Hamilton, it was close and you worked that hard, but we saw you had that little wobble in the second-last lap in qualifying. Tell us about your actual ultimate lap, it’s a tiny gap between you and Valtteri.

Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah, firstly, congratulations to Valtteri, he did a solid job throughout qualifying. Ultimately not good enough, We had worked hard throughout the session but it just got a little bit away from us. We sacrificed a lap in Q2, which would have helped get a reading of where the car was, but we didn’t end up doing that. At the end I had that mistake on the first lap and the second one just wasn’t that great so fair play to Valtteri he did the job. But it’s a long race tomorrow, we’ve got a great crowd here and hopefully I can do something good for them tomorrow.

Q: The crowd are willing you on. It’s another grand prix, or is it? It’s more than just a grand prix, the British Grand Prix for you?

LH: Yeah, completely. It’s the best grand prix of the year and it’s really because of the energy the3 people bring. These tracks are great layouts and designs and areas of space but without people like this to fill it up and bring energy it’s nothing. That’s why we’ve got the best fans here in England.

Q: Charles, well done, fastest Ferrari driver but that’s ultimately not your goal. We looked through free practice and Ferrari looked like they could challenge Mercedes but in the end it was a tough one for you?

Charles LECLERC: Yeah, well, I think also in Q2, up to Q2 we were quite good but then in Q3 Mercedes turned up a little bit the engine, and they were very, very quick also round the corners, that’s where we need to work, we know it. Third place is the best we could have done today and I’m very happy about it.

Q: I saw you having a close look at the Mercedes car. This is the one time on a weekend when it’s acceptable to be a little bit nosy. Anything standing out there that you like?

CL: No, just looking at the state of the tyres, that’s nothing special.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Valtteri, a tremendous lap by you at the start of Q3. Very tight between you and your team-mate. Just how good was that first lap?

VB: It was good. Obviously good enough for pole. There was not much in it between me and Lewis in the end. But still, going into the second run, there were a couple of place where it was clear there was margin to improve so I wouldn’t say it was a perfect lap, but I doubt anyone got a perfect lap today. It was not easy to get everything right and super-sensitive to tiny mistakes here and there with this new tarmac and also with a bit of wind. But yeah, I’m happy that it was enough and it’s definitely a good feeling.

Q: Valtteri, you now have more poles this season than any other driver. Is that significant to you and have you worked specifically on qualifying this year, something more than previous seasons?

VB: It’s not that I have been specifically been working on it. Obviously you always try to improve your performance both on low- and high-fuel, short and long runs. I think the biggest thing for me to work on is the pure race pace definitely, in some kinds of conditions. I mean, year-by-year you are always learning and you get quicker if you work. The main thing is to turn those poles into wins and that’s the main thing for tomorrow.

Q: Congratulations. Lewis, motorsport is full of ifs, buts and maybes. Had you not made that error at Brooklands on your first lap in Q3 and got a complete lap in might it have been different?

LH: It doesn’t really matter at the end of the day. You can’t go back, you can only go forwards. Valtteri did the job, so congratulations to him. And for us, yeah, it just wasn’t the best of qualifying sessions. But there’s a long race tomorrow so I just have to see how I can convert the position I’m in to progress forward. I think the long run yesterday was good, so I hope we can utilise the tyre advantage we have, in the sense of starting on the mediums, so hopefully we can do a good job with that tomorrow.

Q: Did the track conditions fluctuate a lot during that session?

LH: Not really. It’s a little bit gusty here. That’s why it’s so great here at Silverstone, because it’s spread over such a vast piece of land and sometimes it’s raining on one section of the track and not another and it’s gusty in some places and not so much in other places. It really bodes well for a tough track to finish a lap on.

Q: Charles, like Lewis, you came on the radio and said you had made a mistake on that first run in Q3. Do you feel there was more out there today?

CL: No, I don’t think so. Very, very happy with my lap. I think in the last corner I maybe could have done a little bit better, but not much. Overall, I think we are very happy with the performance, very close to Mercedes and we did not expect it. We thought we would be struggling more this weekend. We have been struggling since FP1 with the front end of the car, still in qualifying, but a little bit less. So yeah, it’s a good qualifying session for us. Of course, I would have hoped for a higher position, but third is the best we could have done today.

Q: As with Austria you will start the race on the soft tyre, the guys next to you are going to be on the medium tyre. How do you see the tyre war playing out .

CL: Again, it was thought. So we wanted to do that. Again, in Austria it wasn’t a bad choice. That’s not what made us finish second there so we are pretty happy here too.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Christian Menath – motorsport-magazin.com) Charles, just following up on the Q2 and the soft tyre. You made the first run on the medium tyre and then set the fastest lap on the soft. Was it always the plan to qualify with the soft, because yesterday’s long runs didn’t look that great and it was a bit surprising to us that you improved your time?

CL: Yes, it was planned like this. The race run was not great yesterday but it was not due to the tyre, as I said. We had some issues with the front end and I think it got better today, so we will see tomorrow whether we have a significant improvement on the long runs, but it was not due to the tyre.

Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Valtteri and Lewis: Lewis, after practice yesterday you talked about having a little bit of difficulty with the balance of the car, the rear was stepping out a bit. Did that carry into today or were you happy with the car. Valtteri, you started strongly yesterday, has that just continued and do you just feel very happy with the balance of the car?

VB: Well, yeah, from the very beginning, since the first practice the feeling was quite nice. There was definitely room for improvement, especially with the rear end of the car, mainly on the entry of the corners. I think we managed to get it a bit better. It was still the weakness in a couple of places the rear end of the car but it’s not been a massive drama. I managed to build up from yesterday, except for practice three, I was a bit off the pace. I just tried to reset and remind myself of everything I was capable of doing yesterday and it turned out to be good.

Q: And Lewis?

LH: Yeah the car was good. We made a big step forward, so no problems.

Q: (Simon Amberley – Nevis Radio) To Charles: it was mentioned yesterday that maybe the Ferrari race pace wasn’t quite as strong as Mercedes, but with the gaps today and the difference on the tyres do you think possibly if you get a jump at the start, of getting Valtteri and Lewis, do you think you can maybe dictate the pace a bit more?

CL: That’s definitely the target – to try to use our tyre advantage, especially at the start, to gain positions and then try to keep them. Keeping them will be very difficult because they are extremely quick in race runs but that’s the target.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – liviooricchiof1.com) Lewis, from the outside it didn’t appear that you had the car in your hands all the time. Is it because of the circumstances or maybe you have a set-up thinking more of the race?

LH: No, the set-up suited race trim best and I think yesterday I really did struggle with it on a single lap and of course I was trying to improve it over the evening and into today. It felt great into P3 and it felt really good at the star5 of the Q sessions and it kind of deteriorated through the session, so it got harder and harder, back towards a similar problem we had yesterday – as you saw in Turn 6 for example. But it was also windy. The race trim is still good. I didn’t want to move from the set-up I had, too far away, because it worked so well on the long run yesterday. Fingers crossed the strength in the race should be quite good but again it depends on what position we are in and how the wind is and a bunch of other factors.

Q: (Yassmin Abdel-Magied – The Guardian) I’ve got a slightly less technical question. Lewis, this is your home race and there’s lot of British flags out there and you’ve talked about loving coming back to the UK but there’s contention because you live in Monaco, and your accent isn’t maybe as British as others because you spend a lot of time in the US. So, why do you think that people question your Britishness.

LH: I don’t really know. I don’t really have a good answer for that.

VB: We all live in Monaco!

LH: We all do live in Monaco. It’s crazy now because every driver… I remember growing up, you remember watching Jenson Button and all the youngsters come through, and every one migrated to Monaco and no-one ever said anything about it at the time. Of course, when I did, they had something to say about it. But no matter how often you go abroad or elsewhere in the world, you come back to the UK and you see the beautiful countryside, you see this great… y’know, the history of Formula One and motorsport which is really here, and I see all my family who are also here and this is, of course, feels like where my heart is and ultimately fully British. Of course, I still like to honour my family heritage. My family are from the Caribbean. But… I don’t know. People have a right to their own opinion. If you look around, there’s a lot of Team LH caps. The support that I’ve had has been just incredible and it’s been growing over the years, and whilst, of course, there’s always going to be people with negative views on things, I feel like every day is an opportunity to try to turn those that do have a negative view on things. I guess over time I’ll do more and more positive things for the country. Ultimately, I go to all these race and I lift the British flag proudly. There’s no-one else in this sport that’s raised it so high. At the moment, probably that’s not enough. I’ll keep looking out for what else I can do. And for those who do follow me, I really do appreciate their support.

Q: (Mike Doodson – Honorary) Lewis, there’s been some dramas here at Silverstone with the surface and they seem to have got everything done pretty quickly, but there were quite a lot of incidents at Turn Six yesterday. I wonder if you could tell us – you had one too, I think, there – can you tell us what was wrong there and is it better today and is the circuit settling down?

LH: Ultimately last year, we’d come out of Turn Four and it was the bumpiest straight that probably you’ve ever been on before, rattling your teeth out for most of us. Also, for the motorbikes, it was quite bumpy then. In other areas it was OK. I think they’ve redone it this year; it’s much better on that straight but there are – and I guess it’s just the way it goes – but bumps into Turn Six are pretty hardcore but I think more so it’s the crosswind people are struggling with there. Maybe the bumps and also the crosswind that you have there, which everyone struggles with, and I’ve also struggled with – but then there’s also Turn Seven, it’s very bumpy but then the straight down to Copse is good, and then up to Maggotts and Becketts it’s good. It’s fantastic, and then after Maggotts and Becketts, down Stowe Straight it’s great, 15, 16, 17. So, it’s pretty much spot-on, perfect, apart from three bumps at the entry of Six and exit of Seven.

Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Question to all three drivers. What kind of weather do you expect tomorrow and what is the weather that will suit more the strategy you chose for the first tyre you will start on.

CL: I haven’t watched the forecast yet, so I don’t really know – but I guess, yeah, in Silverstone it’s often very unpredictable, and as we’ve seen in the last two days, you can have drops any time. So, it will make the race quite interesting if it’s like this. Then, if I can choose, the best would probably have a good start on the Soft, do seven laps and then big rain and keep this position. But I don’t choose. I think it will be very unpredictable anyway.

VB: Like yesterday there was no proper chance of rain but it still had a bit of drizzle, so I think anything can come from the sky, you never know – and no idea what will be best for us. At least it’s cooler than Austria, so that’s always good news but anything else, we should be OK.

LH: I’m down for some good old English weather tomorrow! Good old English weather is sunny, hale, rain! Sun, snow, the whole mixture. No, naturally it’s better for all the fans when it’s dry but I don’t mind if it rains either way. It’s really great, this track, in the wet. I guess we’ll all discuss whether we do the rain dance tonight or not.

Q: (Rob Harris – AP) Hi Lewis, it came down to six milliseconds today. Some quotes around from Nico Rosberg saying that, if he’d been travelling and partying in LA, then he’d be qualifying down in tenth – but you can cope with it, he was suggesting. When you assess things, do you think the clearing of the mind outweighs the travel by… sort of… going to LA between races like that and having the trips?

LH: I think naturally it’s easy to say that. People to have views. I do have five world titles. They didn’t come on their own. You know me.

VB: I think you gain time by partying. As a Finn, it’s a feeling.

LH: Valtteri parties way more than me!

VB: I have a party, I gain lap time, so…

LH: I think ultimately, when I started doing the travels and focussing on these other things, people always had… there was always the issue and people would have comments on it. Particularly the pressure of then having to arrive and making sure you definitely delivered the same. It took a long time to break that mould, and I’ve done it time and time and time again. My preparation comes first. I’ve felt fantastic all weekend. The pressure’s quite high here, obviously being your home grand prix, and so I don’t look upon that lightly, and I prepare the best way I can. But also, I do what I want – I don’t do what you think I should do, or anyone else thinks I should do. Only I know what’s right for me – and again, that’s what’s led me to five world titles. And don’t forget the amount of wins I have, all of that stuff, so… yeah.

Q: (Keith Collantine – racefans.net) Question for Charles, you’ve said a few times in recent races you feel you’ve raised your game in qualifying recently. The clearest way we can see that is you’ve just out-qualified Sebastian for the third race in a row – but how much more do you think there is that you can find in the Ferrari? And particularly today, was there the extra eight hundredths of a second that you needed to be sitting where Valtteri is sitting?

CL: At the time, as I said earlier, I think out main issue is the front end. Once we’ll fix this, I’m pretty sure there will be quite a bit of performance in that – because also again, in qualifying today, especially the third sector, I was struggling quite a lot with the front end to grip-up. So yeah, there’s still a lot of performance into that, whether we’ll know how to overcome this issue is another matter, so we need to be working very hard on that, and hopefully some performance will come when we fix this.

Q: (Tom Jackson – City Press) Charles, both Red Bulls split you and Sebastian today. Do you think tomorrow you will be able to comfortably stay ahead of them or do you expect a fight with them more than you do with the Mercedes?

CL: If we look at the Friday race simulations, I think it’s going to be very difficult to fight with – or at least Lewis’s race run was very very strong so yeah, we need to work on that but Red Bull seems to be very quick also in the race runs so it’s going to be tricky. If we manage to gain some positions at the start, it’s a track where it’s quite hard to overtake so then we have some chances to keep them but if not I guess it’s going to be very difficult to fight with them.

Q: (Laurence Edmonson – ESPN) Valtteri, two of your pole positions earlier this year didn’t quite go to plan, the starts didn’t work out. Can you just explain if you’ve anything to try and rectify that and how the other starts have been and whether you’ve found a solution to it?

VB: Yeah, I’ve definitely been working a lot on the starts this year and especially after the couple of not ideal ones, so I’ve been focusing a lot and feel much more comfortable with the starts than earlier in the year. Obviously every start is going to be different, we always have different circumstances, different set of tyres, temperatures but yeah, feel more confident and obviously aiming for a good start tomorrow and use the good grid position.

Q: (Sam Hall – Autoweek) Lewis, this year it seems that you’ve found qualifying a little bit harder to get pole on the Saturdays. Is the car a bit more difficult to get the one lap pace out of or is it something that’s changed with you as a driver?

LH: No, I think… we’re not halfway through the year yet. We’ve definitely had some poles but Valtteri has done some great laps throughout qualifying. It definitely has been a car that’s a little bit… I think with the tyres it’s a little bit harder to get it perfect every single time but it’s just qualifying, if you’ve seen a lot of the races, it doesn’t necessarily always determine what happens always in the race. Of course it’s great to always start at the front. It makes your day a little bit more simple but nonetheless it’s really great that we continue to work forwards as a team and lock out the front row. I’m really proud to be a part of that and still to get a one-two today is still significant, considering we have all of our team actually coming this weekend. Of course, Valtteri and I, I think we have a great relationship, we always want to beat each other but I’ll go back, look at the data today, did a better job and tomorrow you’ll do a great job as well and the duel tomorrow is who can do a better job tomorrow. There’s plenty more pole positions up for grabs between all of us so just got to keep working hard.

Q: (Ben Hunt – The Sun) Valtteri and Lewis; Valtteri, when we spoke you said the time is now for you to start effectively getting your elbows out. Indeed, is this the time that you’re starting to sense that? Lewis, are you prepared to race against what I guess we could call Valtteri 2.1, new version, newly enthused, ready to go again after a good start and obviously a bit of a slump but coming back?

VB: Well, if you look at the points, for sure the championship fight is still on. Obviously I’m the one chasing, I’m behind with I don’t know the exact number but roughly thirty points or something but so many races to go and it’s going to be a lot up to me and my performance, so definitely every single opportunity there is I need to get those and if I don’t get those then Lewis is going to be far away and not be able to reach in terms of points so tomorrow is super important, but so is the race after and the race after. The season is still long so I really need to try and take those opportunities and for sure will do everything I can to keep that lead tomorrow.

Q: Lewis, your thoughts on Valtteri 2.1?

LH: 2.1 or 2.4 or what’s the difference? I work closely with this guy, it’s Valtteri. I just see him as the man he is. Obviously we’re still fighting for the title. I don’t feel necessarily that he’s the only one chasing, I’m still chasing. I try to put an imaginary individual ahead of yourself. For me, I generally kind of put the previous year’s performances so last year’s myself ahead of me, for example and that’s my target: to improve and beat that, but on days like this I’m behind another so he’s now the guy that I’m chasing. So as long as you’ve always got a goal to chase, then you can always make improvements, you always have strides to make and so that’s my approach always.

Q: (Simon Amberley – Nevis Radio) The past couple of races we’ve had incidents that have been reviewed after the race which have either potentially affected the result or have affected the result. Has this been discussed within the drivers’ meetings and can we expect results to actually stand at the end of the race and drivers to be able to race more aggressively in future races including here?

LW: I was focusing on folding… I don’t know what the question was.

CL: I’m always up for hard racing so very happy if they relax a little bit on the fights but I think consistency is key. At the end, I think they also need time to review some incidents or sometimes it be bad to wait for the results but at the end I think it’s the best way to take the right decision.

VB: Yeah, I’m a big fan of hard racing as well so the harder we can race, but safe and fair, is always good and obviously for everyone it’s always better to have the results as quickly as possible and penalties as quickly as possible but sometimes they need to review more which is understandable.

LH: I feel exactly the same as these two guys. I still don’t know what the question was really! But close racing is always yeah, what he just said. Sorry. It wasn’t intentional to miss what the question was. About tough racing, was it? I haven’t discussed it. No. I don’t think it was brought up in the drivers’ briefing either. I think the last race was good. I don’t know what Charles thought of the incident he had.

CL: No, I thought it was OK. The only thing is consistency as I said. I feel like there have been some incidents in the past this year that have been not analysed or penalised, sorry, for much less than that, so that’s the only thing. I think consistency is very important but if it’s clear that we can race that way then I’m more than happy to race like this and I think every driver likes to race that way.

LH: I agree again! I think it’s really hard with the consistency thing because we’ve got these rules that… but every scenario is different but you have to apply the same rule to it so it’s… that’s why they’ve got some of the guys that are at the stewards, some even have to interpret certain a way what has happened at certain way and as Charles said, consistency is really what we want to try and get. But I think every year you go through all the lessons or they, together in the sport, go through the lessons and learn and improve and people told us that it needs to get better and so I’m sure we will.

July 13, 2019