F1 Madness

Tag: sunday

  • 2019 Japanese Grand Prix: Post Race Press Conference

    2019 Japanese Grand Prix: Post Race Press Conference

    DRIVERS

    1 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes)

    2 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)

    3 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

     

    TRACK INTERVIEWS

    (Conducted by Paul Di Resta)

     

    Q: Congratulations Valtteri. Qualifying P3 in Suzuka you don’t expect to lead into Turn 1 but Sebastian made a mistake, you pounced on it and you absolutely dominated that race in classic style. You must be delighted with that?

    Valtteri BOTTAS: I’m very happy. Obviously it was a pretty close qualifying and yeah starting third here is never, but there’s not point ever to give up on anything and I knew anything was possible today and opportunities were there today and the first one was at the start. I had a really nice start and obviously Sebastian had an issue, so managed to get in the lead and then the pace was super good. I could really control the race. I really enjoyed it and had fun, so yeah, very, very happy.

    Q: Were you a little bit worried when they pulled you into the pits and said you were on a two-stop strategy or was that always the plan? Or did you think you were going to have to overtake Lewis?

    VB: Yeah, we knew that one or two stops were both possible and that there was not a massive difference between the two of them. We knew if could be a scenario. That really went smooth. I could really control it when I could and push when I wanted. Nice.

    Q: And to top off the day, Mercedes just won their sixth Constructors’ title in a row. You must be delighted with that?

    VB: Yeah, really proud to be part of the team. A sixth title in a row is so impressive, so very proud of every single team member, here at the race team and also at the factory. Well done guys and girls.

    Q: Well done Valtteri. Enjoy the evening. Sebastian, congratulations, I know after qualifying you put it on pole position, but I have to talk about the start – what happened? You moved and had to stop. Was that a mistake on your behalf?

    Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, I mean the lights were on a long time, but it was my mistake, so I lost the momentum them. So I ended up worse than just having a poor start, it was a really poor start. Then it was difficult because Mercedes was quite quick in the race, especially at the back of the stint, they had more pace than us. Yeah, Valtteri was flying, literally, at the end of the first stint. Obviously Lewis tried to do one stop and I guess it didn’t work and in the end I knew that he would come out behind and I just paced myself around all the bits in the track where I could and just tried to get good exits in the places where he could be a threat. So that worked but, yeah, it was obviously a tough afternoon to then maintain second.

    Q: Do you think if you hadn’t made that mistake at the start the win was possible?

    SV: I don’t know, because then they can obviously play a lot more the tactics, so obviously that way they had one car comfortably in the lead and Valtteri was out… we weren’t a threat to him. But yeah I think with the lack of pace today, probably second was probably the maximum, but surely I’m not happy with the very first start of the race but after that it was fine, but as I said we just lacked a little bit of pace. But overall it’s been a positive day, everything packed in one day and to get pole and second today is reasonable. It’s a bit of a shame. I don’t know what happened to Charles, otherwise we could have maybe had both cars to challenge them a bit more.

    Q: Lewis, I know everything you did today you never really got let loose, you were always kind of in the mix, but when you were free you had the pace and a challenge all the way to the end.

    Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah, well firstly it’s congratulations to the team, so well deserved. To win it six years in a row, the Constructors’ Championship, is the main point. I really just wanted to get the best points for my team today.

    Q: Looking ahead: now that it’s down to the Drivers’, do you suspect that you and Valtteri will be battling all the way a bit more freely now that the Constructors’ is over and over and done?

    LH: It makes no difference because we’ve been racing freely all year.

    Q: Yeah, but it will be a hard fight all the way to the end?

    LH: For sure.

     

    PRESS CONFERENCE

     

    Q: Valtteri, great race by you today. Can we start by talking about the start? How good was it, almost as good as Austria 2017?

    VB: Not quite. I think nothing compares to that. Sebastian nearly had as good as that one I think. But I did have a very, very good start. But for sure it looks better if there are cars around that don’t have a good start and very much needed, because we knew we had a good race car here with a good pace but if you are behind other cars you can’t really use it that much. I was very happy to get to the lead and obviously it’s quite different being in the lead and being able to control and on this track [being] in the free air makes a difference so I really enjoyed it.

    Q: Once in the lead did you have any other concerns during the race?

    VB: Everything was going pretty smooth. Just the second stint was full of traffic, so I was overtaking backmarkers all the time, so I couldn’t really have good rhythm and very good pace in that stint.

    SV: You could have slowed down.

    VB: Yeah… I didn’t want to. Yeah, when Lewis didn’t stop for his second stop I was slightly concerned that maybe his tyres would last to the end and he could actually make it, because he had a decent gap to me. But obviously he was on the medium and I think that tyres would have struggled massively at the end. So, from my side, obviously a very good race and on top of that very, very happy for every single team member, getting the sixth Constructors’ title. Really well deserved. It’s not just the result today but all through the season so very, very proud.

    Q: Very well done. Sebastian can we start at the start? What happened from your point of view?

    SV: Well obviously I had a poor start so I lost quite a lot of momentum when the lights go off. A mistake on my side. I had it in my hands, literally, to perform a good start – normally starts are really strong – but obviously today we didn’t get it right. I don’t know what happened to Charles but we both missed out on the start maybe for different reasons. After that we knew it was going to be a difficult race. Overtaking isn’t straightforward here and obviously in terms of pace it was very difficult. We could see in the first stint that Valtteri was just quicker, especially towards the end, and then Lewis was catching. He was basically very close to me when we pitted, so I think overall we got the strategy right to stay ahead. I don’t know if… maybe they didn’t get it entirely right. But not the day we wanted if you start first and second. I don’t know where Charles finished. Sixth? Did he? So second and sixth.

    Q: Were you concerned about getting a penalty for the start?

    SV: I don’t know. Not really. Obviously I had a very poor start in general…

    [Valtteri and Lewis laughter]

    LH: You’re lying! Come on!

    SV: No I didn’t. If you jump the start then obviously you get caught, so I think it was just fine.

    Q: And Sebastian, we saw a thrilling battle between you and Lewis at the end of the race. How much did you enjoy that?

    SV: I was surprised when they pitted to be honest. I expected him to stay out and try the one stop. Once I knew that.. also before, Valtteri was so far away and we were not fast and it was not possible to catch him, so when he came out I was not rushing to open the gap, I was just trying to keep my tyres somehow fresh to make sure that if he arrives then everything is still in good shape and I have the chance to have good corner exits and play the advantage we have down the straights, which worked. It got a bit close once with traffic but other than that I think it was quite good. I was quite quite happy when I saw the chequered flag. I didn’t want to do another five laps like that. But I knew obviously in the places where you can’t pass I can take it easy to try to maintain the tyres a little bit.

    Q: Lewis, coming on to you, Sebastian was surprised that you came in for your second stop. How surprised were you to be called in?

    LH: I wasn’t surprised. The team put me on a two-stop, so I knew already when they put the medium on, that was going to be the case.

    Q: Do you think, as the race played out, you could have got to the end on that one-stop?

    LH: With better guidance I think I probably could have. They said, when they put the tyre on, that we are going a two stop because the degradation is high. So then, just the direction I was given in terms of having to try and close the gap to Seb. So every time I was having to close this gap, so used the tyres quite a lot. So, in how I was using them, there was no way I was going to make it to the end on that. If I had, from the beginning, said we’re just going to eke it out and just see if we could manage it, then I could have just driven differently and, potentially, held it to the end – but all in hindsight.

    Q: Lewis, you’ve been with the team for all six Constructors’ titles. How does this one rate against the others?

    LH: It definitely feels a little bit different. Obviously… I wouldn’t say as happy as previously because naturally we lost Niki this year and it doesn’t feel the same without him. So, naturally I’m very, very proud of the team. Very proud of everyone back at the factory, and I know Niki would be taking off his hat for today’s result. Yeah, I think we owe him a huge amount and this win is really for him. I think the whole team and the whole of Mercedes will probably dedicate this to Niki. I definitely do. Very, very proud to be a part of it, and a part of the journey – but it has been a difficult, a tough year for us, y’know? And every time I walk into the garage I see Niki’s headphones and his cap. I sat and I looked at it today before I got in the car. As I said, I know he’ll be proud, I know his family will be as well. The team should be proud too.

     

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

     

    Q: (Luis Vasconcelos – Formula Press) Question for the Mercedes drivers. Valtteri, you asked your engineer if he was sure that Lewis was going to stop a second time. He told you yes, you kept to that pace – but then two laps later you had your best lap until that point, that coincided when Lewis came in. Were you starting to have doubts that he was coming in and you wanted to catch, just in case? And for Lewis, if the plan was to go to second stops, why do you think they kept you out for so long at the end of the first stint when you were two to three seconds slower than Valtteri and Sebastian?

    VB: Yes, for sure I was wanting to make sure what’s the race situation and what’s going to happen. At that point actually I had some margin to save the engine a little bit for the future races. So that’s why I was asking if I really needed to go full gas, or if there’s a bit of margin for safety. I think the timing for the good lap times, I was getting through some backmarkers then getting into the rhythm again, getting into good lap times. All my stints, they were not massively long so I could really push hard when I wanted. And like I said earlier, the car felt really good today, so I was very comfortable to push when needed.

    Lewis?

    LH: Was I surprised. No, that was the target, that was what we were supposed to be going for. The surprise is that, every time you come out, by going long you end up frikkin’ twice as far behind as you were before, which is twice as frustrating. Because I can’t see that, so I’m not aware of that, and I come out and a I realise that I’ve just lost another ten seconds and I’m like: ‘Why – you could have told me. If you’d said I was going to come out a further ten seconds behind – I was pretty much 22 seconds behind Valtteri – I would said no and would have come in earlier.” So, there’ll be some discussion I’m sure when we get back.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Valtteri, you have many times said that this is your favourite circuit. Does it feel any different after finally winning here compared to those five before?

    VB: For sure. It keeps it my favourite circuit, for sure. It’s not been one of the strengths of mine – ever – this track, but even though it’s always been kind of the favourite that I’ve looked forward to the most in terms of the driving side. So, yeah, for sure now it makes it a more special track for me, and it’s one of the very iconic grands prix in the calendar to win, so very pleased to do that, for sure.

    Q: (Luke Smith – crash.net) Valtteri, Lewis. A sixth successive double set of titles – confirmed today, one of you two will win the Drivers’ Championship. Toto has spoken before about the pride of wearing the shirt, the staff and Mercedes, can you talk a little bit about how proud you are to be part of this record-breaking team, and what you’ve built here.

    VB: I think I said earlier, I’m very proud obviously. We’re making history and, it’s funny with anything you do, if you are getting success, and so on, sometimes it’s quite tricky to realise that success. Sometimes you have to step outside, a step or two to realise it really. I’m sure we will look back at this afterwards at some point, that wow, we made six and obviously hopefully more – but this moment, yeah, I hope we all can really appreciate it and take the time to enjoy it as well, even though we need to keep pushing. It just feels like life goes pretty quickly onwards and it’s very important to enjoy those moments and, at least personally for me, I’m really, really proud, really happy for every single team-member. I know the amount of work that has gone into achieving it. So very, very happy for everyone and I just hope everyone realises that and enjoys it because it’s well-deserved.

    LH: I think I kind of said stuff earlier on. I’ve been with the team for seven years. I’ve been with Mercedes since I was 13 so very proud to be racing the silver star and be part of this incredible journey that Mercedes is on. Joining them in 2013, with just the utter belief that we will do something special, it’s kind of crazy to see it coming to fruition, all the hard work. Naturally, when I met everyone in 2013, just seeing how dedicated they were there, and it still remains the same. Even though we have the success each year, they’re hungry, they’re driven, they’re excited that they have Valtteri and I in the car and they give absolutely everything. And I love that, and it really inspires me to go out there and drive the way that I do, the way that we do throughout the weekend.

    Q: (Jens Nagler – Bild) Two questions for Seb: how did you enjoy the battle against Lewis and secondly, if I’m correct, there’s not chance whatsoever now to clinch the title for you so is Mexico the first step of the next attempt?

    SV: Well, obviously not happy with the fact that we didn’t have the year that we were looking for but it’s not today that made the difference, not yesterday, not last week or… Obviously it’s been a long year and it’s still going so… I don’t think we’re lacking anything. I think we just need to work better. I think we are very committed, working very hard but it’s not yet on the level that can be achieved. Obviously Mercedes have shown that in the last years that you can do better and they’ve been able to maintain that. I think we are not in that position, but I’ve loved to be honest and I’m sure that we would be more enthusiastic by nature but that’s not the case so we need to work better. As I said, I think we don’t need to work harder but I think we need to work better. The first one: yeah, I enjoyed it but obviously I knew that I was a bit of a sitting duck because I was quite slow in the corners and very fast on the straights, so I just tried to play my advantage and that worked. I’m sure that Lewis didn’t enjoy that as much but in the end it was key to… or we tried as hard as we could to stay ahead despite being slower at the end so that’s good but overall we had a great chance today, starting first and second. Obviously after the first couple of meters that advantage was gone but after that we knew that it would be difficult from where we were to turn it around and we saw in the first stint that we just couldn’t go with them, especially at the end they were a lot stronger. So as I said, there’s still room for improvement. It doesn’t start in Mexico – next year;  next year starts next year so whatever we can learn this year, I think we’ve learned a lot about our car, the weaknesses, we’ve improved it but we’re still not there so… We’ve had a strong couple of races but overall I think we’re still a little bit behind.

    Q: Sebastian, you say you’ve learned a lot about yourselves; what have you learned about Mercedes this year?

    SV: It’s very difficult, obviously you can’t see what they are doing but I think from the outside they are very close to perfection every time they go out on track so very consistent, very little mistakes. That’s certainly also part of what makes them  so strong but yeah, if you clinch the Constructors title with four races to go there’s a lot of things you do better than all the others. If you go into detail then you can argue what their car is maybe doing better than ours but I don’t think that’s the point overall, it’s a team effort and as I said, I think we do have the ingredients, we do have the commitment, we do have the intelligence but we just need to do it better. It’s a lot of small things; it’s not one thing that we need to improve, it’s a lot of small things that we need to do better, every single one of us and that’s the only way that we can try and step up. Hopefully they get a bit bored, we will see what happens.

    Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) Lewis, just throwing it forward, you can now obviously win the championship in Mexico so how important is it for you to get that over the line as soon as you can? And Valtteri does this result give you renewed hope that you might be able to do the unthinkable and beat Lewis to the title?

    LH: I think for me it’s never  been a case of always wanting to rush things. Valtteri’s driven well all year long, he’s done a great job today and he will most likely do a very very solid job these next races, so we still have a battle, the fight continues. I think Mexico is generally our worst race of the year because of the way our car is set up and it’s going to be a tough one for us. The last few have been pretty shocking, even though we’ve won the title there. I’m hoping for a better weekend but I think it’s going to be very hard to beat the Ferraris with those long straights. We have no hope of getting by on those straights, that’s for sure but even if you look at the others, the McLarens are picking up some serious speeds on the straights, so are the Red Bulls so I think it will be a tricky one. I don’t anticipate it will be Mexico. I think we will be battling for a good few races.

    VB: Yeah, I don’t really give up on anything as long as there’s a theoretical chance so there’s no point in that. Today was a good example on the track where it’s difficult to overtake. You start third, OK, two Ferraris ahead, it’s a difficult case to win but it’s possible. Yeah, everything’s possible although I’m realistic as well that I will need to be very lucky, that’s a fact, to win all the rest of the races but yeah, I don’t really think about that much at this point. It is my bad, mostly, that I’ve been behind this much in the points compared to Lewis, it’s my fault which I try to fix for the future but it is where we are now and just take it now race by race and see how it goes.

    Q: (Ben Hunt – The Sun) Lewis, are you kicking yourself now that you did make that stop or are you thinking maybe I could have got to the end of the race on those tyres? Question to the other two drivers: if you were in that same situation, you’re leading the race, you’ve got 22 laps to go, would you have risked it and stayed out? Final question: Sebastian, who’s going to win the title out of these two guys here?

    LH: Honestly, I’m thinking of what I’m going to eat tonight. I’m thinking about I can’t wait to get back to the UK to see my niece and nephew. What’s done is done. Naturally we’ll go and sit and talk to the engineers and strategists. I think today could have been done better. There’s multiple scenarios during the year when that’s been the case but nonetheless, Valtteri did the job. I’d have had to have driven differently in that second stint, stretch out as far as you can… naturally when I was in the lead I thought about staying out but by the time I’d already pushed so much to close the gap to Seb… we should have at least got a one-two today but I think the strategy wasn’t optimum for me. It was naturally optimum for Valtteri but yeah, there were a lot scenarios. Valtteri had a very good gap to the first stint. He didn’t have to stop early because he clearly had a good enough gap. They should have stopped me before Seb to undercut him but it’s always an afterthought. Often the first car gets priority which is always how we’ve always had it but we can do better as a team, to make sure we score more one-twos, so we’ll just work hard on that and there’s no love lost or anything like that. We’ll be pushing hard.

    VB: Yeah, obviously, I don’t know. I wasn’t in his car and I can’t know how the tyres were feeling and how much he was pushing before and so the only thing I know is that at this point for him probably the computer would have said no, it’s not possible with the numbers we had for the tyre life so that’s the only thing I know.

    SV: Yeah, I think Valtteri has said pretty much it. It depends a lot on how you feel with the tyres so I don’t know whether Lewis was talking with the team and asking to stay out or what were the options, but if you get the call out then you trust the team and you come in. And the second one is that Lewis will win it. Doesn’t matter which race. I don’t think it matters for him, does it? It wouldn’t matter to me.

    Q: (Luis Vasconcelos – Formula Press) Lewis, in the last few laps you had softer tyres than Sebastian, newer tyres than Sebastian, you had DRS but still you couldn’t make the move. How worrying is that, that this gap is too big in terms of straightline speed, for Mercedes to catch for next year?

    LH: We’ve got time for next year. I think it’s not been a great year for us in terms of the great issue, in terms of our engine development. I think it’s been a really hard time for the guys, they’ve been working as hard as ever but it’s just not been as successful in that department, as I say, plus it’s quite draggy but we’ve had great reliability and hopefully that remains the same and that’s still something to be really proud of of course. We have, obviously, still won the Constructors championship but we’ll push to try and maybe reduce the drag a little bit but also increasing power for next  so they’re fully onto it and I have all the confidence in the world that we’ll be able to make some sort of step into the next season. Of course I got in the tow of Seb, the tow with DRS and maximum power and everything… it’s incredible how quick they are. It makes it very very difficult, even if you’ve got the advantage of the tyre but I think it’s cool anyway, it provides interesting racing. I wish we could have had a closer race today but it’s a difficult track to do so.

  • 2019 Italian Grand Prix: Post Race Press Conference

    2019 Italian Grand Prix: Post Race Press Conference

    DRIVERS

    1 – Charles LECLERC (Ferrari)

    2 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes)

    3 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

     

    TRACK INTERVIEWS

    (Conducted by Martin Brundle)

     

    Q: Charles, what a brilliant drive. That will go down in Ferrari legend, well done.

    Charles LECLERC: Thank you so much. What a race. I’ve never been so tired. Can I speak in Italian? (Continues in Italian).

    Q: The great Mercedes Benz team threw everything at you, two against one, but you didn’t succumb to the pressure.

    CL: Yeah, I did a few mistakes but at the end I finished first. Very happy with this. I need to be careful with the mistakes but obviously none of them made me lose the position today.

    Q: Well done, brilliant race. Valtteri, the fresh tyres at the end looked quite good but not quite enough to pass young Charles.

    Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, I think we had a good strategy with me and I was able to go pretty long in the first stint and that opened up some opportunities at the end. But I’m gutted, you know. I was trying everything I could to get him and there was no way past. Always when I was getting close enough I started left-front locking, because of the lack of downforce and they are so quick in the straights as well. But I tried and I think it was the best I could do today.

    Q: He was very strong off Parabolica, the last corner, wasn’t he, and then down the straight, so difficult to overtake.

    VB: Yeah, it was really difficult. We were trying everything we could with engine modes and everything, but not quite enough. Yep, we move on.

    Q: Third consecutive podium here but maybe not the place you wanted to be. Thanks Valtteri. Lewis, what a dice, what a battle that was! It got a bit fruity in places.

    Lewis HAMILTON: Fruity?

    Q: A little bit close. His elbows were coming out here and there. What would be your word?

    LH: He did a great job. Congratulations to Ferrari and to Charles, he did a great job. A lot of pressure from Valtteri and I. I did the best I could, I think, but obviously following so closely for such a long time the tyres eventually just went off the cliff. Nonetheless, they were just quicker today – much quicker in a straight line, so even

    if we did get close we couldn’t pass. Not our day but still strong points for the team. We pull away from Ferrari in the Constructors’ Championship and ultimately that’s what really matters.

    Q: And you must be homing in on your sixth title? It must be starting to come into range in your mind?

    LH: Honestly, I’m just trying to do better each race. I’m not really focused on that at the moment. But of course, a healthier lead than I’ve been in in the past, so obviously I’m grateful for that. But today wasn’t a perfect race. I think this weekend some improvements to be made to my set-up and obviously within myself, so I’ll focus on that for the next race.

     

    PRESS CONFERENCE

     

    Q: Valtteri, congratulations, you took second place with 12 laps to go. Another lap or so do you think you could have got the win today or did Ferrari have the pace?

    VB: First of all, well done Charles. (General laughter, as CL is absent). We tried everything we could today as a team and personally I was giving everything I could for the win. For sure, it’s annoying because it’s so close – finishing less than one second behind the leader. But, yeah, at least I tried everything I could. We tried. The tricky bit was that they were so quick on the straights. It required us to be so close in the corners that it was not really possible to follow, leading the straight (sic), and also getting issues with brakes locking up once getting so close to the car ahead. I was pushing hard, so what can I say? Just not quite enough. Otherwise, it was a good race. I enjoyed it a lot, hunting for the win and the pace was pretty good especially in the second stint.

    Q: Thank you and well done. Lewis, you put a lot of pressure on Charles today. How much pleasure do you get from that race?

    LH: There’s not a lot of pleasure from finishing third. Going backwards is never a great thing. Still, it was a great race. He did a great job. It was nice and tight for a long time and they deserved the win – they did a better job.

     

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

     

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Lewis, during the race while you were trying to hunt down Charles, we heard a couple of times that it got a bit ‘dicey’ with him. There was the move at the second chicane, where he pushed you onto the run-off, and I think there was another one at the Curva Grande where you were going around the outside and he moved to the left? Was it just heat of the moment frustrations in the car or on reflection, a bit calmer, do you still think he was a bit on the limit or over the limit at times.

    LH: Uhh, that’s racing. Yeah, it’s just racing I guess. I had to avoid colliding with him a couple of times but I guess that’s how the racing is today. You just move forwards.

    Q: Thanks Lewis. Charles has joined us. Many congratulations. Second race win in the bag. It was an incredible grand prix, an incredible podium. Can you just describe the last two hours of your life?

    CL: It’s quite difficult – a lot going through my mind, during the race, after the race. A lot of emotions. Obviously it was very difficult during the race. Lewis was behind me. I think the biggest gap there was was maybe 1.7 or 1.8 seconds, so right behind me. I knew that Lewis rarely makes mistakes, so obviously I had to stay on it. I did a few, which never cost me a position – once was very, very close. It was crazy and then finally in the last two laps I started to believe that the win was possible. I think that with the traffic Valtteri dropped a little bit and that helped me to get a little bit of space. And then finally going on the line, I let go all my emotions through the radio. I don’t think you can understand anything that I have said on the radio, but it felt absolutely amazing, and the podium also. It’s going beyond all the dreams I’ve had since I was a child. To see so many people cheering for one team, singing all together, it’s amazing.

    Q: If we were to discuss the decisive moments in today’s race, was it that choice of the hard tyre at the pit stop?

    CL: I don’t know. I think the strategy was good. Obviously we were in a tricky situation because we had the two Mercedes behind and I was the only Ferrari and they could play the game of going long with one car and earlier with the other. It was very tricky but in the end I rthink we made ther right choice with the hard.

    Q: (Mike Doodson – Honorary) Following up on that response from Charles, I’d like to ask Mr Hamilton if he had the choice of white tyres and if they had been available would the result have been different in your opinion?

    LH: I mean yeah, if I had gone onto the hard tyre I probably would have had the pace to have finished second, with a tyre that goes longer, but I wouldn’t have changed the position between myself and Charles I think. They were ultimately just a little bit too quick today. I did ask in the morning if I could go to the hard tyres and they said no. They said that because we hadn’t run it they didn’t it was quick enough. I think the tyre we were on was quick but I did say in the meeting this morning that the tyre was potentially going to go off the cliff. It was because I was following so closely behind for so long, just really on the ragged edge, trying to get as close as I could to get in shooting distance of trying to overtake. But every time I opened up the DRS – I don’t know if you were going to a different power mode – but the gap would stay the same. It’s pretty incredible the speed they have on the straights.

    Q: (Peter Windsor – Clarksport) Charles, congratulations. Speaking of cliffs, I’m just wondering how your tyres were in the last 10-15 laps and how much tyre management was involved? Car looked a bit squirrelly on some corners, had a few moments, a few lock-ups. How near the cliff were you?

    CL: The hard were quite difficult to manage. From the beginning, apart from the first two laps, or, no maybe a bit more, maybe three, four laps, I felt quite good, but then there was like a drop off of grip from all four tyres and then I’ve been struggling a little bit with front locks, and towards the end I’ve started to lose the rear, and that’s where the performance started to… where I started to slow down a little bit. They were not in a very bad shape. I believe they could have stayed where they were for quite many laps still – but yeah, I was just struggling with the rear left especially.

    Q: (Luke Smith – crash.net) Charles, you said since Austria and the incident with Max, you changed your approach, being more aggressive. I think we saw that most clearly today in your fight with Lewis. Could you talk us through battle with Lewis, and do you think without this change in approach, you made that you would have won today’s race?

    CL: Obviously I think since Austria it’s clear that we can go a bit further in the way that we defend and overtake and yeah, just the aggressivity of us drivers. I believe that Austria helped me to change this approach and today it’s also thanks to this that I’ve managed to win. It was obviously very on-the-limit but… yeah, I’m happy to race like this.

    Q: (Diego Sanchez – thebestf1.es) Charles, can you describe how you feel right now, just in one word – and how you chose this word?

    CL: I don’t know how you say it in English: Libération.… yeah, freedom. More or less this. How many laps were there in the race? 53. 53 laps felt a lot longer than 53 laps. As I’ve said, I felt a lot of pressure from behind. So, obviously, from once I crossed the finish line until now is just pure happiness.

    Q: (Godina Zsolt – f1vilag.hu) Charles, congratulations. After this race win, how do you see your chances for the next races – and do you think that this could be a turning point for Ferrari in terms of the Championship?

    CL: We need to stay realistic. I think we expected that Spa and Monza would be very good races for our car but we also know that the next few races will be a lot more difficult for our car. So, we need to be realistic and, yeah, it’s not going to be easy. I think especially Singapore. I think it will be a nice surprise if we are better than what we expect – but what we expect – but we expect to struggle there. We’ll see in two weeks.

    Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Last year Verstappen got a five second penalty for a move that looked similar to what happened at the Roggia chicane today between Charles and Lewis. What do the three of you think about the black-and-white flag being employed for that move today?

    CL: I’ve been aware on the radio that I took a black-and-white flag for moving under braking but I’m not so sure of which move you are speaking about. If it’s the one in the right hander where we were flat-out or… after that. What it after that?

    Q: The first one, where Lewis went slightly off the track to the right, on your outside, on the entry to the chicane.

    CL: OK – to be completely honest, obviously I knew he was on the right, he braked a little bit early which I think was probably on purpose because he didn’t’ want to try around the outside. I thought I had left a car width. I haven’t seen the images to be honest. But I was pretty sure there was a car width.

    Q: And Charles, what do you think of the use of the black-and-white flag?

    CL: As I’ve said, I think it’s good if we can race harder. Again, I haven’t seen the images so I cannot say particularly in this case but overall I’m happy if we can race harder. So… yeah… I’m fine.

    Q: Lewis, can we get your thoughts?

    LH: We’ve just constantly asked for consistency. So, there was a rule put in place, and then it wasn’t abided by today and they used difference consequences for the rule today but I don’t really know why that was the case. It’s motor racing, I guess, and I guess the stewards woke up on a different side of the bed this morning. I don’t know.

    Q: So do you not welcome the use of the black-and-white flag?

    LH: Well, that’s what… Verstappen should have got that last year. We’ve asked for consistency. So the same rule should apply each time – but yeah… I don’t know what else to say about it.

    Q: Valtteri, your thoughts

    VB: I haven’t seen the whole thing, so I can’t say anything.

    Q: (Daniele Sparisci – Corriere della Sera) Question to Charles. Was it more difficult to win here or in Belgium, with all this battle?

    CL: Here. I think it’s the first weekend in my life where the only thing I’ve got in my head is winning. Normally I focus on just the job I have to do in the car, which normally is more successful and it works better. But, since Wednesday, seeing the support we’ve had, was just, yeah, incredible. The only thing I wanted this weekend was to win in front of all the guys that are supporting us, for the team. So, it was very difficult because also during the race I was thinking to that win and how much it would mean to everyone in the grandstand here. So it was adding a bit of pressure, and as I’ve explained earlier, also I had quite a lot of pressure from lap one to the last laps.

    Q: (Stephane Barbe – L’Equipe) Charles, could you describe especially your feelings on the podium, which is so different here from other places perhaps.

    CL: Well, it felt amazing. I have never had a podium with… I’ve never been on a podium with so many people underneath it. And to see that the whole straight was full of people – mostly red – 99 per cent red – was great to see. Yeah, as I said earlier, hearing them cheering, singing was just… a lot of emotions.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Valtteri, seven times a Finnish driver is second in this race. Is it an impossible place to win here?

    VB: No, it’s not impossible! Not far away today, it just happens that a Finn hasn’t won here. so, maybe one day. Try again next year, obviously. Like I said earlier, I think we tried everything we could and it felt like we maximised everything with the strategy and all – but just not quite enough.

    Q: (Jon McEvoy – Daily Mail) Charles, what are your earliest memories of Ferrari? Do you remember, for example, Michael Schumacher winning the Italian Grand Prix? Maybe just a little on that sort of background as a boy; it’s quite a while ago…

    CL: I’m very bad with history and I’ve got a very bad memory for my own races so yeah. For the others races, I really don’t remember anything. The only thing I can remember is maybe one of the first Grand Prix I’ve seen in Monaco, which was at the exit of turn one, I remember looking for the red car. I was playing with the small cars that you have when you are a child – I was maybe five years old or something like this. This is the only memory I have from a Formula One car probably.

    Q: Can you tell us about your first visit to Maranello?

    CL: I went there with Jules Bianchi, who had to go there for some TV stuff and obviously he tried to let me in with him but they decided I couldn’t go in the factory. Now it’s a little bit easier to go inside but yeah, I remember obviously of dreaming of one day going through these doors and seeing how a Formula One team works, especially Ferrari. But I remember I was very impressed by the way as soon as you arrive in Maranello, which is a city, you can feel that everyone is just here, all working for Ferrari or completely crazy about Ferrari. That was very very special.

    Q: Can you remember what year that was?

    CL: No. No. I’ve got a very bad memory!

    Q: (Rodrigo Franca – VIP Magazine) Charles, speaking of that, you are in the Ferrari Driver Academy since a long time, in the Ferrari family so can you tell us of the importance of the programme and if that makes this podium so special and your winning here in Monza for the fans and for the Ferrari family?

    CL: Well, at the end, if I’m here, it’s also thanks to the FDA. There are a few people in my career who have helped me to get there but definitely the Ferrari Driver Academy is part of these persons or group of persons. We did a lot of mental preparation, physical preparation. They also helped me a lot with the simulator work so I was on the simulator quite a lot and they have tried to give me as much experience that they had from Formula One to me to grow as a better driver so obviously I believe it’s a great proof that the Academy is working properly and there are also a lot of talents coming who are very strong and I’m pretty sure they will come very soon, joining obviously me but all of us in Formula One soon.

    Q: (Joe van Burik – RacingNews 365) Charles, how much did you miss the support from Sebastian in the race today? Was it extra hard, considering you didn’t have him?

    CL: Obviously it’s always an easier situation to have two cars instead of one but obviously yesterday Seb was extremely unlucky, he couldn’t do the lap in the second run of Q3 so yeah, but I’m pretty sure it will be better in the next races.

    Q: (Fabio Seghetta –  TuttoMotorsport) Charles, obviously with this win you’ve overtaken Sebastian in the drivers’ standings. Do you think the next races, apart from the good or bad performances, you will stay there or do you think that together you can try to get as many points as you can to go over and maybe challenge the two guys to the left and right of you?

    CL: To challenge Lewis and Valtteri will be very difficult because, as I said, I don’t think we will be as competitive as we’ve been in Spa and Monza but let’s see, obviously . I don’t know if I will keep the position ahead of Seb in the drivers’ championship. I think we need to work together and to try and have the best performance for the team. He wants to beat me, I want to beat him as much as he does but yeah, we’ll see at the end of the championship. I can’t know.

    Q: (Giovanni Messi –  News Formula One) Charles, two questions: the first is, what did you think of during your final lap and if you have an opinion – I don’t know – on  Sebastian’s mistake during the first laps of the race?

    CL: On the last two laps I started to see in the grandstand that there was quite a lot of agitation, that all of the fans were jumping so yeah, I was telling myself ‘stop looking at the grandstand, look at the track, focus on what you are doing as a driver and then you can enjoy whatever there is outside.’ But it was quite difficult to stay focused on driving, seeing how much movement there was in the grandstand. And then I haven’t yet seen Seb’s mistake.

    Q: (Davide Russo – Russ Formula One) Valtteri, you still believe in this championship?

    VB: Well there’s no point ever giving up when there’s still statistics to say it’s possible. Obviously it’s a bit of a long shot, honestly, if you’re realistic with the way Lewis is performing and the consistency he’s having. But obviously you never know. This is F1, we’ve seen crazy things happening so there’s no point giving up, I just focus as an individual, my best performance I can and for us, as a team, to keep those improvements coming, that we are doing together and by the end of the year we will see, but there’s no point in giving up.

    Q: (Daniel Horvath – The Paddock Magazine) Charles, you need to beat a four time World Champion first if you want to win a race. Do you think Sebastian is the toughest teammate you’ve ever had, considering the lower categories as well?

    CL: Yeah, definitely. He’s definitely the most complete driver I’ve been in the same team with. I’ve learned a lot from Sebastian. He’s an amazing driver, very quick. He has a lot of experience too so the way he works is very methodical and very detailed and of that I’ve learned a lot.

    Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Lewis, you’ve had an apparently very warm and respectful relationship with Charles so far this season, when seen from the outside. Will anything change in that as a result of your unhappiness today?

    LH: I’m not unhappy; of course, as I’ve said, I don’t like to go backwards but he did a fantastic job today. I gave him as much pressure as I could and we had a couple of close moments, we could probably talk about it in private together but it’s nothing major and we continue to race. I’m looking forward to many more races together.

    Q: (Peter Windsor – Clarksport) Charles, amazing that you mentioned that you were thinking during the race about winning and what it meant, and I’m just interested to know what part of the lap, given the amount of pressure you’re under constantly, you were able to think about that. Where on the circuit were you actually able to think about things like that?

    CL: Maybe on the long straight for like 200 meters, I had the time to think. We were quite quick down the straight… not for the whole straight, only for part of it. I was thinking very quickly.

  • 2019 Austrian Grand Prix: Post Race Press Conference

    2019 Austrian Grand Prix: Post Race Press Conference

    DRIVERS
    1 – Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing)
     2 – Charles LECLERC (Ferrari)
    3 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes)

    TRACK INTERVIEWS
    (Conducted by Martin Brundle) 

    Q: Max Verstappen, what an astonishing race you drove. We see two cars down there from the great Niki Lauda – a Ferrari and a McLaren. A worthy champion of course, three times, a legend in this country, who we recently lost. You and Charles did him proud during that grand prix, congratulations. 
    Max VERSTAPPEN: Thank you. Wow! After that start I thought the race was over. But we just kept pushing hard. Quite quickly I saw the pace was actually not too bad, but I had quite a bad flat spot on my first [set of] tyres. And then after the pit stop we were flying. You can see it now on the straight we had good pace as well so we could make the pass. Of course extremely happy for the whole team and also for Honda. We just started working together this year but to win here is incredible.

    Q: It got a little bit cosy, a little bit close during the overtake of Charles. It’s under investigations. I’m sure you’ve been told by the team. What’s your point of view on that? 
    MV: It’s hard racing. Otherwise we have to stay home.

    Q: So you’re really comfortable. Your elbows are out, you took the place and you were up the inside. 
    MV: Well, I mean, if those things aren’t allowed in racing, then what’s the point of being in Formula One.

    Q: Well, let’s just celebrate a magnificent drive, well done. Charles Leclerc I thought your first win was there; so did you I’m sure. Take us through it from your point of view. Perfect start, perfect race until the closing stages. 
    Charles LECLERC: Yeah, overall I thought the race was good. At the end I had a bit more degradation than I thought so Max came back. Then, on the incident, I’ll let the stewards decide. For me it was pretty clear in the car, I don’t know how it looked like from the outside. We’ll see what the decision is.

    Q: You don’t feel it was a fair pass? 
    CL: I don’t know. I was the outside, just like the lap before. Actually, the lap before was completely fine. He left a space for a car width on the exit of the corner but he didn’t on the other lap, so we touched and then obviously I didn’t have a chance to pass back. It’s a shame.

    Q: Incredible performance still, congratulations. Valtteri, a couple of 21-year-olds today putting on a stunning performance. You’re the top Mercedes man, was it a difficult race? 
    Valtteri BOTTAS: I think we made the most out of it. It was a bit more difficult than we expected, especially with the overheating of the engine, so couldn’t really race properly – had to manage all those temperatures. That’s why defending was difficult and also attacking. But, yeah, got some good points. It was one of those weekends, but it’s not bad.

    Q: Anything you could have done better? The start was reasonable, pace was reasonable but you couldn’t stay with those two.
    VB: On pure race pace I don’t think there was not much difference, but once we had to start to manage the temperatures we were dropping back, so…

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: Well Max, many congratulations. A great race from you although you didn’t make it easy for yourself, dropping back to seventh at the start. First question: how does this win compare to the ones that came before?
    MV: It’s a bit different again. At the start I had anti-stall. So I guess we set the clutch a bit too aggressive. But yeah, from there onwards, I think my first stint was a little bit limited with the flat-spot I had after lap one – but still, we stayed out quite long and, once we came out again, we had great pace initially. I think we were looking after the tyres a bit, just settling in. Then, one-by-one we were overtaking the cars ahead. The car really came alive.

    Q: At what point of the race did you think the win was on?
    MV: Difficult to say. I think once I got past Valtteri, with the pace we had, I could definitely have a go at it. But you never know. I just kept pushing really hard – but we did it with a few laps to go so, of course, extremely happy but also to the team. I think all weekend we’ve been working really well and the upgrades we bought, they’ve worked really well, so a big thank you to Red Bull Racing themselves, all the boys there – but also to Honda because it’s not been easy for them in the past but today it’s been incredible, so I’m very happy for them.

    Q: Charles, the disappointment must still feel very fresh for you. Can you just give us your thoughts on the weekend as a whole and what positives you can take away from this Austrian Grand Prix.
    CL: Yeah, the weekend was positive. Quali was positive, the race though, I feel like we missed something. Quite  a lot of degradation again on the second set. So yeah, on that we need to work but overall a positive weekend.

    Q: And what about your performance of your car in race conditions versus qualifying. Were you expecting a little more from it?
    CL: Maybe a little bit. I think what we didn’t expect is Max going that long in the first stint, and then the second stint was harder because we pitted quite early onto the Hard compound.

    Q: Valtteri, you celebrate your 50th start for Mercedes with another podium. Great start from you. Did that lay the foundations of this third place?
    VB: Yeah, obviously the start was important because, I think, for us to attack any cars ahead was quite difficult today with the overheating issues we had, so had to do big amounts of lift and coast and couldn’t actually use any of the better engine modes in the race so everything was on safe mode, just by overheating. Felt like we couldn’t really race today, so it was nice to have a good track position in the beginning and actually, in the circumstances today, I’m happy that I managed to be on the podium and also get a few points against Lewis.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Max and Charles, obviously you went side-by-side with each other two laps in a row. Max can you just talk us through how the attack the second time was different, what you did differently? And Charles, do you think that when you did make the contact, you could have done anything yourself to avoid a collision? 
    MV: I think the second one I braked a bit deeper into the corner. We had a little contact of course, mid to exit of the corner but yeah, from my side I think it’s racing. We all know there is a crest in that corner as well. If you take the crest wrong – because we both went a bit straight on – at one point you run out of room but it’s hard racing, it’s better than just following each other and have a boring race, isn’t it?
    CL: Yeah, I did the same thing from the first to the second lap. The only thing that changed was on the second lap there was contact and then I had to go wide and I lost quite a bit of time there.

    Q: (Christian Menath – MotorsportMagazin.com) Charles, just following that, could you have done anything to avoid the contact, probably go a bit wider and then come onto the next straight a bit deeper or anything like that? 
    CL: As I said, I’ve done exactly the same thing from the first to second lap, so I did not expect  any contact on the second lap. Yeah, as Max said, I think he braked a little bit deeper. I don’t know if he lost it or not but then there was the contact. I felt I was quite strong in traction, from the first attempt I managed to have a better traction and I kept my position. On the second one I couldn’t do that because I was off track.

    Q: (Luis Vasconcelos – Formula Press) Valtteri, you mentioned the overheating issues but it was clear that the car was also being aerodynamically compromised to improve that situation. Was the team surprised that even with all those openings for cooling there were still overheating issues? 
    VB: The issues today were definitely bigger than we expected. We knew it was going to be difficult and we would have to do some lift and coast but we never expected we would have to do that big amount and also by not being able to use good engine modes it made quite a big difference. And on top of that there were the aero losses and we were fully open with everything, so quite big losses and aero-wise as well, but the bigger thing was the engine power and the lift and coast.

    Q: (Luke Smith – Crash.net) Max, congratulations on your win, how significant do you feel this is for the Red Bull Honda project going forward and I guess the validation of the faith that Red Bull have shown in the Honda project so far? 
    MV: Yeah, of course I think this is very important for us and also for the future, for Honda as well. I’m just very happy that it happened today and it just gives us a lot of confidence as well to the boys and maybe a few doubts are going away because of it so yeah, at the moment it’s an amazing feeling.

    Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Max, did you have the time to enjoy the ambiance of the orange army? Did you hear it during the race or at the end? 
    MV: I think I was a little bit too busy myself, driving, but I could see them going up, like cheering me on. I was watching a little bit, next to the track. You  can’t miss the orange but of course the in-lap, you see everybody going wild so yeah, I don’t know, it just gives me a lot of positive energy going into a Sunday like this, and of course after the start I was disappointed but we never gave up and of course then to come back like this is amazing.

    Q: (Peter Hlawiczka – F1News.cz) Valtteri, have you already seen the incident from Charles and Max? And what is your opinion, would you penalise it or was it just a racing incident? 
    VB: I have not seen anything of the race apart from my own race so I can’t say anything. I’ve seen nothing.

    Q: (Christian Nimmervoll – motorsport-total.com) Charles, do you feel like this one has been stolen from you? 
    CL: Umm, well I think overall Red Bull was very quick today, very good at keeping the tyres better than us. If I feel the overtake was done rightly? I don’t think the second one was but I believe that anyway the end would have probably been the same but it’s just not the way you overtake, I think.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) Max, on lap number 55 we heard ‘I’m losing power, guys’ and suddenly you overtake Valtteri. What does it mean? 
    MV: Yeah, the radio is always a bit late, so it’s maybe one or two laps later, because I had one attempt running towards Valtteri and then suddenly I lost power so I had to do a few changes on the steering wheel and then I was fine again.

    Q: (Peter Vamosi – RacingLine.hu) Juan Pablo Montoya said yesterday that he wanted to be a race steward; are you happy with that? 
    MV: I think he was quite a hard racer himself so I would definitely support him being a steward. I think he would be my mate.
    CL: I think it’s always good to have ex-drivers as stewards, as mentioned during the press conference on Thursday. Yeah, I believe that they probably know how it feels to be in the car and what it’s like to push on the limit and when it’s wanted or not wanted so yes.
    VB: Yeah, I think it’s good to have drivers’ view. He was a good hard racer as well so…

    Q: (Arjan Shouten – AD Sportworld) Max, sixth win of your car; can you compare this one with the other five because it’s the first one with a new engine, the drama at the start. Does it feel any better? 
    MV: It’s always a different feeling, I think, especially coming back from P7 or whatever it was. Of course also the new partnership with Honda. At the moment I’m just really happy for them especially.

    Q: (Zsolt Godina – Favilag.hu) Charles, what are your expectations for the next races in terms of car performance and tyre performance after this weekend? 
    CL: I still expect Mercedes to be very very strong in the next few races. It seems that Red Bull also have a very good package, especially in the race, to keep the tyres and push on them, so yeah, we need to work. I still believe that we also did a step, especially in qualifying. I don’t think we are yet at the level of Mercedes but yeah, hopefully we are getting closer.

    Q: (Flavio Vanetti – La Corriera della Sera) Charles, looking back at the choice of the soft tyres to start, was it the right one in your opinion or not? 
    CL: I think it was because I knew that starting on medium wouldn’t have changed anything. We didn’t stop because my softs were dead but we stopped because Valtteri stopped and we had to protect (ourselves)  from him. So yeah, I would have stopped also on the medium I think, just to keep that track position.

    Q: (Luis Vasconcelos – Formula Press) Max and Charles, was turn three the only place where you thought you could attack Charles and Charles, was that the only place where you were concerned and keeping an eye on him? 
    MV: Depends how it ends up. If he closes the door fully into three then you try to get him out of three into four, that’s what I did with Seb, for example so it just depends how the car ahead of you is defending.
    CL: Yeah, and for me I think there are two places where you overtake on this track which is turn three and turn four or where you overtake mostly so I was aware that he was coming very very quickly so checking but these two places, I knew that if he had the opportunity or if he was getting closer, I believe that it was here that he would have tried.

    Q: (Jukic Velimir Veljko – Autofocus) Mr Charles, you have been known up to now as a gentle, nice, polite driver. After this overtaking would you adapt your style more Max’s way, more tough, more aggressive? 
    CL: Which overtake? I got overtaken but yeah, I’m always like this. I think outside the car I’m a bit of a different person than what I am in the car but yeah, that’s it.

  • 2018 Formula 1 Mexico Grand Prix: Post Race Press Conference

    2018 Formula 1 Mexico Grand Prix: Post Race Press Conference

    WORLD CHAMPION

    Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

    TOP THREE DRIVERS

    1 – Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing)

    2 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)

    3 – Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN (Ferrari)

     

    TRACK INTERVIEWS

    (Conducted by David Coulthard)

     

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

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

     

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

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

     

    Q: A bit of a party tonight?

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

     

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

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

     

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

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

     

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

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

     

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

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

     

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

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

     

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

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

     

    PRESS CONFERENCE – TOP THREE DRIVERS

     

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

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

     

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

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

     

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

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

     

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

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

     

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

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

     

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

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

     

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

     

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

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

     

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

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

     

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

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

     

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

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

     

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

    MV: How do you know it’s better?

     

    I don’t know, I’m asking.

     

    MV: No.

     

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

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

     

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

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

     

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

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

     

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

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

     

    QUESTIONS TO LEWIS HAMILTON

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

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

     

    Q: (Fernando Alonso – Motorlat) The question…

    LH: Your name is Fernando Alonso.

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

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

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

    LH: Can you drive?

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

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

     

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

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

     

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

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

     

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

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

     

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

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

     

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

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

     

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

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

     

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

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

     

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

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

     

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

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

     

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

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

     

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

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

     

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

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

     

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

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

     

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

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

     

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

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

     

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

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

     

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

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

  • 2018 Azerbaijan GP: Post Race Press Conference

    2018 Azerbaijan GP: Post Race Press Conference

    DRIVERS

    1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

    2 – Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN (Ferrari)

    3 – Sergio PÉREZ (Force India)

     

    TRACK INTERVIEWS

    (Conducted by David Coulthard)

     

    We have our top three here. Lewis Hamilton just being weighed in. We just have to wait for the guys to get their helmets off. We’ve got a very happy Checo Pérez there and Kimi Räikkönen. Checo, you’re first with the helmet off: fantastic, absolutely brilliant, last time you were on the podium was here.

    Sergio PÉREZ: Yeah, two years ago. I think today I did the best two laps of my whole career. The last two laps with Sebastian behind, with cold tyres, it was so difficult. I was on the supersoft tyre. I had to keep a very strong rhythm, trying to keep close to Räikkönen, to make sure that Sebastian didn’t get close enough, and in the end we did a real… I’m speechless.

     

    Great stuff, great job indeed. We’ll come across to our race winner, Lewis, that was the perfect example of you never give up, running down with cold tyres at the re-start. Could you predict what was going to happen with Seb?

    Lewis HAMILTON: Definitely not. Really quite an emotional race to be honest. Valtteri did such an exceptional job today and really deserved to have the win. Also, Sebastian did a great job. I think it was really, really fortunate today, so it feels a little bit odd to be up here, but I’ve got to take it. I didn’t give up, I keep pushing but definitely a very untidy race from me.

     

    Well, it was absolutely a fantastic race to see, congratulations Lewis. We’ll jump over to Kimi Räikkönen. Tough start to that grand prix, you came together with Ocon. The Clerk of the Course thought it was a race incident. I guess you have a different point of view?

    Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: Yeah, well, obviously I was inside and I think he probably didn’t see me. It’s pretty difficult sometimes to see. So obviously he just turned in and I was there. It wasn’t ideal the start for me but I didn’t get worse off from that, so I was lucky in that way. A difficult race after that. I tried to come back and at certain moments I felt good but I struggled a bit with the tyres, to keep them warm enough. I just tried to pay the long game and to stay there, expecting issues. It paid off, but it wasn’t easy.

     

    PRESS CONFERENCE

     

    Q: Lewis, many congratulations, win number 63. You’ve already said it wasn’t the easiest – but are you happier with the car this weekend than in China last time out?

    LH: A little bit, yeah. In all honesty, I think I struggled throughout the weekend and I’m definitely struggling to extract, I think the car’s potential but also my potential so it’s definitely been a little difficult, particularly the last two races but also with the tyres in Bahrain. But I have to be happy with today. I have to be thankful and grateful for today because it is such a tricky race and you don’t know what’s going to happen: Safety Car comes out and you can lose out and lots of different things happening within this race but what’s important is just to keep your head down and keep going and live to fight another day. I came out in the lead and honestly I couldn’t believe that I was where I was, that I had a Ferrari behind me and I was just praying that I could keep it together, stay focussed and bring it home. So, we’ve definitely got a lot of work still to do, we still are behind, whilst we finished ahead today that was due to, as I said, lots of different circumstances getting in the way. But Kimi was nearly on pole yesterday, two-tenths ahead of Sebastian, their pure pace is a lot ahead of ours at the moment. Then, within the race, I’m sure Sebastian was managing but I’m sure their pace also in the race is a little bit up on ours. We definitely are there in the mix and we’ve not got a terrible car at all, by any means. We’ve just got to refine it a little bit and make it a little bit easier to drive. She definitely isn’t as easy to drive as it was last year. So yeah, that’s what we’re going to continue to work to.

     

    Q: And a sense of relief to be back at the top of the Championship?

    LH: Hmmm… I definitely don’t feel relieved at the moment. I have really mixed emotions. Obviously, I could hear constantly I was battling with my team-mate over time, over the pitstop window and ultimately Valtteri had done an exceptional job. Obviously, I did a good job in qualifying and put myself in a good position – but there were a lot of faults in the race, which is rare for me – but I struggled with the car, struggled with the tyres and that’s something I don’t take lightly, so I’ve definitely got to go away from here and work even harder to make sure that there’s not a repeat performance-wise of today for myself.

     

    Q: Kimi, so close yesterday, so close today. Is there a sense of frustration building inside you now, of what do you have to do to win a grand prix?

    KR: No, not really, yesterday I can only look in the mirror and the reason is easy to know. Yeah, it was frustrating, as I said earlier, I was taking it easy into the corner and I still managed to throw it away, so that is more painful that just if you happen to know that you have to try something to be fast enough – but that wasn’t the case. Yeah, pretty eventful race today. Got a destroyed front wing and tyre in the first few corners. I had a good feeling sometimes but was struggling to switch the tyres on. It was kind of on and off. I had a great many close moments. Even on the way to the grid I was pretty certain that it’s in the wall already but I managed to get it away from it. Too many close calls. The feeling was there but not consistently. I thought, OK, I just try to go as fast as I can and a little bit safer and the Red Bulls, looking at what they were doing earlier in the race it was pretty certain something will happen later on when they get close to each other. Everything changed after that and once put the other tyres on and again it felt OK and it all played into our hands. Very definitely a better day than yesterday but it still… second is not what you want but looking where we were earlier, you take it and we go from there. We know we have the speed. We just have to put things together, and I’m sure it will come.

     

    Q: Checo, great to see you and Force India back on the podium. It’s been a dramatic turnaround by the team over the last month. How confident are you that you can stay where you are going forwards?

    SP: Well, obviously, this result is a coincidence of so many things happening but it’s not a coincidence that we are always there to take anything that is offered to us. I think our battle is not here, to be honest, it’s the midfield and finally we got plenty of points today with this podium, that we can close up the gap to the cars ahead, to the Renaults. I think we were definitely the fourth-best team this weekend. In two weeks’ time, we have a very important challenge. Barcelona is where really the car is… you show all of your potential there. It will be very interesting to see where we are. I believe that we are making good progress. Up to now we only had one point as a team. It’s definitely a massive motivation for all the boys that are doing a fantastic job. They did an incredible job with the stops. With the strategy. Yeah, what else can I say? Amazing job.

     

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

     

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Kimi, you’ve had a lot of bad luck in the races this season. You’ve had some big results go amiss through no fault of your own. Do you feel that you got a bit of that luck back today and how important is this for you to really kick on for the rest of the season?

    KR: Well, I wouldn’t say that I have had a lot of luck over the years, but I don’t count on luck. You cannot count on that. I think you get what you deserve in a way and sometimes you are a bit luckier than other times but if I take over the years, I’m far from on the positive side yet. Maybe today certain things worked in our direction but then whatever happened in front of us are self-made issues in many ways. Stay out of trouble in this kind of race and definitely knowing what happened last year, it’s going to pay off. I’m more happy that I have the speed  – I know that I have the speed. We just didn’t do it: the mistake yesterday and some issues earlier. That’s the main thing, that we have the speed. We just need to put it together and I’m sure that we can do even better.

     

    Q: (Luis Vasconcelos – Formula Press) Lewis, we didn’t see Valtteri hit anything; did you see him hit anything on the lap he had in front of you? Do you think there was still debris around the area where Romain had crashed before?

    LH: For me it was impossible to see. I was obviously chasing Valtteri and it was so blurred, the vision is quite blurred at that high speed so all I could see was a few things fly away from his car and his speed reduced massively so I lifted and I didn’t really know what had happened, so I couldn’t tell you. And I couldn’t see any debris on the straight but the guys were telling me there was some debris there but there was also debris where Grosjean had crashed. It was all on the right side, before the left, fast lefthander so I can’t honestly say where it came from.

     

    Q: (Luis Vasconcelos – Formula Press) Kimi, Checo hit you on the first lap, then you had the incident with Ocon. Was your car damaged for the rest of the race? Did you feel there was something lacking there?

    KR: Honestly, I don’t know. Obviously we destroyed the front wing and right tyre but then they changed the front wing so I didn’t check the car at all. Then also, I think on the first lap, after the restart, on the little kink, coming on the last part of the straight, I hit the inside wall at full speed so I’m pretty lucky that the front wheel didn’t go. I was expecting to go quite fast but I was lucky. It felt OK, the car, honestly. I struggled a bit with the tyres sometimes but apart from that I’m sure there wasn’t big damage.

     

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Lewis, you mentioned that you think Ferrari’s still a bit ahead of Mercedes at the moment. We saw exceptional pace from you in Australia, you’ve sort of struggled since then. So do you think that in order to get back on terms with them or get ahead it’s going to be upgrades that you require or just unlocking more from the package you have at the moment?

    LH: I think the performance upgrade battle will be important, to see how that development goes between both teams, so that will definitely be important. I think more unlocking the potential of the car. Australia, we started on the right foot on the Friday and it progressed and got better and better. Since then, every weekend we’ve generally started a couple of steps – at least – behind the Ferraris and struggled to catch up. So whilst there has been a lot of work that has been done, we are still, today, performance-wise, we are still behind them. If you look at them, they had a little bit more downforce this weekend yet they were a little bit slower on the straights but quicker through all the corners. The middle sector was always three tenths up, three or four tenths up, which we just couldn’t catch up so their package really suited this track perfectly, I would say. Maybe ours did in Australia but I would imagine they just didn’t unlock their potential in that race, particularly, and since then have. But I don’t think we’re under any illusions that we have the fastest car or that we don’t have work to do. We know that. Everyone’s working as hard as they can but we’ve got to keep pushing, really got to keep pushing. I’ve got to figure out how to get on top of this car a little bit more. Australia, as I said, I was really comfortable with it and since then I’ve not been and I don’t really know why, so I’ve got to try and work on that.

     

     

    Photo Credit: Sahara Force India Formula One Team

  • Monaco GP 2017: Post Race Press Conference

    Monaco GP 2017: Post Race Press Conference

    DRIVERS

    1 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)

    2 – Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN (Ferrari)

    3 – Daniel RICCIARDO (Red Bull Racing)

     

    PODIUM INTERVIEWS

    (Conducted by Nico Rosberg)

    Q: Sebastian, great weekend, first Ferrari win in 16 years, how does it feel?

    Sebastian VETTEL: Unbelievable. I think it was a very intense race. I was hoping at the start to have a bit of a better launch but Kimi had a good start. I had nowhere to go, so I had to be patient. Then, there was a phase in the first stint that was really tricky, The tyres started to slide, I think you remember how that feels, it was quite uncomfortable. I think Valtteri and the pack was catching up a bit; we were facing some traffic. But then I had a… I don’t know, a second attempt, a second set of tyres. I had a couple of laps where the car was really, really good. I pushed, everything I had, because I knew if there is a chance to win then that’s it. So I was able to use that window and came out ahead, so at that point I could control the race. After the restart it was really tricky with the cold tyres. I think every one of us was really struggling, Daniel said he brushed the wall in Turn 1 first lap. So it was really difficult but after a couple of laps I was able again to control the gap to behind, so fantastic job, the team has done really well, so great thanks to them and a fantastic weekend for Ferrari.

    Q: Was that planned, that when Kimi comes in, you stay out a bit longer?

    SV: No, not really. I don’t think there… we couldn’t plan much. The plan was to try and pull away, which we did. Then, Valtteri had really good pace. I think we were struggling a little bit, both, with our rears and at that point the window opened. So as soon as Valtteri pitted, Kimi responded. For me, I think I still had a bit of a gap, nothing to lose in P2, so I tried to push as hard as possible and within two laps I was surprised myself to be able to pull a gap to be able to come out in front.

    Q: Congrats. Kimi, I think it’s fair to say the whole F1 community would have been very happy as well to see you get that win today. What are your thoughts? You lost it during the pit stops of course, what are you thoughts on that?

    Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: It’s hard to say really. Obviously it’s still second place, but it doesn’t feel awful good but this is how it goes sometimes and we go for the next race and try to do better but it’s one of those days that you wish you get a bit more.

    Q: I know how it feels. It is not a good feeling. But great result anyways. Daniel, a great recovery after a problem in qualifying. You’re pleased with that?

    Daniel RICCIARDO: Yeah, happier today, for sure.  Just yesterday I felt that we had so much more to offer and it was just a shame not to be able to really show our potential around here. I got my chance today when Max and Bottas pitted. I had the track to myself for a few laps and just managed to get some good times, good times in those tyres. I did some consistent laps and got in the overcut, so I was happy with that.

    Q: Turn 1 after the Safety Car looked like a bit of a hit, was it scary in the car?

    DR: Yeah! I didn’t enjoy that. I wasn’t sure if I damaged anything and then I saw Bottas trying to get inside me. These tyres, man, when you get a Safety Car they’re like driving on ice. It was hard. That was not a fun moment, but happy to hold it.

    Q: Sebastian, back to you, the Ferrari car is looking good at the moment, do you think you are going to be able to keep it up for Canada?

    SV: We hope so. Canada is a completely different track but to be honest, for now I am just going to enjoy the win here. You know yourself, it’s very, very special to win here. I think we’ll have a fun night and then we have enough time to prepare for Canada.

    Q: Where’s the party?

    SV: I don’t know, you tell me! You won more times than me here!

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: Sebastian, there are wins and there are big wins. First Ferrari Monaco victory for 16 years, as Nico was saying, first Ferrari one-two since 2010 and more importantly perhaps a 25-point lead over Lewis Hamilton in the drivers’ championship, so what does today mean to you?

    SV: If you want the honest answer, I think it’s most important that we had a very, very good day, a win. A supreme day for Ferrari; it’s been a long time. Yeah, I think it means an awful lot to the team. I will not find the right words but for me it was a pretty special race. At some point I was thinking, “there must be a Safety Car” and then it came at the end when I didn’t really need it but fine. I dreamt all night about how to get ahead of the start because I knew that would probably be the only chance I would get. It didn’t work. Kimi had a good start, mine was OK, so I couldn’t really go anywhere. Then, I think in the first stint I was just trying to pace myself, trying to stay within range. At some point I was really uncomfortable with the rear tyres, they were sliding quite a bit. I think when the gap opened again that’s when Kimi pitted. I knew that if I have any chance that might be it until I get the call because Valtteri was on fresh tyres so it’s likely that he will go quicker, so I just tried to push as hard as I can and wait for the call to box. When it came and then when I came out ahead of Kimi even, I was surprised myself. But for sure I take it. It’s a great win. Those couple of laps were really crucial, I was pushing flat out. I had better laps than in quali today in the race. I was very happy with how the race went. The car was great. So to sum it up, it’s just been fantastic, a fantastic weekend for the team and a great reward. This team is working very hard. Obviously this year is very different to last year but the people are the same, the spirit is the same, so it’s important that we keep pushing, improving the car. We had again a couple of new bits for this race. Yeah, the next race will be completely different but I don’t really care now, just looking forward to tonight.

    Q: Kimi, coming to you, obviously you lost the race in the pit stops. The normal wisdom in Monaco is that when you’re leading you’re not the first one to make a move. But just before you made your stop we heard a radio message exchange with your engineer in which you were asking about pitting. So to be clear, were you asking for the stop or did they call it?

    KR: No, I was called in and that’s about it.

    Q: How do you feel about the first one to move?

    KR: I don’t know, obviously it didn’t work out very well for me. But apart from that, I have no idea. I mean… that’s about as much as I can say about it right now. I got the bad end of the story today. I mean it’s still second place but obviously it doesn’t count a lot in my books at least.

    Q: Thanks for that. Daniel, the story today was that the overcut was more effective: Hamilton gained six places, Sebastian got the win because of it, and you picked up two place spectacularly through that pit stop sequence. Extremely fast once you got some clean air. Tell us about your approach today?

    DR: Yeah I’m really pleased to be up here. You don’t often start fifth and get a podium here. It’s hard to make any positions. I was just frustrated yesterday because I knew we had so much more to offer here, so much more to give than what we showed. I felt like I didn’t really also get to show my pace around here. It was how the pit stops worked, the two cars pitting before me and that allowing me to show a bit more my pace. That was perfect and we got into a realty good rhythm, I think we were doing 16 dead, 16 dead and at the time I think that pace was really strong and I was able to do a good overcut. It was a good combination of obviously the lap times coming from me and the team leaving me out there and allowing me to run in clean air. That was fun. That definitely made my race. The Safety Car nearly ruined my race. At the restart I hit the wall in Turn 1. I hit it pretty hard, so I thought I had damage. I assumed I would have damage. And then I saw Valtteri. You don’t see much in these mirrors. I know Jenson has talked about it. Obviously he hasn’t been in the cars this year, but he has been vocal about it. You certainly see it here and I knew Valtteri was kind of there, in my blind spot but I just managed to hold on at the restart and then I was quite happy to see the chequered because the tyres after restarts are so tricky to get going.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Viktor Bognar – Magyarszo) Kimi, do you think it would have been possible to cover Sebastian if you are stopping later?

    KR: I don’t know. Obviously, this is what we got today. The end results. And obviously for the team it’s a great result. Who knows? This is really the end, we can say ‘if’ as much as we want but it doesn’t change anything.

    Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Kimi, when you pitted you came out behind some traffic and Bottas was also behind Sainz at the time. Have you had an explanation as to why they pitted you at that point?

    KR: I don’t know. Obviously, I have just finished the race. I have no idea. Obviously they have reasons for whatever we did do. It doesn’t matter here or any other race. It’s not up to me to answer that.

    Q: (Ben Anderson – Autosport) Kimi, in the first stint, you seemed to have really strong pace in the early part and then from about lap 20 your pace dropped off quite substantially. Was there an explanation for that? Were you struggling with something in the car?

    KR: Not really. I think the worst place was when we had lapped cars and got stuck behind them on quite a few laps but apart from that the car was behaving well. Not really having any issues. I think we had to take it a little bit easier here and there but nothing to complain really. The most lap time we lost behind the lapped traffic but that’s about it.

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action / Speed Sport) Daniel, yesterday you told us maybe you’d go for the overcut but was that a decision on the fly by the team – and how did the team decide whether to pit you first or Max first?

    DR: I’m not sure what position Max was in with the tyres at the time – I don’t know if he wanted to make the pitstop and try to undercut Valtteri. I assume that was probably the thinking behind it. Obviously I was at the tail of that pack and we had pretty good communication with my engineer. We were going back and forth and I think he had a pretty good idea of what my pace was and what I could do. Yeah, then once we got clear air, I think probably a couple of laps before that I closed in a bit on Max who I think was closing in on Valtteri, so we seemed to bunch-up. And it looked like they were struggling more, probably, with the tyres at that time, from what I could see, so yeah, I was happy certainly to stay out there. Then it was pretty evident that I could keep going quicker and quicker. So, it was nice to push. Especially… if you don’t start on pole here you’re normally in traffic for a lot of the race and you can’t really get a time to feel the car on the limit on Sunday – but it was good to get that block of laps in. Even though the tyres were sliding around a bit with the rear, it was still quite fun in that session of the race.

    Q: (Paul Johnson – Australian Associated Press) Daniel, obviously really encouraging performance with the pace you had today throughout the middle sector of the track. How encouraged are you moving forwards? Also, can you take us through exactly what happened coming out of the Safety Car into Turn One?

    DR: Yeah. Today I felt like, particularly that point of the race where we had clear track and were able to show our speed, I felt that was more representative of what we could of probably done yesterday. It was nice to at least show something this weekend and now at least get a podium for it. After the Safety Car… I knew getting behind the Safety Car, I could see Kimi in front of me trying to warm the tyres – well, keep them warm. I was trying to do the same: doing burnouts and trying to scrub the front tyres and get them going. They just turned to concrete blocks. They’re so slippery. So, I think we were all dreading the restart, to be honest. At one point you see it as an opportunity and I saw it as a potential opportunity to maybe jump Kimi but as the same time it’s… you see it as a potential risk. Coming into Turn One I didn’t feel like I came in hot at all – but as soon as I turned it, I just kept going straight and the wall got closer until I hit it. I think I hit it flush, which meant I avoided damage. Yeah, not fun.

    Q: (Mike Doodson – Honorary) A bit more about the same thing. There were several incidents at Turn One you may not have known about – several people, a couple of other people crashed there. The track was breaking up – did that contribute to your accident – or your smack of the wall?

    DR:  If I can use it as an excuse, sure! No, certainly not. It was in my control. The excuse I guess is just cold tyres. We can see the temperatures on our dash, so we’re aware when they’re cold. We can feel them, we don’t always need to see the numbers but I could see they were very cold. They just lose temperature really quick. We’re all aware of that but we’ll see. Maybe in years to come we can have a super, super, supersoft tyre for Monaco. I think will that be not only more fun in quali but avoid scary moments like that in the race. I guess it keeps it exciting for everyone at home.

    Q: (Luigi Perna – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Question for Seb. Seb, you looked very emotional on the podium. What were you thinking about in those moments? And what does it mean to have 25 points ahead of Lewis Hamilton at this point in the season?

    SV: It’s a long way so I’m not really bothered about that. It was more the fact to stand up there and see the team. I think obviously, it’s a small part that we have here at the track but thinking of everyone else back in Maranello in the factory. We got a lot of hard times last year and this year everything seems to be upside down – but the team is the same, the people are the same so it’s really clear to them. I guess in these small moments you just realise that it’s a special group of people. If things go well, we’ll work hand in hand, we must make sure we keep the momentum up in the next couple of races – but I think we’re just having a great time. Obviously, we wanted today to have the one-two and we got it. So for the team obviously it means a lot. It’s been a long time – you know the numbers better than I do – since Ferrari won here and then to get a one-two is just fantastic. I think you can see when the guys are singing the Italian anthem. I think it’s impossible not to get goosebumps and feel very special standing up there representing them. For me, I think that’s what makes racing so special. I love driving, I loved driving today, I loved a couple of laps that I had where I could really, really push to the limit and I was so close to touch the wall, a couple of times I thought, ‘OK, I’ll lose the car’ and I just managed to get it back, so that’s obviously great fun. Big adrenaline around here because you don’t have any room for error – but then to have the rewards, standing on the podium, just send a message to base, to the factory, is what it’s made for.

    Q: (Beniamino Casadei Lucchi – Il Giornale) Question for Seb. It’s a fantastic victory. But now, if you were Kimi, what do you think?

    SV: Well, obviously I… we were right behind each other. In that case I think it’s normal that the lead car gets the priority because you go normally faster on the new set of tyres, and I when I got the lap times from Valtteri, he was doing 16.1, I think, and Daniel was a little bit faster with the old tyres with 16.0. I was, at that point, at 16.4, so I was a little bit slower, so I was assuming Kimi must do something like Valtteri. So I just… I knew that the team would call me as soon as we were really tight to Valtteri. We had a little bit of a cushion. I was just going flat-out, trying to go as fast as I can because for me it means that I’m staying ahead of Valtteri, first of all, and close to Kimi. I was surprised myself when I came out ahead. So, yeah, I think the warm-up on the supersoft was fine. Arguably you can say it worked for Daniel and for myself today, it worked well to stay out longer but I think if you were looking at it before the race then you couldn’t predict. We are racing, we get along well, I can understand that Kimi’s not entirely happy today. He drove well in the first stint and then obviously you get the message to go in. You do the pitstop and then you push. Obviously it’s a bad surprise when somebody comes out ahead. For me, I take it, there’s no reason to lie, obviously I’m very happy but I can understand obviously that he’s upset.

    Q: (Daniele Sparisci – Corriere della Sera) Seb, how do you feel to be the first Ferrari driver to win here after Michael Schumacher and compared to the other victories with Ferrari, does Monaco have something special?

    SV: Well, I think Monaco is always something special, it’s just the nature of the weekend: a lot of attention, a lot of people which is great, a lot of support. Definitely I felt that with the beginning of the season that we had, Ferrari fans and Ferrari flags are increasing so that’s nice. A lot of people screaming, from outside, Forza Ferrari. A lot of Italian lines which in the recent years maybe I didn’t get so much so that was great to see. It’s obviously a great day for the team. I’m just… I’m pretty exhausted now, to be honest, so I’m very happy and it’s great to get the points, it’s great to get the win so it’s been a fantastic day for all of us. To be the first one after Michael for Ferrari – I don’t know, I wasn’t aware (of that). I think the most important thing is that we won today. I’m sure there were occasions more recently where Ferrari could have won but the most important is what happens today.

    Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Seb, there’s nothing wrong with team orders, they’re not illegal and you are the leading driver in the championship and it wasn’t clear before the race whether the overcut or the undercut would be the best strategy. So was there a plan to give you a chance to get ahead of Kimi at some point?

    SV: Not really. We spoke about the race before. It was clear that, as I said, I think they had the same plan to be honest so the lead car normally gets priority so if I had a choice at that point, sitting behind Kimi, if I was going in the pits first, that’s maybe what you like to do because you are sooner on the fresher tyres so I think it’s probably one of the rare occasions where the overcut turned out to be positive, so I’m really glad I made that work. From the team point of view, there was no plan of any team orders or anything and as I said, I can understand that obviously Kimi’s not happy, I would feel exactly the same, one hundred per cent the same, but as I said myself, I was surprised that the overcut… I don’t think Daniel had priority over Max going into the race. I don’t know where they are in terms of points and so on so I don’t think they look into that but I think the rule of thumb… the rule is pretty clear when you qualify ahead and you are ahead in the first stint, you get priority on the first stop and that’s what happened. As it turned out, obviously today it worked in my favour which, as I said, I will take it but we are a team at the end of the day and I can see that Kimi’s not happy.

    Q: (Peter Farkas – Auto Motor) To Kimi and Sebastian, obviously now it seems that Mercedes is sometimes very quick but at other tracks they have serious problems. Of course it’s early in the championship but do you think this consistency of the Ferrari car can really win you the championship this year?

    SV: I don’t know.

    KR: It’s quite an early part of the year so we’ll see. It’s very hard to know what happens in the future but we will keep trying and try to make the best out of every weekend and just do what we can do. We cannot control what the others will do but no, I’m sure everybody will have some difficult weekends during the year. We will try to minimise those. When you have a hard time, try to make the best out of it.

    Q: (Silvia Arias – Parabrisas) Kimi, talking about lapping cars, do you think the blue flag for Button came out a little bit too… not at the right moment? The blue flag which signals to let you past immediately?

    KR:  I don’t know. There are obviously rules and I’m pretty sure I was – I don’t know if it was one second or one and a half seconds but I was pretty close in the hairpin and I was told that I have to be longer inside their time, so it was not enough to be once, it was something that I’d never hard before but anyhow that’s what happened and it cost a bit but that’s how it is.

    Q: (Stuart Codling – F1 Racing) Kimi, given that your team will have known that when you pitted you would emerge in the vicinity of traffic, with those two slower cars ahead, do you feel that you could have gone quicker in those laps, before your pit stop, had you known this?

    KR: I don’t know. We tried to figure out something that is impossible to know right now, at least from my side. No, obviously it wasn’t ideal to end up behind a lapped car and obviously it is something that definitely doesn’t help but the end result is what it is but we have to see. We just finished the race and I only know what happened and that’s it. Obviously I got second place but yeah, for the team good but not for myself, not so great.

    Q: (Marco Giachi – Paddock) Kimi, as a driver, could you reject the instructions? From a technical point of view, did you have enough information to decide by yourself or are you 100 percent in the hands of the engineers?

    KR: Obviously I can stop the car if I want! I’m driving it. We have a team, we work as a team and if you start… if you don’t believe what you’ve been told or how we work then it will get very complicated sometimes because we always try to work as best as we can and today, as a team, we won it one-two, that happened, but as for myself it could have been better, but like I said, we just finished the race  and who knows? We will talk about it and I guess there are some reasons for everything that happens in life but we will see. As a driver, I can obviously do what I want but that’s not how we work as a team. Simple as that.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) Sebastian, did you expect that Kimi would stop on lap 33 before the first part of the race and then when you knew that, did you think this is my chance to overtake him? And were you informed of Lewis’s position during the race?

    SV: Well, I was told at some point where Lewis was but I didn’t really care so… You have to do your own race around here. Daniel clipped the wall at the restart, I brushed the wall on the laps to the grid so it’s really close. You try to go as close as possible to the walls and you must not allow yourself to drift away… your thoughts to drift away for even one corner so you need to stay at it. Small mistakes, like Ericsson had yesterday in qualifying, they have a big consequence and this can happen to all of us. We all try to chase the limits, we all try to go close. I wasn’t too keen to know what others were doing. Obviously we have a plan before the race. I didn’t look down and count and say OK, we are getting to the window but when I saw that Valtteri pitted, I saw it also on the screen, and then I was told that Bottas is in the pits at the same time, then I knew that he would try to undercut, otherwise what was the point for him to pit. If he believes that it’s faster then he will stay out and try to put us under pressure once we pit, so he was obviously waiting for his chance, went for it and then I was told in the same lap that Kimi’s obviously getting the pit stop and I know that I can’t pit at the same time, we were too close behind each other to come in on the same lap, so I knew that at least I get one lap, maybe I get two, I don’t know, depending on the gap to Bottas which increased again to three, four seconds before the stop. At that point I was just trying to go flat out, that was my race, obviously it made my race today which, looking at the final result, it’s easy to say but at that point it was impossible to predict.  When I heard the lap times of Bottas, the first lap, I think 16.1s, I was really… OK, I need to stretch myself. As I said, I was surprised that I could take so much pace from the car and I was going even below the 16s. At the same time, Daniel was lapping in 16.0s so there seemed to be a second tyre somehow, because the laps before I was struggling as much as Kimi was with the rears so yeah, I think there were a couple of laps where we weren’t comfortable at all, Valtteri was closing the gap, that was not the plan.

    Q: (Ben Anderson – Autosport) Kimi, when you look back at a race, do you feel that you were just unlucky with traffic and the way things fell or do you think Ferrari’s strategy just cost you the victory?

    KR: I don’t know. Like I said, I haven’t seen… I only know what happened when I was in the car but I haven’t seen the bigger picture. I only know that we came second, Seb won, the team got one-two, obviously great for the team, but the rest… Until we have our meeting then obviously you can see all the graphs, I don’t know.