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1 – Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull
Racing)
2 – Fernando ALONSO (Aston Martin)
3 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)
TRACK INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Jenson Button)
Q: Congratulations, Max yet another victory from the lights to the flag. How
are you feeling?
Max VERSTAPPEN: Yeah, of course I'm very happy right now. It was not a very
straightforward race because the tyres were not really getting in their
window. It was very cold today compared to Friday and we were sliding around
quite a bit. But yeah, we made it work and yeah to win again, today to win
the 100th Grand Prix for the team, that's incredible.
Q: Yeah, you must have a pretty special feeling about that. You've worked
with this team for many years. Hundredth win, how does that feel to take
that for the team here?
MV: It’s amazing. I mean, I never expected to be on these kinds of numbers
myself as well, you know. So, yeah, we keep enjoying, we keep working hard.
But today has been a great day again.
Q: Did you expect a bigger challenge from Aston or Mercedes here? Or is this
is pretty much what you expected here in Montréal?
MV: Firstly, I expected more or less what we had today, but it was, like I
said, really difficult to just keep the grip, the temperature into the
tyres, because the grip was disappearing very quickly. That's why maybe the
gap was not that big. But yeah, we had a few Safety Cars here and there. But
yeah, overall, we won, that's the most important.
Q: And lastly, this is always a very special race to come to. A lot of fans
here for the sport. They've been through a lot this weekend with the
weather. Have you got a message for them?
MV: Yeah, I mean, they're so passionate about the sport. Also, yesterday
with the rain, they were just hanging in there, so that was great to see.
And yeah, we love coming here. And hopefully we can do this for a long time.
Q: You’ve got a few fans here, Fernando. Was that the race you expected?
Fernando ALONSO: Probably yes. I think we were hoping to challenge a little
more the Red Bull. But we lost a place at the start with Lewis and then
yeah, it was a battle with the Mercedes and Lewis was pushing all the race,
so I didn't have one lap where I could relax a little bit. So it was an
amazing battle.
Q: It was lovely watching three multiple World Champions going at it. And
you had a good little tussle with Lewis out there as well.
FA: I mean, at the beginning, I had a little bit more pace. At the end I
think Lewis had a bit more pace. Yeah, it was tough. It was a very demanding
race, you know, all 70 laps of qualifying today.
Q: We heard you had a few issues. You had to do a little bit of lift and
coast. It's always frustrating because you want to push to the maximum. Was
that a fuel issue? Or was that a rear brake issue?
FA: I don't really know. They didn't tell me so maybe it was not to make me
worry too much. But I don't know. I felt the car was OK. But I was just
following the instructions. So yeah, hopefully that means that we have a
little bit more pace. So next one, putting more pressure on Max.
Q: I feel like I don't need to ask you a question. These guys are doing it
for us and a lot of support here for F1 and a lot of support here for you,
Lewis. This has always been a pretty special track for you. Not the result
you want, entirely, but you're working hard out there.
Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah, honestly it's been a great weekend for us. I think we
are slowly chipping away. I think the Astons took a little bit of a step
ahead this weekend when they added the upgrades but we're working on
bringing some more moving forwards. But to just have this consistency and to
be up on the podium here in Montréal, which is such an incredible city and
we've got such a great crowd here every single year without fail. So big
thank you to everyone here.
Q: You seem to be in a really good place. You know, there's progress being
made with the team, you yourself giving it your all. It's such a pleasure
for us all to see it on track. What are the areas you still think you need
to improve to really take it to Aston and then finally Red Bull?
LH: Yeah, I mean, well, firstly, quite an honour to be up there with two
world champions. I was really excited to be third and just trying to be in
that mix. But unfortunately, we didn't have the pace today. I think where we
struggle… I mean, we knew that this weekend, this wouldn't be our strongest
circuit, as we struggle in the lower-speed corners particularly. And that's
really where I was losing to Fernando and to Max, just on traction out of
Turn 2, out of pretty much every corner. We've got a lot of work to do just
to add rear downforce to the car and a little bit more efficiency, but we're
chipping away as I said, and I do believe we will get there at some stage.
Max was a little bit gone, but I think our pace is a little bit closer
today, so we are going in the right direction.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Max, very well done, another brilliant victory by you, you led every lap
from pole position. Did the race play out as you expected?
MV: Well, to be honest, I didn't really know what to expect because of the
track in general. So it had nothing to do with competitors or whatever. But
just for myself as well. Because also we changed the car quite a bit. We
changed the car around quite a bit compared to Friday, so I didn't really
know how it would feel today. But yeah, luckily, it went in the right
direction. But I think it was quite tough today to keep the tyres in the
right window, they were always running quite cold. So we had to push
actually quite hard on the tyre. And then with low grip, low rubber, it was
not the easiest or most straightforward. But yeah, everything went well,
just the hard tyre. Probably that stint was a bit of a limitation, because
of the harder compound, even harder to keep the tyre temps. And I think we
know that our car normally is very good when there’s high deg compared to
other cars. And today probably you would have needed a car which is a bit
harder on the tyre, to keep the temperatures in, you know. So it's probably
not been our best race today. But still, to win by nine seconds, I think
shows that we have a great car.
Q: Well, nine seconds is the closest the gap has been at the flag all
season. Do you feel Aston Martin have closed the gap here? Or do you think
just it was a whole bunch of circumstances that just didn't suit you so
well?
MV: Well, from our side, like I said, I don't think it was our best day,
because of the tyre temps and stuff. So that doesn't help. But I also know
that with their updates, they naturally of course improved. So, for sure,
they got closer to us.
Q: Now this win pulls you level with the late, great Ayrton Senna, on 41
wins. Senna is a legend of our sport. What does this milestone mean to you?
MV: Yeah, I mean, I hate to compare different generations. From my side, the
only thing I can say is that when I was a little kid driving in go-karting,
I was dreaming about being a Formula 1 driver and I would have never
imagined to win 41 Grands Prix. So of course, to tie with Ayrton is
something incredible. And of course, I'm proud of that, but of course, I
hope it's not stopping here. You know, I hope that we can keep on winning
more races.
Q: And Max, just give us a few thoughts on your contribution to Red Bull’s
100 wins in Formula 1.
MV: Yeah, I mean, I've won 41 of them! But, yeah, we'll talk about maybe a
new contract because of that! No, honestly, it's a great achievement for the
team. We knew that this was the first opportunity, of course, to do so. And
I'm happy that's done. We've won 100. But again, I hope we win more than
100. So the new target is 200.
Q: Alright, very well done to you. Thank you, Max. Fernando, coming to you
now. Given that you were nursing a problem today, how satisfying is it to
cross the line just nine seconds behind Max?
FA: Very, very. I think it has been a tough race from the beginning, you
know, when we lost a place at the start I thought that maybe that was
already gone, P2, and I would have to concentrate on the guys behind, George
and the Ferraris maybe. But then, yeah, we were able to overtake Lewis and
we had a little bit more pace in that part of the race. And I was quite OK,
until the last 20 or 25 laps, that Lewis was coming very fast and I had to
push again to the limit. So yeah, all in all, it was 70 laps of qualifying.
So there was no time to rest. And I loved it.
Q: You've just referenced losing a place to Lewis at the start, just tell us
what happened?
FA: I didn't know you know. With all these procedures, we go to the podium,
then to the TV pen and now here and I still don't know anything that
happened to the lift and coast that I had to do, or the start. So maybe we
need to reduce the media time and give us a little bit of time with the
engineers and maybe we come here with more info.
Q: But how did it feel inside the car? Just the first five seconds.
FA: Slow!
Q: In terms of your reaction time, do you feel you…
FA: My reactions are still very good! No, I don't think… I need to check, I
don't know if the guys starting on that side of the grid, they started good
or not. Because I only sure Max and Lewis, obviously, but George didn’t
overtake me, so maybe it was just the wrong side of the grid. Yeah, I cannot
answer now.
Q: Strategic question from me now, you use the hard tyre for the last stint,
whereas Max and Lewis were on the Medium. Just talk us through why you did
that.
FA: We didn't have another Medium. So that is something that you need to
decide before Qualifying, the tyre allocation for Qualifying and the race,
sometimes you decide to go for one Medium, one Hard because you think it’s
enough; sometimes two Hard, sometimes two Mediums. And obviously with the
very limited practice that we did on Friday, it was just a guess. I’m happy
with the decision: for us the Hard was not a bad tyre at all and we were
able to extend the stints, and in our car, it was a good tyre.
Q: Final one from me. You’re only nine points behind Sergio Pérez in the
Championship now. Do you think you can beat him?
FA: Yes.
Q: Lewis coming to you now. Very well done, your third podium of 2023, your
second in a row. How much satisfaction did this afternoon give you?
LH: It’s been a great weekend. Very difficult with the conditions but loving
being in the car now with the car in a better window and a bit more on the
right track. And for us to be up there, having battles with Fernando in the
Aston, and being just on the second row, it’s been great. And to be on the
podium, two races in a row is really, really fantastic for us. We were also
running fourth in Monaco, so we're definitely getting closer. And it's going
to be a battle of development, I guess, over the rest of the season. I
reckon Max’s team are already working on next year’s car, so we need to take
our eye a little bit off the ball and focus on next year also but yeah,
happy to be up there.
Q: Tell us a little bit more about your battle with Fernando. Having
followed the Aston up close for so many laps, where were the differences in
your cars?
LH: Low speed, rear end. His rear end… I mean, I got to experience being
behind Max and his rear is very strong. His rear end doesn’t move and he
pulls ten car lengths probably on me just coming out of the corners. I think
Fernando’s very, very strong on the brakes, and particularly very quick
through Turn 10 and Turn 2. Those places, he was taking huge chunks out of
me.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Jesús Balseiro – Diario AS) Question for the three of you. What’s the
feeling when you share a flat-out race together, the only three World
Champions on this grid, especially because the three of you haven’t had a
fight together for the last ten years – or maybe Max and Fernando never.
What are you feeling during this kind of race?
MV: 10 years ago, I was not on the grid, so… Nah, I remember, back in the
day, I was watching these two already in Formula 1 racing each other, right.
So, of course, very happy now that I’m in Formula 1 as well and racing them
is probably the best thing out there. When we can share a podium together –
I think we’ve done it now a few times? – I think it’s great. I think of
course they want to swap positions, of course. I'm happy in the middle at
the moment.
FA: I mean, it's good, it's great. I really enjoy these battles and these
podiums. It happened in Australia,, I think last time and now here, and
there is a lot of respect, a lot of talent when you fight against Max,
Lewis. You know that you cannot make a mistake because they will take
advantage of that, and they will not make a mistake. So, if you want to beat
them, you need to be tenth-after-tenth, fastest to close that gap. It’s not
anything that will benefit. It’s a very intense battle, very fair, very
respectful, even in the overtaking possibility that we had on the DRS, for
me when I passed Lewis, you know that you can trust what he’s doing: he will
defend hard but within the limits. I guess same at the start, when you start
in the first two rows with these guys, you know that there’s a sense of
awareness and respect that it’s not sometimes in other parts.
LH: Not much more to add, but I agree with Fernando, it's a privilege to be
up here fighting these two who've done incredible in their careers. And this
is quite an iconic top three. I don't know if there's been a top three like
this ever before. I don't believe there has. But yeah, so hopefully there'll
be more and hopefully, as Fernando said, there's a lot of respect between us
as we were able to race so closely and trust in one another. I'm really
hoping at some stage we have more of a level playing field in our cars, and
then we'll have a much more exciting race, I think in the future.
Q: (Luke Smith – The Athletic) Max a question for you. On the question of a
flat-out race, how much of a flat-out race was it for you? Were you having
to push a little bit more because of how much the tyres were struggling with
the temperatures, or…
MV: Fernando’s already been asking me this! It’s tough, because normally
it’s all about tyre management, right? But today was definitely more about
pushing. But sometimes it was just going up and down a lot in lap-time. So
then sometimes you couldn't actually push to the limit, because you didn't
know what you were going to get. So, for me, on the Hard tyre, it was quite
a bit of a struggle, and then on the Medium, I wanted to open-up that gap a
little bit more. So then, of course, at one point, you’re seeing, like 10-15
laps to go and you have a good gap, you don’t want to take too many risks.
It’s probably not flat-out pushing, but you cannot relax too much because
then you lose the temperature in your tyres. So… yeah… somewhere in the
middle of that. I don't know what the percentage is, but…
Q: (Stu Cowan – Montréal Gazette) Question for Lewis. With Red Bull winning
every race so far this season Lewis, does a sense of frustration set in that
you simply can't catch Max in the car that he's driving?
LH: Beyond. It’s not a frustration anymore, if it ever was. It's… you know
how it is, and you know what you're faced with, and there's nothing I can do
about their amazing performance. It's likely that they will win every race,
moving forwards, this year, unless the Astons and us put a lot more
performance on the cars, or their car doesn’t finish. It's not easy with the
regulations to find the amount of performance that they have,
advantage-wise. They've got to be 30 points upon us in certain points
through the lap and we've got some work to do. But it's not that it's
frustrating, I just, as I said, look forward to… I'm happy to firstly be
back in the mix and I'm just hoping at some stage we can have it all a
little bit more level so we can get back to some of the good races we had
back in 2021. And to have all three of us in a super-tight battle would be
sick.
Q: (Pedro Fermin Flores – TheGodFlores) Question for Max. Max, at any time
during the race were you worried about the pace of Fernando and Lewis?
Fernando, the next stop is Austria, with a sprint race included. What can we
expect from you and from the team? And last one for you, Lewis. Please ask
to Fernando: “Fernando, be always true and honest, what it means, the words
‘copy, leave it to me?’”
MV: Not worried but you are alert because you keep checking: is he catching
or not? What do I need to do, because at the beginning of the race when he
pass Lewis, OK, let’s see what his pace is and then initially it was quick
and then I could manage my pace around it. And then on the hard tyres, I
think the beginning was good, like I was creating a bit of a gap but then I
started to struggle with my tyres a little bit so it’s constantly just
talking to your engineers, seeing of course on the pit board what’s
happening. You can’t relax too much, and especially today with the tyres
being so cold, you have to be on it all the time, especially also here a
street circuit. A tiny mistake is big lap time lost or you’re in the wall.
FA: Yeah, Austria, yeah, let’s see. I think the sprint weekend will not be
ideal for us. We still have more time maybe of free practice with our new
upgraded car. We still need to understand and optimise the package a little
bit and in Austria, obviously with the sprint, we will have only FP1 to do
that. But yeah, it is what it is. The circuit will be good and maybe better
for the package as well, this one with a strange layout, let’s say. Maybe
good for Ferrari, historically here as well with a long straight and short
corners so maybe Austria we have a little bit more pace.
LH: I don’t know what the question was, I didn’t understand it. I didn’t
understand if I’m honest.
Q: (Pedro Fermin Flores – TheGodFlores) What the engineer said to him, that
you were catching, you were under two seconds and then Fernando said ‘copy,
leave it to me’. ‘Leave it to me’.
He will do the work to give you, not catching him. Leave it to me.
LH: I don’t get what the point is. He’s a multi-World Champion. so he knows
what he’s doing.
Q: (Pedro Fermin Flores – TheGodFlores) Is it like a joke?
LH: Ah… I don’t get it.
Q: (Célini Ehret – F1only.fr) This is Father's Day today. We know your
father plays a very important role in your career, especially when you go
karting. What is your comment regarding the influence of your father and
your success of your career respectively?
MV: Yeah, I don't even know where to start to be honest. We've lived through
so many things. After my Dad's own career he invested all his time in mine.
It's hard to explain how much he has dedicated to me, because I probably
still don't even understand how much he did. He was preparing everything,
go-karts, engines and then driving all the way to Italy with me, in between
school, then back. So many stories we can share. Sometimes we still talk
about it, of course, when we are together. Yeah, it's crazy. I probably only
will fully realise how much he has done to me once I get kids, then you
start to understand this kind of relationship. But yeah, without him I would
not sit here today. He has taught me so much and prepared me so much from a
very young age where sometimes I thought why does it need to be so serious
straightaway, where you maybe want to play around a bit more and have fun.
But he was working towards this goal. He had this goal set for me to be
first of all better than him and then tried to get to Formula 1. And then I
got to Formula 1 and then slowly of course… we still call every day. Before
the race I was still talking to him about what we're going to do with the
strategy and stuff like that. He likes to know even when he's not here and
yeah, just like to have that kind of relationship with your Dad. After
go-karting of course, when you go into cars, it's a bit less personal what
was happening here. So sometimes you miss these kinds of go-karting times
when you're travelling together in a van all the way there. But yeah, to
share these moments together I think is very special. And today was of
course also Father's Day, so I don't need to buy him a present, I did this
so I think he's happy.
FA: It's not the day in Spain, in Spain it’s in March, I think. But anyway,
congratulations to my father… Yeah, my father is different, he has no talent
at all to drive. And so yeah, he teach me and educate me in different ways
and more for different things in life. He didn't have the vision of being a
professional driver when I was a kid. Yes, I was racing in go-karts and in
different things but he was just thinking that that will end soon. And, you
know, my life will be completely opposite to professional sport. So he was
always very… with the feet on the ground, let's say, and teaching me all the
things and other values because it was difficult to believe that I was able
to reach Formula 1 one day and that's the beauty of our story.
LH: Yeah, same as these guys. Happy Father's Day to my Dad, I already posted
about it this morning. He sacrificed everything for me to be here today so I
continue to try and make him proud. I know how hard it was for him with
everything that he faced because I was right there with him. But the
ultimate dream is always to be like your father. I want to be like my
father.
Q: (Jake Boxall-Legge – Autosport) Lewis, now you've had a couple of races
with the new Mercedes upgrades, can you just explain how it feels in the car
now pre- and post-upgrades? And secondly, what's next on your shopping list
because you mentioned the superior rear end of the two guys next to you?
What's next beyond that as well?
LH: In truth, it doesn't feel a huge difference to the beginning of the
year. There are some elements of the car which do feel different and
obviously with the upgrade but it's just simply just have a little bit more
downforce on the car. But the characteristics of the car are very, very
similar to what we had earlier on in the year and so we need to… for the
future, for the next year's car, you need to take a lot of these different
things off and change them for sure. It's definitely not the car that…
characteristic-wise the car that's going to be able to beat the Red Bull
just yet. And so we've got to work on that. For example, it was very bumpy,
this track, and I think everyone was struggling but our car was very stiff.
But I think we were all struggling with the stiffness of our cars. But today
was bumpy. That's the one that thing that… I would say that's something I
dislike most about this generation of cars, right? Back in the day was
smooth down the straight. I mean, you're generation…
MV: It's, a big difference to what ’16, ’17? |
