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1 – Lando NORRIS (McLaren)
2 – Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing)
3 – Isack HADJAR (Red Bull Racing)
TRACK INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by James Hinchcliffe)
Q: And here we
are with your winner, Lando Norris. From pole position to victory here,
back-to-back races, Lando. Wet to dry, dry to wet. There just doesn't seem
to be anything that can stop you around this place. How intense was that
Grand Prix for you?
LANDO NORRIS: It was a very tough race – very, very
tough. Obviously, not the best of launches off the line, but a lot of
challenges today, obviously with the conditions. Going on slicks in the wet
is always tough, especially when you're pushing for the lead and trying to
catch up a little bit. The main thing today was I just kept it cool, I
didn't make any mistakes, and I had the pace when I needed to. So, it was
good. Nice to be back on the top step, and what a place to do it as well.
Q: You talked about the start. Lost first place, lost second place as
well. How confident were you that you'd be able to get that lead back?
LN: I mean, we're trying, you know. I'm trying my best, and I think this
weekend we had an opportunity to get pole yesterday, we had an opportunity
to win, and I feel like most times this year, when there's been an
opportunity, I went for it, and we've been able to achieve it. I have to say
a big thanks to the team because they're still working very hard, and it's
annoying when you can't give them a good result back, like the last few
weeks. But certainly, this weekend, I feel like we've been able to give
something back to them and give them a little bit of reward for their hard
work. So, always a big thanks to them, and you have to keep pushing till the
end of the year.
Q: All right, congratulations. Third win of the
season, second one in a row here in Brazil for Lando. Second place, Max
Verstappen. Max, you seem to be making a little bit of a habit of starting
at the back of this track and ending up on the podium. Just walk us through
those first couple of laps when you were able to cut through so many cars.
MAX VERSTAPPEN: Yeah, it was a challenging race. I think the first few laps,
of course, were very important. I overtook a lot of cars, and actually that
first stint on the Inters was really, really strong. Unfortunately, after
that, I don't know if we picked up some kind of damage because the car felt
like the complete opposite to anything that I felt the whole weekend, with
some really weird balance. Unfortunately, once I got into P2, I couldn't
really make any inroads. So, we have to understand what went wrong there.
But, I mean, starting P21 and being on the podium in second, I think is a
very good result.
Q: Very good result, indeed. Congratulations on a
great comeback drive. In third place, his team-mate, Isack Hadjar.
Congratulations on another podium, third of the year for you, Isack. With
the conditions being as difficult as they were, just how proud are you of
this effort to be back up here on the podium?
ISACK HADJAR: Oh yeah, it
was so, so difficult, so challenging, especially switching from the inters
to the soft tyre and avoiding the traps. Yeah, it was extremely difficult,
especially in the pit lane. You saw how tricky it was to drive, and then
more rain at the end. So, happy to be standing third today, but yeah, I need
to make a few less mistakes because I could have avoided a little awkward
situation with Max. So, just want to apologise because I think on that stint
I could have kept it a bit more on the track.
Q: You had a great
in-lap there when the rain started to fall. Big pressure for Antonelli. How
difficult was it keeping the car on the track?
IH: It was so hard because
he was behind me. I was testing the grip for him, basically. I could see he
was challenging me a lot, and I was on ice and he was on ice as well. But
yeah, it was well managed. I nearly shunted into my pit crew when boxing,
but they did a fantastic job. They kept their calm and the pit stop was
fast. So, big thanks to the boys.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: What a
race, Lando. One that threw a little bit of everything at you. Is this one
of your best wins in Formula One?
LN: I think it's certainly up there in
terms of challenge. A challenge to achieve, not made easy for, I guess, all
the reasons possible. Not the best start and obviously coming back from
there, but a lot of challenges from just strategy and conditions, whether
trying out or managing the inters, getting on the slicks, not making
mistakes on the slicks, especially into Turn 1 and a lot of the wetter
places, and then vice versa, going back onto the inters at the end and
managing the slicks in the wet conditions. So, a lot thrown at everyone on a
day like today, but it was probably one of our best races in terms of
execution and pit stops, timing of things. I was eight seconds behind Kimi
before the pit stop. He boxed one lap early onto the slicks. I came out and
was right behind him and forced him to push a little bit more, and obviously
he went into a mistake and I could capitalise on it. So, I think in terms of
always being there where we needed to be, being able to put people under
pressure was a very good day for that. Also, from my side, just not making
any mistakes, which is so easy to do on a day like today. So, great
performance from the whole team. Certainly up there with one of the best
I've ever had.
Q: You say you made no mistakes. Just how tough was it
being the lead car today?
LN: I don't think that matters, honestly. I
don't think that matters too much because, by a certain part of the race,
you also have people ahead of you again. So, you're not necessarily the lead
car, you're just observing things. I'm watching the TVs as I go around to
see what's happening, and the team is always giving me information to say
where people are making mistakes, where I have to brake earlier, where I can
gain lap time, all these different things. So, today there was just a lot of
information that I was giving to the team, a lot of information that I was
getting from the team. It was very, very tricky from that perspective. It's
hard to describe it, I guess, to people because unless you're in the car,
it's hard to show and describe the difficulties of a slick tyre in the rain
and how easy it was to lock up into Turn 1, lose the car and all these
different things. Nasty conditions, as always, sometimes around here in
Brazil. Otherwise, it was just a very well-executed race from that side.
Q: Can you tell us what you were thinking after Turn 2?
LN: I
probably can't. I'd probably get a fine. I wasn't too pleased. I didn't
honestly know if it was something at Turn 2 or Turn 1, sorry. It was just on
me. I think Liam was in my blind spot and I just couldn't see where he was.
I don't know if he was behind me or what, so it was difficult to know where
I needed to be. That one I just had to accept. The launch? I'm not too sure
what happened. I thought I did things correctly, but just went straight into
wheelspin, so I just need to review that one. Otherwise, I wasn't too
pleased, but I also knew it was a race where things could easily change,
whether it was with Safety Cars or the rain. It was a race where a lot could
happen, so I was patient. Normally, I probably would get a little bit more
angry in that situation, but I stayed patient and things came back to me
beautifully.
Q: Just give us a word, if you could, on performance.
You brought the new front wing here this weekend. How much does that kick
things forward, do you think? If this had been a dry race throughout, could
you still have won it?
LN: Who knows? I don't. I won the race, so that's
all I care about for now. I think if we look at the stats of the practice
sessions and stuff, we were generally always a tenth or two tenths behind
the top. The upgrades we brought this weekend were great. They worked as
they should have done, so if we didn't bring them, we'd be further behind.
Simple as that. But it's still not enough. They're not enough to say you're
suddenly always the quickest. I think on a day like today, it's not all
about that. It's about good strategy, good pit stops, driving well and not
making mistakes. I certainly had a car that I could fight for a win with
today, and that's very important. Those things would help. It's hard to
quantify how much it's helped, but upgrades always do, and they worked well.
So, the team has done a very good job. But as much as we're happy we've
managed to bring things and take a step forward, and come away with a pole
and a win, we're not as happy as we could be because we also know we're not
good enough. We're not at the level we need to be. We're not confident in
the package we have just yet. We're getting there slowly. We want to do it
quicker, but that's difficult. We know we still have work to do, and we're
not at the level we need to be to fight for a World Championship just yet.
So, I'm proud of the team for the work they're doing, but we all know that
we still have work to do.
Q: All right, well, very well done to you.
Thank you, Lando. Max, if we could come to you now. Another incredible
performance by you, up 19 places. You gave us an overtaking masterclass.
Just how much did you enjoy yourself out there today?
MV: Yeah, I mean,
when you start that far back, you need to try and get by the guys ahead of
you as quickly as you can. I do think that first stint went really, really
well. We got very quickly back into the top 10, and I think the pace wasn't
bad. But as soon as I switched to the slicks, I had an extreme amount of
oversteer in the car in the high-speed corners, which made it super
difficult to drive. So, we need to understand if something broke on the car,
some kind of aero loss or whatever, because this was not normal. I sit here,
of course, very happy with second, but at the same time, I know there was
more in it if the car had been in good shape. Unfortunately, that was not
the case. I actually did most of the race with a car that was not in good
shape, and to finish second, of course, is fantastic. Maybe next year I'd
love to start a bit further up front instead of starting from the back or
the pit lane, but we'll find out next year. It's been good. In the wet, it
probably also gives you a few more opportunities to get by cars. You can do
some different lines and have more opportunities, so that definitely helped
me today. But we also have to understand why or what went wrong with the car
as soon as we went to the slick tyres, because even when I switched back to
the Inter tyres at the end, the car was night and day different to my first
stint, which shows that there is something wrong.
Q: Where did you do
most of your damage on the opening lap? You went up 10 positions. Where did
you get most of the overtakes?
MV: To be honest, I had a very slow
reaction time off the line because I was holding the clutch wrong, so I had
to react very quickly. Then I was slow off the line, and that was my
mistake. But then I just got a bit unlucky in the first three corners, where
it was just like a traffic jam. There were three or four cars in front
blocking basically how much I could pass. Actually, Lewis had a very good
first lap. He could really get through those cars, so I was a little bit
disappointed that I couldn't make the same headway. But then, within two
laps, I was just flying by cars, almost every corner. We had a lot more
grip, I guess, than most in the midfield. I don't know what lap I was in the
top 10, but it all happened very quickly.
Q: This was your eighth
podium in a row. Can you just tell us what you think Vegas looks like for
Red Bull? Do you think you'll be the car to beat there?
MV: I have no
idea because Vegas is so different and so difficult for everyone to
understand. First of all, deployment. It's a very long straight, so I think
I would need to tuck in in the middle of the straight to try and gain some
top speed. That is just the game this year with energy management on that
straight. It's going to be very, very difficult. Actually, maybe the track
will be a bit like Monza, where slipstreaming each other is quite good,
quite beneficial. But the problem is that it's so cold over there that you
get very different behaviour from every car. Some suddenly work extremely
well on a track like that. We've seen it in the past. I have to say that
it's normally not our best track because of that, but we'll see if we can
get the tyres to work. That's the key, to be honest, around there.
Q:
Max, very well done. Thank you for that. And Isack, if we could come to you
now. Your third podium of the season. Very well done. Was this the most
challenging and rewarding of the podiums so far this year?
IH: I mean,
out of the, I don't know how many races I have in F1, not many, but
definitely the most challenging conditions I've ever faced. So, I'm happy to
have tested myself in conditions like that. With the bit of experience I
have, I feel happy to be on the podium next to two amazing drivers.
Q: Talk us through the different stints. How was the car in the wet at the
start, then in the dry and, of course, back in the wet at the end?
IH:
You know what? I felt okay, and then there was that middle part of the stint
on the Inter tyre where I was struggling massively. I could not power out of
the corners. George literally overtook me out of Turn 12 like I was nothing.
It's only a couple of laps later that it actually started to work better,
but then it was already time to pit for the Soft. Honestly, on the Soft
tyre, we were very competitive. To be fair, since that moment, we were
competitive all the way to the end. Even on that very final stint, back in
the raining conditions, we were quick. So, very, very happy with this.
Q: We saw some great overtakes from you as well. Can you just talk us
through one in particular, Kimi Antonelli going into Turn 1?
IH: Yes, I
mean, I can't remember, actually. I think it was into Turn 2. To be fair, I
think he had spun off the lap before, so I was coming with some momentum. I
enjoyed the bit of fighting I had with Kimi. It was good, especially the
laps where it started to rain again on the soft tyre at the end. He was
right behind me, he was very quick, and it was like I was testing the grip
for him and he was challenging me a lot. So, it was good to fight with him.
Q: Isack, final one from me. You seem to be driving with so much
confidence at the minute. Does a result, a performance like this just make
you even happier?
IH: Yeah, honestly, these kinds of weekends make me
happy because standing on the podium, it's almost like I always stand on the
podium against adversity. It's never like I have a straightforward race or I
qualify on pole or in the top three and I just do it. I seem to really have
to dig deep for this one. We were nowhere on Friday. Yesterday morning
wasn't amazing, but then to have a race like that, I would say I did pretty
well.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Filip Cleeren –
Motorsport.com) For all three, please. Now that we've had a full weekend of
racing and qualifying in all sorts of wet conditions, can I have your
assessment? Is it harder or easier to drive these cars than the previous
generation, and why? What role do the tyre compounds play in that?
LN: I
wouldn't say it's that different, honestly. It's not too bad. For sure, when
the tyres get cold, it's pretty nasty. On laps to the grid, when they get
very cold, they felt horrible. If they get into a good window, they're good.
So, I think the scary times are if you go to Vegas and you can't get any
tyre temperature. You need a much better tyre than what we have here because
that's going to be horrible. But here you can get the temperature fairly
easily, probably one of the best tracks to get tyre temperature, actually.
We did a good amount of running on the Wet and a good amount of running on
the Inters. They handle alright. Of course, we always want them to be better
than what they are. They certainly don't give a lot of rear support at
times, and they're very difficult. But also yesterday, we raced in pretty
wet conditions at the beginning of qualifying. Once we got running again, it
was probably one of the first times in quite a while we've actually run in
full wet conditions, which was actually okay. I think there were a few times
you saw aquaplaning a lot, and that's still the nastiest thing you can have,
when you're just completely out of control but after you go around and
everyone knows where that risk is, of course, then the puddles start to
clear a little bit, and suddenly it's fine. But it's always that you kind of
have to take the risk in order to get through that and then say, "Okay,
things are fine now." It's risky. It just depends how much risk we're forced
to take, or the FIA want to take. But I think they made good decisions this
weekend, and the tyres have performed reasonably well. They're also at a
track where they always perform reasonably well. Like I said, if we go to
Vegas and it's wet there, my comments will not be the same. Otherwise, it's
been a fun weekend because of how many different conditions we had, and that
always makes it more exciting.
MV: I think it's mainly that the working
range is a bit too small. When they're hot, it's okay, but when they're
cold, they're really like a rock. That's something that we need to try and
work on, to generate a bigger working range on the Extreme Wet and the
Inter. I think that would help a lot with switching on the tyre better and
then being able to run even in heavier rain.
IH: Yeah, I mean, I think
yesterday, running an Extreme Wet compound, I didn't think there was a crazy
amount of water on the track, and yet to me it felt like there was too much
aquaplaning considering the conditions. For me, it also seems like you have
to wait a while to put the Inter on. It's like you can run it once there's
no more standing water and you can go at it. So, in a way, I feel like the
compounds are a bit stiffer, harder than they used to be. I think we would
all have a bit more fun with more grip, and I think there were times in
qualifying yesterday where the very first three laps in Q1 were quite
dangerous.
Q: (Raudy Duran – ESPN) My question is to Max. What is it
about the wet conditions that usually allows you to find opportunities where
the rest of the grid seems unable to find them?
MV: I don't know. I mean,
I felt comfortable with the car, confident, just trying to find the grip in
different places. Then the car is ahead of me, so I try to pass them. This
track, of course, also allows you to do different lines, which I think is
great because it really helps the racing. It's a good track in the dry and
wet, and that really sets up more overtaking opportunities. You need to feel
good in the car. You need to feel comfortable to be able to risk probably a
little bit more, and it's been working for me quite well here.
Q: (Bruna
Parreira – Globo TV) Max, my question also goes to you. For the third time,
you have come from the back of the grid to the podium at Interlagos, on a
wet track, 19 positions. It's a lot. Congratulations for that. You said
yesterday that maybe today would be very hard to overtake, and you also had
some complaints about your car, but in the end you did it. You clearly have
a very special chemistry with São Paulo. What do you think is behind this,
and how do you feel when you see that you're still able to overcome so many
challenges at a track like today?
MV: Yeah, well, to be honest with you,
I like starting well. I like races like this, but next year, let's try and
just start a bit further up front, please. That would be great to start
with.
I guess also experience helps a lot over the years, even
dealing with difficulties during the race or knowing when not to risk it too
much. I guess that also helped today because it was definitely not a
straightforward race for me, with the car. But we still pulled out a good
result. We wanted to score points, and we scored a good amount of points.
This track in the past has always been good to me. Since I basically started
racing here, I enjoy coming here. So, it's always, like I said, been kind to
me, and sometimes it just clicks more naturally than at other tracks as
well.
Q: (Gabriele Koga – Folha de São Paulo) My question goes to
Max. This is the third time you started at the back or from the pit lane.
How confident were you for the race today, and how was it different from the
last years?
MV: I'd say after the laps to the grid, I felt pretty
confident. I went out and I was like, "Oh, low grip." But then I actually
had some cars around me and I was like, "No, I think we actually have a lot
of grip." I knew that the balance we had was there, and that also showed in
the first few laps. Unfortunately, that then completely disappeared after
the first stint, but luckily at least in the first stint the car was
working, and that allowed me to be in this position. So, happy to be able to
score a good amount of points for the team. We needed it also for the
Constructors' Championship, and I hope now, of course, it sets us up for a
nice ending to the season where we can still learn a lot about the car that
we need to implement in next year's car.
Q: (Bernardo Corrêa Bercht –
Correio do Povo) One for Lando, one for Max. For Lando: three pole positions
in hard conditions here at Interlagos. Like Jack Stewart would say about
Brazilian drivers, is there something in the water here that gives you a
special connection with the track? And for Max, a quick one: did you get
some of those 12 hours back by enjoying yourself on the track today?
MV:
Well, you'd never get those hours back. I mean, those 12 hours are gone. No,
I said yesterday because I was starting last, and I lost 12 hours of my life
being at the track. I'm never going to get them back. I mean, those are
gone.
IH: You have started 22nd.
MV: Yeah, I mean, I could have
started 22nd. You look at the positive thing. I could have also started,
actually, 20th. But yeah, I mean, you can't get them back. They're lost,
they're gone. So, it's unlucky, isn't it? It's tough.
LN: Something in
the water here? I don't know what it is. I always enjoy coming here. I have
quite a few friends who live out here in Brazil, so I normally always come
on Monday and go out into the countryside to their house. I always have a
very nice, relaxing Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday with them. I'm always
confident around this circuit. I feel like I always know what I kind of want
to do in a lot of places. But I also need a good car. You cannot win unless
your car is competitive, and I had a competitive car this weekend, so I felt
like I could fight well. I'm surprised. It's always nice when you hear these
kinds of stats. I think I'm joint-most poles for anyone in Brazil, which is
a nice thing. It's a very special place to do it. The fans are very
passionate, and all of these things make it more special for sure. But I
don't know if it's the water.
Q: (Matheus Vieira da Silva –
Parabolica) My question is for Max and Lando. Last year, you guys entered
the race fighting for the Championship, and this year the Championship's
already decided. How different was the pressure this year, and how has this
affected your on-track racing?
LN: Sorry, you said last year fighting for
the Championship and this year not? The pressure doesn't change, honestly.
There's always pressure every time I put my helmet on because I need to do
well, the team require me to do well, and I want to do well for myself. So,
the pressure, maybe there's more pressure from external situations, but any
time I go on track, there's pressure to perform and to do the best job I
can. I don't think that changes anything when I'm in the car, honestly. I
feel the same this year as I felt last year. Especially in these conditions,
you always feel a lot of pressure. So, I felt very similar this year to last
year, and that's just normal.
MV: Yeah, I mean, for me it was a
pretty similar feeling because, more or less, I had nothing to lose last
year. I mean, I was just going for it, trying to close that gap. And now,
not fighting for the title, I was like, "Well, I'm starting at the back
again." So, it's again a bit of nothing to lose. It's not like you go in
there without thinking, going crazy, but still, yeah, nothing to lose. Just
trying to have a good race weekend and trying to score as many points as
possible. To be honest, I didn't really see Lando today, but yeah, just
trying to optimise your race result. |
