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1 – George RUSSELL (Mercedes)
2 – Oscar PIASTRI (McLaren)
3 – Carlos SAINZ (Ferrari)
TRACK INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by David Coulthard)
Q: Carlos Sainz, welcome. Another podium in your career and what was a
fairly quiet weekend in terms of overall performance but it all came alive
at the end there. Did you see the action ahead or were you just very much
focused on bringing your car home?
Carlos SAINZ: Yeah, quite an eventful race up front. For us it was all about
trying to keep up with George. we knew the Mercedes today might have a bit
of an advantage on race pace but we tried everything to keep up with him and
Oscar, at the end, was coming really, really quick and in the end P3 which
is I think a good result. I think we can be quite happy quite proud of that
because this weekend hasn't been easy for us and to come away with 15 points
and a P3 is a good result.
Q: We're in the middle of this triple header. We've come off the back of
your home Grand Prix. We have Silverstone in a week's time. Can we expect a
step forward in performance there? Because it didn't really look that
without the incident between Lando and Max that you would have been here on
the podium today.
CS: Yeah, happy days for Formula 1 that there's a bit of action up front and
we're getting to see some nice battles. Unfortunately for us, we are still
coming off the back of a tough couple of races where we are not quite there
to fight for the win yet, but we're trying to do everything we can as a team
to be back on form in Silverstone and in the upcoming races, to make sure
next time we are up there to capitalise. And if not, podiums like these are
always good news, and we will keep pushing flat out to stay in the fight.
Q: Okay, well, we look forward to seeing that big push. Well done on the
podium.
CS: Thank you.
Q: As we move on to our second place finisher, who must be thinking, what
could have been? It all became undone even before you started the race with
that qualifying penalty for track limits?
Oscar PIASTRI: Yeah, there's a lot of what-ifs and maybes. Yeah, obviously
starting from yesterday, but yeah. I know it’s only my fourth podium in F1,
but, yeah, so close to a win, it hurts a little bit, but really good points,
obviously. I think the second half of the race we were coming on pretty
strong, and happy with another podium. Just when it's that close, you can't
help but hurt a little bit.
Q: Well, you can carry that momentum, hopefully, onto your [McLaren’s] home
Grand Prix in a week's time at Silverstone.
OP: Yeah, not my home Grand Prix, but McLaren’s home Grand Prix. Yeah,
obviously it was a place of good memories from last year, and hopefully we
can be up the front again. Obviously, I haven't seen what happened with
Lando and Max, but clearly it was pretty even up the front, and yeah, I
think we're well and truly in the mix. Silverstone's a track I always enjoy.
Team's home race, so excited for what's to come.
Q: Okay, well, good points today. Congratulations.
OP: Thank you very much.
Q: And ladies and gentlemen, our Grand Prix winner, celebrating his second
Grand Prix win, George Russell.
George RUSSELL: Yeah, incredible. It was a tough fight out there at the
beginning of the race, just to hold on to that P3, and I saw on the TV that
Max and Lando were going pretty hard. I knew Lando would want to try and get
that race win, but, you know, the team have done an amazing job to get us in
this fight. You've got to be there at the end to pick up the pieces, and
that's where we were.
Q: Amazing. So you were watching the big screens, minding your own business
and your own Grand Prix, while watching that battle out front, willing to
happen what actually happened.
GR: Yeah, they were going for it. And I couldn't believe actually how close
we were to Lando and Max. I think we were only about 12, 13 seconds behind.
I knew it was a possibility. You're always dreaming, but as I said, just so
proud to be back on the top step. The team have worked so hard. We've made
so many strides since the start of the season. So, yeah, the last three
races have been incredible, so more to come.
Q: Now, look, you've done everything to make sure you were in that position.
The other two looked like they had the overall pace today had they not had
the contact. But all you can do is drive your car and put yourself in the
position that you have to then capitalise. So you must be really proud with
this, your second Grand Prix victory.
GR: Yeah, absolutely. I think it's no secret Red Bull with Max and McLaren
with Lando are still a little bit out in front, but we're always putting
ourselves in that third place position the last couple of races. And
obviously, if anything happens up front, we're there to pick it up. But, you
know, just really proud of everybody. And, you know, what an exciting time
for us.
Q: And, George, we're one week away from the British Grand Prix. That would
be nice to carry this momentum towards another podium there.
GR: Yeah, absolutely. I think we're riding a bit of a wave at the moment.
These last three races have been incredible. I think realistically we
probably could have won the race in Canada, so this probably makes up for
one too many mistakes on my side there, and just really proud to be back on
the top step.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: George, very well done to you. What a moment. It was perhaps unexpected,
but what does this win mean to you?
GR: Yeah, it feels really great to be honest. These last three races as a
team, we've really turned it up. I feel that Montreal was probably a victory
that we missed out on and we ended up finishing P3. Today was a deserving P3
and we got the victory. So it's funny how this sport turns around and just
credit to all the team for all the hard work they've done. Such huge
progress since the start of the year.
Q: This is also a racetrack that brings out the best in you. You're the
first driver to win here in GP3, Formula 2 and now Formula 1.
GR: Yeah, there we go. Yeah, it's a track I enjoy. The last couple of years
have been very difficult for us as a team. And we didn't have high
expectations going into this weekend. But we ended up qualifying P3
yesterday. And we've been in that mix. And as I said, we were fighting for
the podium. I think realistically, we still probably have the third quickest
car behind Red Bull and McLaren. But the last three races, Lewis and I have
been in that P3 spot. So, you know, we're really getting the most out of it.
And sometimes, racing, it goes your way.
Q: Well, can we delve into the race now and perhaps start before the lights
had even gone out? Going to the grid, you were expressing some concerns over
the radio. How was the car, first of all?
GR: It was very windy out there, and I think the car was feeling a little
bit strange. On my laps to grid, we checked everything, and everything was
fine. But the pace felt strong. I had Lewis attack me early in the race, but
then once I got back past him, I got a bit of a gap to Carlos. I knew Oscar
was going to be quick, and he sort of came a little bit out of nowhere
towards the end of the race on those Hard tyres. For me it was pretty
difficult. And then suddenly I had Toto screaming in my ear, ‘you can win
this’. And I almost crashed when he screamed into my ears. It was that loud.
But I think it just goes to show the passion that we all share. And it's
obviously been a tough couple of years for us. It feels great to be back on
the top step.
Q: You were slightly offset strategically. You ran the medium tyre in the
middle of the race. How much did that help you in the closing battle with
Oscar to be on the hard tyre?
GR: I don't think it helped at all, to be honest. I think it's difficult. I
think we split the strategies with Lewis just to try something. You never
know how the race is going to pan out. And VSC, Safety Cars have a big
factor. That VSC at the end was quite handy for me. It allowed me to cool my
tyres down and then my pace against Oscar. The last five laps was the same
when he had the medium. So, you know, the car's been feeling really good. We
know we've got a little bit of work still to do if we want to consistently
be in that fight for the podium. But looking at the steps we've made versus
Ferrari, versus Aston Martin, it's been pretty huge since Bahrain.
Q: And in terms of execution, was this the best weekend that you and the
team have had so far this year?
GR: Yeah, without doubt. I think we really executed everything really well.
I think every session we maximised, qualified as high as we think was truly
possible. Race starts have been good. P4 in the race yesterday was the
maximum. P3 realistically was the maximum and the deserving result today.
You know, the team did a great job. So it's nice when you get a reward for
all that hard work.
Q: And what a result to take into your home race at Silverstone next
weekend. Do you dare to dream about a repeat on home soil?
GR: You always dare to dream for sure. Anything can happen. I think Red Bull
were really quick this weekend in the high-speed corners. So they're going
to look pretty strong next week in Silverstone. But we've got a few days
between now and then. I'll be on the simulator on Tuesday back at the
factory. So I'm really excited for that one.
Q: Alright, George, very well done to you. Thank you very much. Oscar, let's
come to you now. P7 to P2 is a tremendous result for you. How pleased are
you with the drive you put in today?
OP: Yeah, I think mostly happy. I think the first stint didn't make quite as
much progress as I would have liked. Obviously had a bit of an incident in
Turn 1. And then, yeah, just overheated the tyres a little bit. And with the
dirty air, it was so hard to get within a second. So, yeah, didn't make much
progress there. But then the next two stints, it really started to come
alive. Went a bit longer on both the pit stops and turns. Yeah, just kind of
felt like we needed some more laps towards the end, unfortunately. But no,
after starting seventh, obviously a good turnaround. Yeah, pretty happy.
Q: A little bit of frustration about the track limits yesterday in
qualifying?
GR: Yeah, definitely, I mean, I was pretty upset yesterday that, you know,
there are so many corners, we've made changes on the track here to get rid
of the track limits issue. But this one corner, for some reason, we moved
the white line, but not enough. But at the end of the day, I went slightly
outside and that's the mistake on me, or that's what it was. But after
seeing the evidence on what I got my lap deleted for coming from a chopper
cam that was only on me, in pretty questionable resolution, that stung quite
a lot. So I had a bit of fire in me going into the race. So I think some of
my overtakes probably came from a bit further back than maybe they would
have otherwise.
Q: Well, Oscar, a couple of moments to talk to you about. First of all, you
mentioned that contact with Charles Leclerc at Turn 1 just after the start.
Talk us through that incident and was there any damage to your car as a
result?
OP: Yeah, I didn't get the best of starts, but saw a bit of an opening on
the outside and then, yeah, went nice and late on the brakes. I couldn't
really see where Checo went on the inside, but I didn't think he was really
that far up alongside Charles, but obviously all three of us kind of met at
the apex. So, yeah, quite fortunate for myself. I think there was a little
bit of damage, but I don't think anything major. Had a bit more contact with
Checo again a bit later in the lap. So, yeah, it was an eventful race.
Q: And what about the battle with Carlos in the closing laps? Nice move
around the outside from you.
OP: Yeah, Turn 6 was a happy hunting ground this weekend. I think I did
three moves there around the outside. Yeah, very, very close on the way into
Turn 4. And then, yeah, just had a bit more grip around the outside of 6 and
managed to get it done. So, yeah, pretty happy with that.
Q: And, Oscar, what about Silverstone coming up next weekend? How do you see
the lay of the land going into the team's home race?
OP: I think obviously last year was an incredible weekend for us as a team,
kind of the start of our resurgence. Like George said, Max was pretty
impressive in the high-speed corners yesterday. So, you know, obviously
bodes well for them at Silverstone. But I think we've got a strong car and I
think we've had a really consistent car wherever we've gone. You know, we
maybe had some small question marks about whether we would be as competitive
when we went back to, say, a more traditional circuit like Barcelona or
here, where there's some more high-speed corners compared to Canada and
Monaco. But we've had a really consistent car wherever we've gone. So I
think we can be pretty confident we'll be in the fight.
Q: Alright. Good luck with that. Well done today. Carlos, coming to you now.
Very well done to you as well. You've had a very positive weekend here in
Austria. Do you feel that you and Ferrari have maximised the package this
weekend?
CS: Yeah, I think so. I think there was not much more in it this weekend. I
think we did a good job yesterday in qualifying and in the sprint. And
today, we set our targets in trying to beat the Mercedes. We managed to beat
one, even if one of them got ahead. And then I was behind the two of them,
passed Lewis, and then it was all about trying to keep up with George. But
like we saw yesterday in the sprint, it just looked like they had this half
a tenth to a tenth of pace advantage. That it's these three, four, five
seconds that he was in front the whole race. And yeah, I thought that was a
battle for a podium, which he was going to win. And in the end, it became a
battle for a win eventually. Yeah, we tried everything we could, but we know
we've been struggling the last few races. And yeah, at the moment, Mercedes
are a little bit quicker than us.
Q: As you say, you've been struggling for the last few races. Is this
weekend proof that Ferrari are now back on an even keel with this car, that
you know how to maximise it?
CS: I think, if anything, it just proves that the last two weekends haven't
been easy. We've been always the first Ferrari finishing behind the first
Mercedes. Even if you count Canada, you could argue those three weekends in
a row. So I think Red Bull and McLaren were in a league of their own this
weekend. Then there was a step. There was George and me battling for that
P3, P4. And yeah, that was not the situation at the beginning of the year.
So it shows that we need to work hard. We need to understand what's happened
the last couple of races. And once we understand it, hopefully already for
Silverstone, we can bring a step and improve our performance.
Q: Talk to us a little bit more about Silverstone. You say you hope you can
make a step there. What does that mean? if you can do that?
CS: Well, I see the factory pushing flat out, you know, to understand the
troubles that we've hit in the last couple of weekends and trying to bring
already for Silverstone a package that allows us to perform a bit better in
the high-speed corners because it's clearly been our weakness. Yesterday,
Max was so much quicker through there, but not only Max, also Mercedes and
McLaren were a clear step ahead of us in those type of corners. And we know
Silverstone is the king of the high speed, so we need to do a step.
Obviously, we want to be competitive there. And we are going to fight
everything we can and try to find everything we can, sorry, to make
ourselves more competitive there.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Diletta Colombo - Automoto.it) A question for Carlos. Was bouncing in
the high-speed corners an issue in the race? And if so, do you think it's
upgrade related?
CS: In the race, it's less of a problem because you carry less speed into
those high-speed corners. The car rolls less and you have less bouncing as a
consequence. But yeah, obviously, if you have it in quali, you have to set
up the car differently for qualifying and then probably you pay the price in
the race. So yeah, it's not an ideal situation. It doesn't make you good in
quali and it doesn't make you good in the race. We have been talking a lot
about bouncing the last couple of weekends, which shows that it's been a bit
of an issue, but I believe there's also other things that we need to improve
in order to at least beat Mercedes in Silverstone and try to get back closer
to McLaren and Red Bull.
Q: (Marco Canseco – Marca) Question for Carlos. You are only points 15
behind Charles with a race less. Is one of your main targets to beat him
along the season?
CS: Yeah, I feel like you guys look a lot at this, obviously, the
championship. Obviously, since I missed the race in Jeddah, I am trying not
to focus on the championship standings because I'm basically competing with
these guys, having done a race less. So I'm focusing more on trying to get
the podiums, trying to get the wins, trying to get the highlights, rather
than on the championship because it's not easy to compete against the best
guys in the world, going up against them with one race less in the season.
But yeah, so far, I think I've done five podiums out of ten races, one race
win. It's a very good statistic. I think I'm driving well this year. And
yeah, I'm focusing on enjoying the opportunities that I have this year to
fight for podiums that I might not have them next year. So I'm going to give
everything and enjoy these opportunities and these moments like today in the
podium.
Q: (Jake Boxall-Legge – Autosport) A question for George, please. George,
yesterday you said that you'd let it play out a little bit between Max and
Lando, which worked out alright. What was your immediate reaction when you
saw those two coming into view ahead of you? What were the engineers saying
to you on the radio before Toto came over?
GR: I was just trying to focus on just maximizing my driving, to be honest.
Marcus, my engineer, said three laps before, they're fighting really hard
and we can win this. And I said, look, we need to sort of secure P3 first,
let me drive. And I knew Oscar was fast behind. And then when I got into the
lead, I knew it was going to be a challenging last six laps. My tyres were
difficult. That VSC helped marginally because my tyres were overheating. And
that just allowed me to cool them down. Yeah, it's a bit of a strange one to
win a race like this, for sure. But as I said, it's racing. Sometimes it
goes against you and I feel like we've probably missed out on one or two
possibilities of victories. Montreal was won, arguably Singapore, things
could have gone very slightly differently last year, and today it went for
us. So it's how the cookie crumbles.
Q: (Isabelle Barker – The Sun) George, how do you plan on celebrating? I
assume no two-day benders because you're back into work on Tuesday.
GR: Yeah, I'm back home tonight. I've got my girlfriend waiting for me back
home and one of my good friends there too. So I'm flying back with Fernando.
Hopefully, he's not left me here already because I've been pretty busy with
media this evening. But, for sure, I mean, my first victory, I was right
onto a flight for 15 hours from Sao Paulo to Dubai. Hoping to be back this
evening before 10 o'clock maybe. And, yeah, I want to celebrate it because
you can't take these moments for granted. I feel that I've got a lot left in
me and a lot more victories to come in the future but in an era of total
dominance by one team and driver, any victory by any other driver, you need
to enjoy it. But it won't be as hard as Lando's celebration. If it's 50% as
hard as Lando's celebration, it will be a pretty massive night.
Q: (Mark Ivanov – Avto+Šport) Question for all of you, for all of three. How
hard was it in the last few laps when all of you saw that you can finish on
the podium and how hard was the focus for all of you?
GR: I think the difficulty was we were approaching a lot of back markers and
we were interacting a lot with them. And if you get fortunate with the
position, you get the DRS into Turn 1 and then into Turn 3 and into Turn 4
and you can gain six tenths. If you're unfortunate, you could maybe lose six
tenths. So you could have a 1.2 second difference just on where you catch
the back markers and when there was only two seconds between Oscar and I,
that was probably the most nerve wracking. But yeah, nothing more really to
say than that.
Q: George, how concerned were you about Oscar in those closing laps?
GR: I thought he was going to catch me, to be honest, but I think catching
is one thing, overtaking is another. So I had Carlos behind me for 10 laps
yesterday in my DRS, and I was also behind Carlos for about eight laps in
his DRS, and overtaking wasn't straightforward. So I knew, I just sort of
said to myself, do what you do best, no heroics, and you'll win this race.
Q: Oscar?
OP: Yeah, I mean, I was more or less trying to do a similar thing, I guess,
trying to get back to the podium. You know, I felt like that would have been
a good result from where we started. And then, yeah, obviously when you're
in contention for a win, yeah, things change a little bit. In terms of what
you need to do on track it's exactly the same. You try and focus on what's
ahead and you're just trying to drive as fast as possible especially with
only five or six laps to go. So I tried my best. I think I went off a couple
of times trying to catch George but I can't say I didn't try.
Q: Carlos?
CS: I think I was virtually P2 at the time when everything, or sorry, I was
P4 at the time, which was virtually P2. So I didn't feel like it was a lot
going on. And then suddenly they told me on the radio about the incident
with Max and Lando, that made me feel like I was obviously P2. At the time,
I felt like I was catching George a little bit, but I was just not quite
quick enough to... I had two little laps left to go for it. And on the other
hand, I had a very fast Oscar coming behind. So yeah, once I knew it was a
podium, it was obviously very difficult to judge the level of risk that you
can take, especially because Oscar was just quite a big step quicker than us
this weekend. And yeah, it was almost impossible to keep him behind. Yeah, I
had to kind of settle for the P2, P3 and live with it.
Q: (Jake Boxall-Legge – Autosport) A question for Carlos, please. Apologies
for asking this, but it's about your future. Obviously, you've got a few
options on the table for next season. It does appear that a couple of the
teams are getting a little bit impatient, let's say. Does that put any
pressure on you to kind of make a decision imminently? Or do you feel like
you've got time to do it? Thank you.
CS: As I said before, for sure that pressure, I'm not going to receive it on
a Sunday afternoon after a podium we are keen to enjoy. As I said before, I
think it's sometimes, like George was saying, we take it for granted when
we're on one of these podiums, celebrating, wearing a Ferrari suit, and I
was thinking, try to enjoy this moment because who knows when it's going to
be the next time in the future. So as much as maybe there are some teams
that are nervous or pressuring me, it's time for me also to enjoy this
moment of being on a podium. And I'm going to be honest and straightforward
with the teams, but it's such an important decision for me also that I'm
going to take all the time that I need to take it. And if there's teams that
cannot wait or are a bit impatient, I cannot do anything about it. It's
going to be my future, my decision, and I'm going to try and be as honest as
possible with everyone and give myself the time that I need. |
