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| PHOTO CREDIT: FIA.com |
DRIVERS
1 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes)
2 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)
3 – Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing)
TRACK INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Paul Di Resta)
Q: Valtteri, congratulations, man. That’s got the team worked up, to get a pole position today. It looked a bit unexpected yesterday but you’re starting on the front row.
Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, really happy about that. It was a nice lap in the beginning of Q3. You rarely get those kind of laps and on a track like this it’s a good feeling. Yesterday was tricky, there were many things not quite right with my car but we managed to find all the reasons and we did good work this morning with finding all the details and I could just find the places I needed to really focus on and, yeah, I knew how to put it together, but to put it together, it was a nice feeling to actually do it in Q3.
Q: you nailed the first lap in Q3, conditions looked like they got worse. Was it very tricky at the end?
VB: The last run there was a bit less grip overall. Sector 1 I was already losing one or two tenths. I’m glad no-one could improve at the end and I couldn’t either, so happy days.
Q: I’m going to take a bit of credit for buying you that coffee this morning. You owe me one, but congratulations, well done. Sebastian, lining up on the front row, it’s a long run up that hill. How are you feeling?
Sebastian VETTEL: I think it looks a shorter distance on the inside, no? I guess that’s what I have to say, being second. No, congrats to Valtteri, obviously it was very exciting because we were all so close. I thought I had a little bit more. I left some in the high speed for the last run, but in my final run when I got there I was already a little bit down. I had two decent laps. There was always… one hundredths, you know, there is always somewhere. But overall, happy, let’s see for tomorrow. Hoping for a good start and then for a good race.
Q: I guess the main thing for you guys and the advantage comes down to the first lap and you’ll try to use that extra speed you’ve got on the straight?
SV: Yeah, it’s not that long and part of it is uphill, but we will see. I hope to have a good start off the line, which will be crucial, and then we will see where it takes. Obviously all of us are on the medium tyre, so nobody has an advantage there and then, yeah, it’s a long race. We will have a busy race tomorrow. The first lap for sure is important but there is a lot of racing after that.
Q: Max, P3, I know you’re not going to be happy with that but further up and it puts you in the fight.
Max VERSTAPPEN: Absolutely. I think for us on this track to be that competitive was a very good result. Qualifying was just very tight.
Q: And I guess the race… you looked very strong yesterday. Are you going to be in this fight all the way and pushing?
MV: Let’s see. Normally we are quite good in the race and also now this time, even compared to last year, we were much more competitive in qualifying. Of course that gives us a lot more hope for tomorrow, so let’s see what’s going to happen.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Many congratulations Valtteri. Fifth in Q1, sixth in Q2 and then that brilliant pole lap in Q3.
VB: Thank you. Yeah, it definitely felt good putting that lap together in the beginning of Q3. After yesterday it was not an easy day to approach as I had a difficult day yesterday. Luckily, we found many things ion the car that were no quite right and also the set-up direction we changed completely and it felt a lot better this morning. Then I was just focusing on the things that matter and the places I needed to improve. So I had a very clear vision in my mind of how to do it but it was then down to actually doing it and it felt good to have that lap in Q3. Even though Q1 and Q2 were a bit off I knew it was somewhere there and I managed to find it.
Q: Now, let’s look ahead to tomorrow. You have to win this race to keep the championship alive. Are you happy with you car’s long-run pace?
VB: I think as we have seen recently, normally on Sundays we are competitive. So, it’s obviously very good starting from pole here. Some corners are quite to follow for the cars behind. I believe we have the pace for that and that’s going to be the only thing in my mind for tomorrow. Now, you know, only a very, very small part of the weekend is done. The big part that matters is tomorrow and I need to focus on that.
Q: Many congratulations Valtteri. Forty-three per cent of the races here have been won from pole. Sebastian, your 100th career front-row start. How satisfying is that?
SV: Gosh, I’m getting old. Obviously it was a very nice session, it was really fun to drive the car thus afternoon, but if you are so close to pole and just on the wrong side of it then I guess Valtteri had a bit more fun. It was OK. I don’t know, what was the gap? It was very small, like one or two hundredths. So that is always there. I had a very good first lap and I had some margin maybe in the last sector where I was maybe taking it a little but too conservative, making sure that I finished the lap, set the lap first and then improve on the second lap. Unfortunately, I didn’t improve, so my plan didn’t quite work. Overall, it was good. I think we will have a strong race tomorrow. The car felt a lot better today than yesterday, which is also what we needed, so let’s see what happens tomorrow.
Q: What are the tactics on your way to Turn 1 tomorrow. Do you think the man next to you might be a little bit tentative because of the championship? Are you hoping that’s the case anyway?
SV: I don’t know, I’ll just pass him and then we’ll see what happens! If he’s thinking about it then I have a good chance. We’ll see. Obviously it’s a long race. The first lap is important but we have a lot of laps after that. But if I can pass him, I pass him.
Q: Max, you were the only one in the top three to improve on your final lap in Q3. You actually said over the radio that you might have gone a little bit too early on that final lap. Do you think it cost you any time?
MV: No, I just questioned if we were going a bit early but they just said we were ahead of the train compared to the Ferrari and Mercedes cars, so that was it.
Q: And just tell us about that second lap. It is so close between the three of you. Have you been able to pinpoint where the time is, where you might have been able to get pole position?
MV: Well, I think in general Q3 was a bit more of a difficult session than Q2, for example, where I found the grip was maybe not the same – but of course that’s the same for everyone. It was just a bit harder to get your lap out and yeah, in general it was just very positive for us in qualifying to be that close. Compared to last year we made a really big step forward and, anyway, now the last two races, I think, we have been a lot more competitive. So that is very positive. I think we are definitely improving and learning, and also looking ahead for next year, I think we are definitely going in the right direction. And yeah, in general very pleased. I think the whole weekend, we had quite a smooth weekend. I didn't really have a lot of trouble with the set-up or whatever. So, to be here in the top three, of course I would have liked to sit in the middle bit still, I think it’s been very positive.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Christian Menath – motorsport-magazin.com) Question for you Max, could you please talk us through the situation, I think in Q2, Q3 with Lewis? It was a pretty close one.
MV: Yep. So, we were all lining up to do our lap, or to get to the last corner, and I think it was Seb, the first Ferrari, then Charles and then I had Dany in front of me and we were all just slowing down to make space, and Lewis just drove by like nobody was there and didn’t care. So I was like: well, if you don’t care, I don't’ care. So, I want to get my position back. I mean, everybody’s just respecting each other at that point, just to start the lap. That’s why it was such a close call.
Q: (Abhishek Aggarwal – Indiainf1.com) Question to all the drivers. So, in the first three practice sessions we heard from all the drivers the track was a bit bumpy. We see lock-ups and cars being spun. So, in the race tomorrow how important is the tyre management, and have you thought about any other strategy to preserve tyres? What are your thoughts about that?
VB: I think with the bumps here, just the main place where it can really affect your race, if you have big lock-ups into Turn One under braking. Those are quite big bumps – but normally, even though, if you lock the wheels, you can recover. So, I don’t think it’s going to make like a massive difference. Every track, there’s tricky points, tricky places that you can really damage the tyres and, obviously, coming into the weekend and in the weekend we’ve done all the analysis already for the long runs in terms of, in theory, where are the best places to preserve the tyres, and where to be slightly cautious at times, when you can, and so on. So business as usual, I would say.
Q: Sebastian, how much worse are the bumps this year, compared to last year?
SV: A lot worse! I think the ground is the problem here, it moves, for some reasons. I don’t know what they installed under the track when they were laying the track but yeah, I think they are aware. I mean, they tried everything. They brought some people out last night to grind parts of the track again to try and make it better for us – but now there’s not so much you can do. We’ll see, as Valtteri said, it’s not going to change the world upside down tomorrow in the race. I think it’s more an issue for quali where you’re really pushing to the ultimate limit and, you go also significantly faster. So, I guess tomorrow should be fine – but for sure it will be a bumpy race. I hope all three of us do well tomorrow but I think the last thing we need is somebody tapping our shoulders after all the tapping we get through the corners around the track. So, yeah, we’ll see what happens.
And Max, your thoughts.
MV: Yeah, not much more to add, is there? I can say the same, but…
Q: (Lennart Wermke – Bild) Seb, question for you. Frankfurt beat Bayern Munich 5-1 today in the Bundesliga, I feel that’s quite an emotional result for you, what’s your opinion on that game and do you feel for Niko Kovač who’s very much under pressure as a Bayern Munich coach?
SV: We are playing football or we are racing here? Is it that boring to watch? You have no question about what we actually do? I think there’s rain forecast in China tomorrow. Do you want me to comment on that?
VB: I heard it’s snowing in Finland…
SV: I’m a big Frankfurt fan but, to be honest, I didn't know. I found out just before qualifying, so obviously by then the game was done. I think it’s a good result for my team and Niko Kovač has been part of Frankfurt for a while, so of course I feel for him – but I hope he finds back the success very soon.
Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) Question to Seb and to Max. The run to the first corner is pretty short, but it’s uphill. Does that improve the chances to overtake compared to the same distance but flat?
SV: Well, they say we have more power so probably it helps if it’s uphill, because you need more power but, yeah, it’s not an awful long way. We will all try to have a good start and then you go from there. That’s the main target. I think the uphill bit doesn’t change so much. It’s trickier here for braking, so I think we need to be watching out but other than that…
Q: Max, you’ll be on the cleaner side of the grid…
MV: yeah, I think it’s more than that the track is very wide, so you can of course do a lot of different lines, compared to some other tracks where it’s just very narrow. I think the uphill bit… it’s that short and, of course, power matters a bit, like Seb said, but not enough, I guess, to make a big difference.
Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action / Speed Sport) For all three. The bumps were bad but were you ever even vaguely tempted with your engineers to do a softer suspension setting?
MV: I think you always pay attention to it but luckily in most places… it’s only really Turn One where it can influence you but, of course, if you will go a lot softer then it influences the rest of the track, so sometimes you just have to live with maybe a little bit more difficulty into Turn One.
VB: No, we didn’t really want to do that much compromise because of the bumps. The losses then, elsewhere could be quite big, so we just need to try and deal with the bumps, and we thought that’s the best way for this track, this year.
SV: No compromise, no sacrifice! Put a cushion in my seat, that’s the only thing to soften it.
Q: (Erik van Haren – De Telegraaf ) Max, are you surprised about the performance of your car, because you sound way more positive than a few weeks ago?
MV: Yeah, I think of course Mexico was very good but we also expected it to be competitive. But of course the races we had before that were not like we wanted so I was a still a bit ‘ok, let’s see if we found the performance back?’ and clearly this weekend was very positive overall so I think we can be very happy about it. Like I said before, it’s a good effort from the team as well to not give up and just keep pushing and try to find the performance back like we also had actually before the break. That’s why I guess I sound a bit more positive.
Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) For Seb and Max: the two of you usually like to roll out quite cool, special crash helmet designs. We’ve had a few US specials here. Last weekend in Mexico Lewis asked his fans on Instagram… to quote him he asked if he thought that the rule to only have one major design change each year was BS. I just wondered what you thought about the restriction on helmet designs and if that rule was relaxed, would you do more throughout the year?
SV: Well, I change it anyway so… I think it’s our helmet and we should be free to do what we want, so I think the rule is major BS. Yeah, I think it’s a part of… we have very little room left to sort of express ourselves and the helmet is probably the only one and if people like it, that’s great, if they don’t like it well it’s not their helmet so I think we should be in charge for designing which way and which colour our helmet has.
MV: Yup, I agree. I always loved when Seb was at Red Bull and changing his helmet every race, almost, more or less. It was cool because you were just like ‘what is he coming up with now?’ I do a few but I’m not going to say I will do a different helmet every race because it’s just too much effort in designing the helmet but I think if you want to make it blue or red, the next race, why not? It’s your crash helmet and you should be able to do what you want and of course in the past, there have been drivers who have always had the same helmet and then they say ‘yeah, but that’s how we can distinguish the drivers’ but at the end of the day we have massive numbers on the side, we anyway have a halo on the top so let us do what we want with the helmet now. I think anyway it’s very nice to have a different design every year because it’s a bit boring always to keep the same helmet.
Q: Valtteri, do you think it’s a bit boring to keep the same helmet?
VB: I don’t know. Sometimes it’s nice to keep the same helmet but for sure sometimes it would be nice to do something special, every now and then and obviously everyone might have a special occasion, you know, whatever, or a special connection to some certain country where you want to do something special or pay a respect to someone you know or whatever. It would be nice to see a bit more freedom because like both of them have said, it’s our personal thing. We should be in control of that rather than anyone else.
Q (Lawrence Edmonson – ESPN) Valtteri, yesterday it looked like you were losing a half a second to Lewis in the middle sector alone so was there an actual problem in the car or was it a set-up thing and did you get to the bottom of it – well you obviously did get to the bottom of it but what was it?
VB: We actually found quite a few things not quite right. A little bit with the set-up, I think. I think I started to go in the wrong direction, some things on tyre pressures, temperatures and we found some reasons for quite a big straightline speed difference which made an effect on sector two so those combined, when I started today in practice three, I was like ‘wow, this is a different car, it feels normal’ and I was happy again. I knew, since the first run this morning that it can be a good day if we can get everything right.
Q: (Jim Vertuno – Associated Press) Valtteri, how do you think Lewis, as your team-mate, how do you think Lewis will react or respond to starting fifth? Do you think he will be aggressive tomorrow on a track where he’s had so much success or do you think he will be patient and lay back with the championship on the line for him?
VB: I think it would obviously be better to ask him directly. I don’t know what his mindset is right now but from what I know of him, he’s going to be there, fighting hard. For sure he also hates losing, he always wants to win like all of us and obviously he’s leading the championship with a big margin, he doesn’t need many points and I’m sure he would like to win the championship in a nice way eventually when and if it happens. But obviously I will try to delay that, I try to focus on my own race, try to focus on winning the race rather than anyone else’s opinions or mindsets.
Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Moto und Sport) Seb, you said the car was much improved compared to yesterday. Was it also on the longer runs, could you find out in P3?
SV: Yeah, obviously we didn’t do long runs in FP3 but I think overall the car felt better than this morning so… we changed quite a couple of things which I think helped and they will also help in the race. How the pace will be, obviously we will find out tomorrow but at this stage I’m quite confident. I think we also struggled in particular on the hard tyres so I think we just didn’t get them to work and that should not be an issue tomorrow.
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| PHOTO CREDIT: FIA.com |
TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Franz TOST (Toro Rosso), Zak BROWN (McLaren), Mattia BINOTTO (Ferrari), Cyril ABITEBOUL (Renault), Claire Williams (Williams)
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: The 2021 regulations are now locked-in, having been unanimously ratified by the World Council, so can we start please by getting your thoughts on them. Perhaps Mattia, you could start?
Mattia BINOTTO: Obviously, as you said, it has been voted. As Ferrari we are part of the World Council, we voted as well in favour. We believe it is the right moment to look for a discontinuity, for our sport, it has to be sustainable, we are all aware of that. We need to work hard as well in the future on a more sustainable, green, as well, sport. There is a still much to work on, so if there is anything, I would avoid to say that it is locked down. I think this is still at a starting point where altogether now we need to collaborate, improve furthermore what is certainly a good set of regulations, but still much to develop, improve and certainly as well, looking at a more sustainable sport in the future, on the power unit, on the fuel, whatever can be done. I think that’s a responsibility we’ve all got together. So far, we collaborate well with FIA and F1 but still much to do.
Q: Cyril?
Cyril ABITEBOUL: Yes, I think it’s good that it’s done. It’s an important milestone but, as mentioned by Mattia, there is so much more to be one. I would still acknowledge a number of innovations in this set of regulations, because there will be a new set of regulations with the financial regulations that will complement technical and sporting. Otherwise it’s a compromise. Some people would have liked it to be a bit different, maybe a bit more open or a budget cap a bit lower, things like that – but it's a first step, in my opinion a good step, it’s in Renault’s opinion a step that’s going in the right direction for a sustainable sport, so let’s see what’s coming next but it’s good now that we have clarity on what’s coming up for 2021. We can all now start building up this beautiful car that we have ahead of us, and start spending towards this new regulation.
Q: Claire, your thoughts?
Claire WILLIAMS: I think from a Williams perspective we’re delighted that that new regulations were approved by the World Motor Sport Council. They’re everything that we’ve wanted to see from the various perspectives, whether they be technical and most clearly the financial regulations that are coming on board for 2021 are exactly where we wanted to be. We understand that they’re a first step, moving forward but they’re certainly a right step in the direction that we wanted to ensure that the sport – but also teams like ours – remain sustainable for the future. I think we’re all very aware of how unsustainable at the moment Formula 1 is from a cost perspective. So, to have a level of cost-capping at this first juncture is really important to teams like ours. I don’t think that can be underestimated. The technical regulations as well are a step in the right direction. I think there’s probably some tweaking to do – but I think certainly as a first step they’re exactly what we wanted to see.
Q: Zak?
Zak BROWN: I agree with everything that’s been said before me. I think it’s a good day for Formula 1. I think it’s going to be exciting, 2021, because there’ll be much change. I think through this process, the Formula 1 teams got closer relationships with each other, which is something that, while we certainly still don’t all agree on everything, I think relationships have been built for the better of the sport. I also think working with Chase and Ross and the FIA, that’s been a good process. I’m sure we all would like to see some things modified but that’s always going to be the case. In our case, I think the budget cap, there was one area we would like to have seen something more aggressive, quicker, it would have been that, but it is what it is and I think most importantly we have clear direction moving forward.
Q: And Franz?
Franz TOST: All the parties have done a good job. That means Liberty Media, the FIA and the teams to come up with these new regulations – because all the main topics are covered. What are the main topics? The cost cap – because we need to come down with the costs in Formula 1; b) the money distribution: it’s more fair than it was before. Then the new technical regulations; the new sporting regulations and as well the governance. I think that’s an important time frame to bring everything within next year and then 2021 in the right direction. It’s a new start for Formula 1 and I hope it will be a successful start.
Q: Zak, you’ve worked hard at restructuring McLaren over the last 18 months, so how much personal satisfaction does the prospect of P4 in the Constructors’ Championship give you?
ZB: I’m very pleased with the season so far. There are still three races to go. We had a poor Mexico which I think was a good reminder that, while we’ve had a good year, with three races to go there’s plenty of points still up for grabs but certainly the off-season progress, the people that we’ve brought on board, Andreas leading the team, James Key, Andrea Stella getting promoted, and really all the men and women at McLaren. Our relationship with Renault, they’ve been an excellent partner. I’d like to give them a lot of credit for our success this year and our improvements. And yeah, it’s certainly a lot more enjoyable being at this Austin US Grand Prix than it was this time last year.
Q: Cyril, while we’re talking about restructurings, you announced a reorganisation of your aero department this morning. Just tell us a little bit more about that. Why have you done that?
CA: I think it’s fairly straightforward what we’re trying to achieve. This year has been marked be an amount of satisfaction but also some struggles. It’s clear that this position of P4 that we had last year is going to be challenging to retain this year, to say the least, against Zak. But I’m happy that it’s a Renault powertrain that’s going to maintain that spot in the future. We’re also in a close fight against Franz and Toro Rosso, and Racing Point, so a number of challenges. We’ve been focussed on growing, in terms of quantity, making up the numbers, it had to be done, but in parallel we need also to look for a bit stronger technical leadership and making the team stronger in that area where we were a bit lean at that level, so that’s exactly what we’ve gone by restructuring our aero department with a mix of external recruitment and internal promotion. So, I’m not going to go into the specifics but we all hope it’s going to support our best, all that there is to offer because aero department is a big department with very nice facilities, state-of-the-art equipment, so they need to know to deliver more.
Q: Claire, Nico Hülkenberg has ruled out a move to Williams in 2020 and Nicholas Latifi is doing FP1 for the remainder of the season except for Abu Dhabi. Is that an indication of your plans for next year?
CW: No, the plan was always to have Nicholas Latifi in the car for these practice session that you’re seeing him in, in the next couple of races and in Mexico as well. It’s no clear indication. We’ve made it very clear in the media that we won’t be making our driver announcement for that second seat for 2020 until after Abu Dhabi this year.
Q: Franz, Pierre Gasly said yesterday that your car hasn’t changed much since he’s been back with the team – yet the results have been strong in the last few races. If what he says is the case, how do you explain the upturn in performance in recent races?
FT: Maybe he slept not so good here. The car made some progress because we came up with a lot of aero updates, and don’t forget that also Honda also came with a new fuel, in Suzuka, which brought us a good performance advantage. Nevertheless, Pierre gets also more and more familiar with the car and with the team, and therefore he is showing a good performance and we are happy about this.
Q: And you’ve finished in the points here for the last five years. Do you think you can do it again this weekend?
FT: I hope so. This is the target. It’s not only to finish in the points. We should be really good in the points, to score a lot of points, not only one or two points. But we will see. Our competitors are very strong and it will become an interesting race.
Q: Mattia, what’s your analysis of last weekend’s race in Mexico? Have you had a chance to look through what happened and how you can help yourself this weekend?
MB: Well, what happened? Certainly when starting on the first row it’s always difficult somehow not to get the best result in the race but I think what happened is that first maybe we were not fast enough in the race, because if being faster they could not have undercut us. That’s the first analysis. Generally speaking, sometimes to win you need to take some more risks. And risk to me means somehow brave and brave enough means that maybe when Albon stopped we should not have stopped with Charles, staying out. But in doing that means that we were pretty sure the tyres would not have lasted to the end by stopping at that time, which was wrong, wrong assumption. So it means that in terms of tyre modelling, tyres understanding, there was still some tuning that was required. So now, they’re looking back at all the data. We are furthermore trying to improve our tyre model for a better understanding and that will give us in the future probably a better opportunity for a better choice.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Question to Mattia. Your two drivers are fighting for the third place in the Championship. Is it an important thing for you? And the one who will finish ahead of the other, will be the team leader for next year?
MB: OK. What is important for us, at first is to confirm the second place in the Constructors’, and hopefully we can do it here this weekend. What is still important for us is to add some victories for Ferrari team in the last few races. And I think very last is third place in the Drivers’. And then whoever will be… not important. With that said, the start of next year, not at all.
Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Line / Racefans.net) A question to Mattia. Obviously, you are on the WMSC and you voted in favour of the regulations. You also have a veto. Had you any stage considered triggering the veto about any aspect of the regulations or at the very least voting against the set of regulations?
MB: As first, as we said, we voted in favour, so we are happy with the new set of regulations or if not happy then we are at least convinced it is the right way to go. Did we consider it in the past? I think as many times we answered to the same question, for us it was more important to collaborate with F1 and the FIA to makes sure that by the end of October we got the best package to be voted and I think that’s where we put our focus and put our effort. That’s all.
Q: (Abhishek Aggarwal - INDIAinF1.com) Mattia, last week in the post-race press conference Vettel mentioned that Ferrari cars are quickest in a straight line and the fact that the power unit is great, it’s just that there’s less downforce and that when the tyres get a bit older there’s some pressure. Now, given the fact that this track is more favourable with regard to downforce do you think Ferrari will have an edge this weekend?
MB: No. I think of this as two different points. First, we are still lacking downforce compared to our competitors and that’s an area of weakness, something that we improved all through the season. I think that today we’ve got a good package but not good enough and we are very aware that having downforce is important, certainly on some circuits, like Budapest and Mexico. But if you look from Budapest to Mexico we did a great step forward in the right direction. So we will need to add further downforce, we will need to add further downforce for next season and that is important for the race pace, tyre degradation and so on. Adding downforce will mean adding drag and we will be slower then on the straight. But still today we believe we’ve got a good engine and that’s in our favour and we hope to keep the same advantage in the future.
Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) To all five please. The final regulations came out yesterday. They’ve been described as immature and underdeveloped in recent weeks. Now you’ve got the initial tranche of provisional regulations, I guess, are there any early red flags or concerns about areas that needs further development or are particularly green?
FT: No. So far we have now a good basis on the technical regulations as well as the sporting regulations. Of course there will be further discussions and some fine tuning but the most important pillars are fixed and the rest then we will see.
ZB: I agree with Franz. There are no red flags. Fine tuning the regulations… they’re quite complex and long and new, so I’m sure there will be questions, comments and modifications but nothing that appears to be alarming and no big, gaping holes at the moment.
MB: No big issues. Certainly all the teams will start developing the cars for 2021 and put more effort and I’m pretty sure by putting more effort into it we will find out eventually some areas that will need to be further improved. But again, I think what will be important is the process of discussions, the process of regs modifications, which means as well a governance we need to put in place and that will be key from now to the start of 2021 and the earlier we do that the better it will be.
CA: To pick up from where Mattia left it: to confirm all details of the governance, because in order to make changes as we develop the cars and as we face some unknowns or some loopholes, we need to see how we can fix what is missing from the regulations. The other aspect, the other chapter that is maybe not developed enough is maybe the roadmap on the engine side. We exactly know where we are on 2021, but fuel, bio-fuel, freeze, partial freeze, progressive freeze, complete freeze? In our opinion those aspects need to be addressed so that the economic side of the engine activity is also sustainable – just as sustainable as the chassis side.
CW: I would agree with what everyone has said so far. I don’t think there are any red flags in there. I would also probably say use of the word ‘immature’ would be slightly unfair to the countless people that have put a huge amount of effort into these regulations on the side of the FIA and F1. A lot of people have been involved and a lot of people have spent many, many hours making sure that these regulations are in the best possible place that they can be up until this point. And I agree with everyone else that there is just some tweaking that needs to be done to them.
Q: (Bernardo Becht – Correio do Povo) With the cost cap coming and these new regulations – for Zak and Claire, the teams most concerned – won’t there be two development teams for two cars until the cost cap coming in, stars to take place. Won’t it be harder to catch up? Ferrari and Mercedes will have two teams working to develop a 2020 and 2021 car. Won’t it be harder to catch up later, with less money, when there is a cost cap working?
ZB: It’s hard to catch them right now. Ferrari and Mercedes are fantastic racing teams and they have tremendous resources. Yeah, this is going to be a journey, the cost cap. There will be a lot of spending in ’20 that will have implications for ’21. And of course once you get a head start when you see regulations, whether it’s on the power unit front, stability over time tends to bring things together. So, I think Ferrari and Mercedes are in a great position and we’re all trying to catch up and it will take some time.
CW: Yeah, obviously, I think we’re in a slightly different position to McLaren. Our budget is much smaller than theirs. For teams like ours, for Alfa, for Haas, they’re operating on considerably less budget than the rest of the grid. It’s a really difficult piece of work at the moment to try to marry up the programmes we are running for not just this year but for next year and ’21. But I would say it is probably the lesser of two evils. We did try, in the Strategy Group, to see if we could bring the cost cap in earlier, so the bigger teams wouldn’t have to spend all this money they’re worried about spending for next year. That would be clearly a bonus. There’s clearly going to need to be some convergence, which I’m sure we will see – we’ve got stability on these regulations for five years from ’21 and beyond. It is difficult. It is incredibly difficult. But these regulations, particularly as I said earlier, the financial regulations that we are seeing, are the right things for teams like ours that are truly independent and rely solely on sponsorship.
FT: Yeah, I mean it’s clear that the top teams have an advantage. They will use the next year, even this year already for developing the ’21 car. They will have this performance advantage for ’21. The cost cap, real, will count from 2022 and ’23 onwards – 2021 will be a difficult one. But this was discussed anyway.
Q: (Joe Saward – Autoweek) We’re talking about saving money and we’re increasing the number of races. Now, there is a cost to that, financial and human. I’d like to hear your views on whether 25 races is too much? To everyone.
CW: Twenty-five is a lot of races, you quite right. Looking at 22 for next year is an awful lot and all the teams are having to look at the impact of that on personnel, just purely from a lifestyle perspective and having that work-life balance, it’s incredibly difficult. We’ve all got support personnel that we can rotate in and out. I think obviously for the bigger teams it might be an easier challenge from that perspective: they have a bigger budget in order to bring in more people in order to support that rotation. It is difficult. From a financial perspective though there is an offset, so obviously we go to more races, there is more money in the pot that then gets distributed. So really from an offset financial piece, it’s not the end of the world. It’s more managing people, the people we have working for us and not putting too much pressure on them for 25 weekends a year.
CA: I think it’s a good summary. I’m pretty sure that the figures can work, so it can still be economically positive to expand the calendar, to increase the number of races, but as Claire mentioned it’s really a stretch for everyone and I think the main questions is a question of quantity versus quality. But having said that we live in a world where we need to have as much and as frequent touch points as possible with the fans, with the media, with digital, creating content. We are in a world of content, where you need market share, you need to visible, you need the exposure. It’s a difficult one, probably not one for us to answer, probably one for the promoter mainly. It’s a stretch for all of us. In my opinion the measure made on the sporting side to sort of reduce the weekend are going in the right direction, it doesn’t really balance enough of what an expansion of the calendar will mean in the future.
MB: I think there is not a clear answer, and by not having a clear answer it means it’s a good question. I think we are not all convinced at the moment. I think it’s part of the discussions we may need to have with F1. It is a compromise at the end. It is an extra effort financially and I’m even not too sure it will be to our benefit. It depends on where we are going racing in the extra races. How much are the revenues for those ones. There are a lot of points that will need to be addressed on the number of races. But still, again, it’s a matter of being positive, collaborative and finding all together the right answer.
ZB: I think my only build is I’d like to maybe see alternating races as a potential solution. I think when you have new countries that want to embrace Formula 1, that is a good things and it exposes us to new parts of the world, but maybe instead of having 25 races, which I think is achievable, though it would require doing things differently than we do today, then I think maybe alternating some races on the calendar would be a good compromise to grow the sport without straining the system as much as I think 25 races would.
FT: There is nothing to add, everything has been mentioned.
Q: (Jean-Louis Doublet – Agence France Presse) The track looks much bumpier this year than it was last year; do you think it could create problems with the integrity of the cars during the race?
FT: So far I don’t expect any problems. The engineers have time to analyse all the data and then I’m convinced they will find a correct set-up, even for a bumpy track. I don’t expect any problems in this case.
ZB: It certainly looked bumpy from what I saw on the screens from the first session. I’ve not had a chance to speak with the drivers to get their feedback. I’m not worried about the integrity of the car. Could catch a driver or two out in the race, there were definitely a few drivers going off the track so it could create some excitement.
MB: Yeah, certainly bumpy. I think that to say right now that it will not affect the reliability would be very brave because later on in the race weekend we may find the opposite. As a matter of fact this morning, with Charles, we had a small inconvenience due to, we believe, on a bump, a small issue happened just as an example so yes, it needs to be managed, we all need to be aware of it and making sure that it doesn’t affect the result.
CA: Not much to add. I think it’s in addition to the reliability, it can also affect the set-ups and finding the proper balance between sector one with the understeer that you can create on those bumps, that you can fight but to the expense of what you get in sector and stability and oversteer. So it will be a compromise, might be an interesting chance for all of us.
CW: Our engineers were talking about it this morning, how bumpy it is and Nicolas was reporting particularly turn one and two were particularly difficult to get round, I think. Just from our perspective, we’ve had a lot of race attrition over the past three or four races and we just would like a very clean weekend so that our poor manufacturing guys don’t have to do a whole lot of work after this race going into Brazil.
Q: (John Massengale – Speed City Radio) Zak, do technology fans need to worry about the 2021 rules with cost caps? Cars look great but technology fans don’t want F1 not to be at the pinnacle.
ZB: No, I don’t think they have anything to worry about. Formula One’s always been the pinnacle of motor sport, unbelievable technologies and I think where things are going with the broadcasts and social media I think the way that we communicate with fans via technology is actually just going to increase so I think fans have plenty to be excited about for the future of Formula One.
Q: (Graham Harris – Motorsport Monday, MotorsportWeek.com) For Franz, Zak and Cyril with perhaps some comments from Mattia and Claire: that dreaded word Brexit looks like it’s headed sometime before January 31. With Zak and Franz and Cyril having facilities in and out of the European Union, what measures have you taken that your daily workload isn’t increased and there are no problems going forward. And perhaps Claire and Mattia, have you made any preparations for Brexit, has it wasted a lot of money so far? Any other comments?
CA: I have to say that I have lost this plot a bit recently but yeah, we’re working, we have some measures in place. I think we know how things are going to take place and shape up for anything related to races. We are not totally clear on the logistics between our two factories, one being in France, the other one being in the UK, that could cause some delay and that’s still unclear. We are working with the Renault-Nissan Group on the logistics side to make sure that we understand exactly… we have access to the authorities and then they will be able to help us in that respect so we are lucky to be part of a group in that respect. On the personnel side – because we’ve recruited a lot, 24 nationalities working in our factory in the UK, obviously we don’t want to lose these people, so we understand that there will be some sort of grandfathering, some measures to protect them, at least for initial years, until we know a bit more about the exact measures but again, I think we first need clarity about Brexit itself.
FT: I was at the wind tunnel in Bicester on Tuesday when we discussed this topic for quite a long time. You know the major issues are logistics and of course the people, the employees who are working there, not coming from England and currently it’s difficult to make a plan and a programme because we don’t know all… at least the final process. Once this is out, once first of all if they decide the Brexit, that they know what they do, or what they want to do and then we have to sit once more together and find the best possible way.
ZB: We have a team back at the factory, a little Brexit working group so we’re prepared for it. I think it will impact everyone’s business to a certain degree but fortunately it’s been going on long enough that I don’t think there will be any surprises and we’ll be working around it accordingly.
Q: Mattia, any Brexit thoughts?
MB: No, not really. We do not have a working group, at least in Maranello on that one. Obviously we will need to take care for our people we’ve got, for UK people in Italy but it’s not worrying us, certainly.
CW: Like Zak says, we’ve had a steering committee on this for the past year now because there are clearly a lot of touch points that are going to have an impact when it eventually does happen around personnel in particular. I think Cyril said he has 24 nationalities, we have 28. There are a lot of considerations on obviously not just the people who are working for us but their families as well, whether they are based with those people in the UK or whether they are in Europe. There are issues around foreign exchange, around freight, crossing through borders, people crossing through borders, so there’s a lot of working that’s going on and obviously with the continued uncertainty that makes life a bit difficult so we’re looking forward to the whole thing being resolved sooner rather than later and we can all move on from that.
Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines / Racefans.net) I believe you’ve very recently received your draft commercial offers, let’s call it the Concorde Agreement. Is this is a good document, acceptable document for your business models or is it just a good starting point for negotiations?
MB: So through that, we just voted the new set of regulations but the entire Concorde Agreement needs to be discussed and agreed and signed, that’s on the commercial button, the governance as well. Working group have been set, to start discussing the details of the documents. I think it’s only after having seen the details that we may assess where we are and what’s required.
ZB: Same as Mattia. We’re going through it, it’s a long complicated document, no major red flags and we’ve got the necessary people within our group going through it to all contribute to questions, comments that we have so I think like any legal document, there’ll be lots of commentary but we’re pretty comfortable with what’s been presented.
FT: The basis is OK, we are working on it, our people and so far I haven’t seen any big dramas or red flags. I think the document itself is so far acceptable. Once more, we are still studying it.
CA: Well, I hope and believe that the principles of Concorde are more or less in a good place. Maybe not everyone will agree with that but I’m talking really about the key principles but clearly we are not dealing with the details… You are both looking at me. Am I going too far? No, frankly I don’t expect any major renegotiations of Concorde terms, what’s been proposed, because that’s something also that’s part of the discussion of the whole package, even though it’s not been signed up so anyone is free to sign or not to sign but clearly I expect that the details of the drafting of the document to take much longer - we all know that when one lawyer gets involved so at least we have twelve lawyers. So that’s going to take a bit of time probably to get a grid.
CW: I don’t have much to add. Everyone has said what I would say. We’re looking through it and we haven’t seen any red flags to date.
DRIVERS – George RUSSELL (Williams), Lance STROLL (Racing Point), Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing), Lando NORRIS (McLaren), Pierre GASLY (Toro Rosso)
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Gentlemen, you can see the 2021 car sitting in front of you. I’d like to start by asking you all about it, the car and the general direction of Formula 1 in a couple of years’ time? Max, if we can start with you, please?
Max VERSTAPPEN: It’s a bit small!
Lando NORRIS [mistaken identity it was George Russell]: I was going to say that! That’s my joke!
MV: Yeah, also for us it’s still early days. I haven’t really looked through all the things – I mean it’s just announced. At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter how it looks like or whatever, as long as it gives us better racing and we can follow better. Of course we want to be within two seconds, three seconds of what we are doing now, definitely, because if it’s going to be about four or five it’s not what we want, because then it feels a bit too slow. But I think this is just the start of it and I’m sure that teams will come up with a little bit of a different look as well, so let’s just find out over time how it’s going to work out.
Q: Ross Brawn has just said that lap times will be similar to 2016.
MV: Yeah, I guess… To be honest I didn’t really enjoy driving the cars as much back then as I do now, but of course you have to find a middle way in terms of what you want with following and stuff like that. Anyway, throughout the season the cars will improve.
Q: OK, let’s get some other thoughts: George?
George RUSSELL: Yeah, from my side it doesn’t really matter how it looks or the speed of it as long as we have great racing. I think that’s what we all want. Obviously the weight is heavier which I think is not ideal for any of us. I mean, even driving like a Formula 3 car it was really fun to drive but it was much lighter than what these Formula 1 cars are. But as long as it improves the racing and brings the field together that’s all I care about.
Q: Lance?
Lance STROLL: Yeah, not much more to add really. I think the main thing is to focus on the racing. We need to be able to follow closer to one another and to improve the wheel-to-wheel racing, the show for the fans, and I think for us drivers, too, it will be very exciting if we can see closer racing. Hopefully it levels the playing field as well. If we can see the gaps reduced to the top teams and there are more opportunities for the midfield teams to score podiums and to fight for positions further up the grid, that would be exciting.
Q: Lando?
Lando NORRIS: I think it’s pretty much been covered. As they all said as long as the racing’s better and we all have a chance to fight for wins in different races and as teams we can all fight for being a strong constructor, I think that’s the key thing. That’s about it.
Q: Do you like the look?
LN: I would change the paint scheme slightly! Apart from that, I think it’s alright. I mean, I’ve seen the renders our designers are designing and it looks pretty cool. I don’t really mind too much, that’s not what I’m fussed about. I’m just fussed about the racing and having fun and being able to follow cars closely and just enjoy racing more than what we do now.
Q: And Pierre?
Pierre GASLY: Well, I agree with all of them, so not much to add.
Q: OK, well Lando, a frustrating race for both McLaren drivers in Mexico. What did you learn from your various problems in Mexico and do the temperatures we’re experiencing here in Austin worry you?
LN: Yeah, not a great race for us as a team, especially after our qualifying position and a good chance to score some more points. I think there are obvious things… I think my race was put down fairly quickly with the pit stop. There’s something that’s easily known and understood in terms of what the problem was, but fixing it isn’t something that is going to happen overnight and it doesn’t happen often at the same time, so it’s not like we’re worried about pit stops or anything, it’s just we can be a bit unlucky and this time it was the first pit stop that I had where I was a but unlucky. I’m not so worried about that; the team have got solutions in the pipeline, which is a good thing for us. We just have to look on to this weekend. I wouldn’t say we are worried about the track temperatures or anything, it’s just how it is. It’s similar to Barcelona in pre-season. It might be a bit more difficult to get the tyres in the right window and so one, but I’m hoping it will play a little bit more to our strengths rather than our weaknesses.
Q: And an opportunity to reflect on your first season in F1. What’s the take-home message from this year for you?
LN: Meh.
MV: You sound like a sheep. I think there is a meme incoming now.
LN: I’m happy with bits of it. There are bits I’m not so happy with. I’ve not made any huge mistakes. I’ve not crashed a lot, I’ve not done anything stupid. But as a racing driver, and I’m sure all drivers on the whole grid would say the same, there’s always room for improvement and things they want to do better. So, I am happy, I think 90% of the things I’ve done, I think I’ve done them reasonably well. It’s just the smaller things – you mess up a qualifying lap or you don’t progress enough on how you work on the set-up with the engineers as much as you want. It’s just putting all the small things together. A bit of it comes with experience, but a bit of I don’t think I did a good enough job in. I’m happy, it’s been a good year, a very enjoyable year, but I want to make sure I come back next year and already in the next races in slightly stronger form.
Q: Thanks Lando and good luck this weekend. Pierre, how’s your health?
PG: Really good. I think that’s about 20 times people asked me since I arrived in the paddock today. It was a rough time last weekend, but everything’s perfect now.
Q: How tough was that race? You finished ninth but you really weren’t…
PG: Yeah, it was probably one of the most challenging race weekends I’ve had…
MV: The seat [inaudible]…
PG: No, the seat was clean – nothing wrong with that. It was pretty tough from Saturday morning onwards, just in terms of energy and trying to keep the focus. It wasn’t an easy one but I’m happy we went through it. We managed to get the best result we could out of the weekend. Pretty strong qualifying and race, even though it wasn’t easy, but yeah, it was definitely a challenging one.
Q: You say strong qualifying. Both Toro Rossos got into Q3. How much progress have you made with the car recently?
PG: To be fair, the car is more or less the same as it was in the last couple of races, since I rejoined. But I think it’s just trying to extract the maximum from what we have and trying to find the set-up directions that suit tracks and what I need from the car. I must say I’m really happy with the way we’re working with the team. They are providing me with everything I need so we can extract everything from the car. So far we are doing well. We can always do better and we’ll try to keep that form in the next three races.
Q: You say the team is giving you everything you needs. Confidence looks high. Are you driving better now than when you were with Red Bull Racing?
PG: Not really. I didn’t learn or forget how to drive in a couple of months. It’s just a matter of putting everything together. As I said, I’m just focusing on the job to do with Toro Rosso. I think we are doing pretty well. There are always things we need to focus on and improve and that’s what we need to focus one.
Q: Lance, if I could come to you now. Belated happy birthday. Turned 21 on Tuesday. What have you done since Mexico?
Lance STROLL: I mean, just been laying low and enjoyed my birthday. It was nice… I went for dinner and was able to have my first drink in America! That’s a real breakthrough. First time ever in the United States. So that was a lot of fun – but in moderation, looking forward to this weekend. I’m a professional athlete, so I’ve got to be in the best shape I can be for the weekend – and here I am.
Q: Now, it was a competitive showing by both Racing Points in Mexico. Was that track-specific or are you really starting to add performance to the car?
LS: A bit of both. I didn’t have the best weekend myself. It was really my team-mate who had a solid weekend. On Saturday and especially Sunday I had a scruffy qualifying session and then my race was going well until the second stint where I got a lot of lapping events, graining etcetera. Unfortunately, it didn’t go our way but we definitely had potential again to score points and it’s looking that way over the last five or six races since we brought the upgrade in Spa. That’s really positive. Looking good for the next three races.
Q: George, coming on to you. The team has been introducing new parts in recent races. How much better is the car to drive now than it was at the start of the season?
George RUSSELL: I think the upgrades we’ve brought to the car recently, it’s more been looking into 2020. We knew that it’s not going to necessarily unlock a lot of performance on the car as it is now – but it’s definitely looking promising going into next year. Overall, the car is definitely nicer to drive. I mean, at the start of the year it was not nice at all, let’s say, and it was pretty tricky just to get around a lap. But we’ve done a good job to fine-tune the balance, just to make it a nicer car to drive – but now we need to rely on the engineers back at the factory to bolt some more downforce on it.
Q: And what about your own development as a driver this year? You said you wanted to learn out of the spotlight, which you’ve been able to do – but what do you take into year two next year?
GR: Similar to what Lando said. I think there’s things I’ve been happy with, things I haven’t been… just experience really. The little things that you only improve on, race by race: understanding the tyres; the starts. It’s pretty tricky starting at the back of the grid, with all the cars around, a massive lack of downforce. Even less downforce than what we’ve got, let’s say. Just little bits and bobs here and there. I think I’ll definitely be a better driver into next year.
Q: Max, just off the plane from L.A. at the fan festival yesterday. How was that?
Max VERSTAPPEN: Yeah, it was good. Good amount of fans and some good donuts as well. So, that’s always nice to do.
Q: This weekend, believe it or not, is your 100th grand prix.
LN: Same as Carlos!
MV: Yeah, we started together.
LN: That’s sweet!
Q: What does that stat means to you, Max?
MV: Good beginning! And, of course, it all happened very quick. To realise and see that you are about to do your 100th grand prix at 22 years old, I think I would never have expected that – but I guess it’s a good thing. Basically, those five years have gone very quickly.
Q: Just looking ahead to this weekend, you had a cracking race here last year. Onto the podium from 18th. What are your expectations this year?
MV: I think we can have a good race. Last year, coming from the back and then still finishing on the podium was a very good result. Of course, it gave me an opportunity to have a different strategy, which at the end of the day was not a bad one – but now we want to start a bit more upfront and see what we can do. But I think in Mexico the car was working really well, so we just try to continue that here.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Ian Parkes – New York Times) Question to Max initially and then secondary question to Lando and George. Max, it looks like Lewis is going to wrap up his title very soon – potentially here, he only needs four points. In competing with him these past few years, what makes him the driver he has become, do you feel, effectively now on the brink of becoming a six time World Champion. And to Lando and George, what does Lewis mean to you guys as British drivers growing up, potentially wanting to emulate him as a future British world champion?
MV: From my side, unfortunately I haven’t really had the time to compete with him that much. I mean, just a few races. Most of the time we didn’t have equal material but he was always clearly the better of the two within the team. And then, when you have the best car out there, of course you can win the Championship. It’s amazing, of course, to go for your sixth World Championship.
Q: Lando, let’s start with you. What does Lewis mean to you?
LN: I guess he’s a guy who I’ve always looked up to since I was young. A driver who I’ve loved to watch. I’ve been very excited to watch a lot of his races since I started watching F1 when I was six or seven years old. So, I’ve kind of not been on the journey but I’ve been able to watch a lot of the races and it gives a bit of… I wouldn’t say belief or faith but it gives a bit of confidence knowing that, or hoping to go into the future and emulate him in a way – but like Max said, the equipment’s very different to when he joined Formula One, when he was with McLaren. So some things aren’t going to be exactly the same; it’s not possible to do the same as other drivers – but there are a lot of things that he’s extremely good at and I would like to improve on and be as good as him on, so yeah, a guy and a driver who’s inspired me and who I’ve looked up to since I was very young.
Q: George?
GR: Similar to Lando. Definitely somebody who I’ve looked up to for a while, since I’ve been wanting to become a Formula One driver but especially in the last couple of years. I’ve gained a huge amount of respect for him, seeing him within the team. I used to think he just relied on his natural talent to jump in the car and do the business but he puts a huge amount of effort in and the attention to detail he goes into is massive. I did learn a lot from him in the years I spent with Mercedes, so yeah, definitely respect and admire what he’s achieved.
Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) For Max. Just on Lewis. He had some comments to say about you after the last race. Said he affords you more space than other drivers in fear of being torpedoed…
MV: Torpedoed? I didn’t hear that one.
Q: …well, it was part of what he said. And I think Seb also said that he copy-and-pasted what Lewis had to say. I was wondering what your feeling is about those two comments?
MV: Well, looking at Turns One and Two in Mexico, I don’t think that happened. From my side, yeah, it was a bit of a silly comment to make. I think I’m always a hard racer but fair. I think it’s just not correct – but of course it’s easy to have a dig at someone. From my side, it’s fine. It’s always positive when the talk about you. That means you’re in their head, So, for my side, I just focus on my driving and I think that’s enough said.
Q: (Chris Medland – Racer) Pierre, Lando and Lance: we’ve got the 2021 regulations which are aiming to bring the field closer together but for the three of you, competing in a very tight midfield this season, do you really enjoy those battles when the main target really for you is what we call best of the rest, behind the top three teams, and when you do come up on top of those, does it really feel like a win in a junior category or is it quite frustrating to be limited like that?
PG: Well, I do enjoy these tight battles because at the end of the day I love racing and that’s what you get when you’re right there, like six to eight cars within three or four tenths. It brings a lot of excitement to the track on my side actually. I do like it; for sure, knowing that the best you can achieve is seventh is always a bit disappointing sometimes when you need to be satisfied with this kind of result because of course as a racer you want to fight for the top position. When you finish seventh, that’s kind of the first place you can target; you don’t get any trophy, you don’t get any champagne, it doesn’t really taste the same. Hopefully this can be improved for 2021. I don’t have the answer at the moment. Of course I think we have all the common targets with F1 and that’s what all the driver wants so yeah, hopefully it’s going to be achieved by 2021.
LN: I agree with Pierre, to be honest. 2021 regulations are not going to mean we are going to be winning races or we’re going to be on the podium all the time. It’s a much better chance for us to achieve those things and as drivers to achieve those things and experience a podium at one time. It’s going to just even up the field I hope, make racing better, make it more enjoyable to watch, more enjoyable to race for us drivers because that is something we miss. A lot of the drivers who are in Formula One have done very well in the junior categories since karting, F4, F3, F2, whatever, so we’ve always loved it and it’s part of the feeling we enjoy so much as a team is getting on the podium and knowing we’ve been able to beat sometimes the rest of the field and we’ve done a better job because of it. So it’s something I do miss but it’s not just me, it’s the whole team as well. Yeah, something I look forward to and hope we can take advantage of.
LS: I’ve loved the midfield competition this year. I think it’s been tighter than it’s ever been. You look at the gaps on Saturdays and then on the Sunday how close the racing is, it’s great for the drivers, for the fans. Unfortunately we are so getting lapped by Mercedes and Ferraris, even Red Bulls, so hopefully that can change in ’21. I agree with what Pierre said: it’s great to fight for the best of the rest but when you’re seventh and there’s no reward for that. We’re always trying to score World Championship points but the podium is realistically out of reach and victories are out of the question in today’s sport. I really do hope that we can see some changes in ’21, closer racing as well. That is the priority, I think, with the regulation changes this year, capable of following cars nose to tail but then on top of that, if we can see the gaps reduced to the top teams the opportunity to fight for podiums and wins potentially – that would be awesome.
Q: (John Massengale – Speed City) Pierre, we got to go to Houston with you yesterday to go to NASA. How was it, talking to an astronaut while he was live in the space station?
PG: This was really amazing. I would have never imagined one day in my life talking to an astronaut who was actually in space, I don’t know how many kilometres away but that was just incredible to imagine that just from that fun talking and then getting an answer two seconds later from that same guy who was in space. It was an amazing experience. We got to visit the whole NASA control centre, speak with astronauts who have already been a couple of times in space. Saw some rocket ships – no, it was just an incredible experience.
Q: (John Massengale – Speed City) Max, going to the festival in Los Angeles and the talk of a race in Miami, do you think this is important, not only for the sport but for you as a driver to get this exposure here in the United States, and what do you think about the possibility of more races here?
MV: Well, in general I think it’s good for the sport, the owners as well, they want more races I think in the US. I think what we’re doing, at the moment, is of course trying to make the sport more popular and more well known in the US. I enjoy being here. It doesn’t matter if it’s in Austin or LA or Miami or wherever in America, I think it’s just a very cool place to be. I think a few – or one or two more races, they wouldn’t hurt, as long as they are exciting of course and a lot of fans are attending.
Q: Max, what was the atmosphere like in Los Angeles yesterday? Was there a great atmosphere? What was the reception like from the crowd?
MV: It felt good. They liked the noise as well from the cars, as soon as we were warming the engines already they loved it. Of course it was all very limited, we could basically only do a few doughnuts and stuff but I guess they liked that already but of course it would be even better to show how quick we can go through corners as well and hopefully with those kind of regulations coming in also the racing will be really cool to watch.
Q: (Yhacbec Lopez – Motorlat) Max, do you think Lewis and Seb are more aggressive with you than any other driver on the grid?
MV: I don’t know. I think you should ask them that question.
Q: (Ben Hunt – The Sun) Max, it’s for you, unfortunately, again…
MV: It’s not a surprise so…
Q: (Ben Hunt – The Sun) Well, you’re quite topical at the moment. Do you think you’re being treated fairly by the FIA in the wake of what happened at the last race, for your honesty, your brutal honesty, about the yellow flags? And also do you think that you’re getting dug out by Lewis, by Sebastian? They don’t seem to dig anyone else out, it just seems to be you; you seem to be the centre of attention a lot of time.
MV: No, I think it was very fair from the FIA. We had a good talk in the stewards and I said ‘I didn’t see the yellow flag’ but of course there’s a rule that when there is a yellow flag displayed that you have to slow down so from my side, there are also no hard feelings about that. It’s just very unfortunate I didn’t see that yellow flag and in hindsight I also didn’t need to go for that lap time because I was already on pole position but what was going through my head throughout that lap was you don’t know what the other guys in front of you are doing, if they are improving, are they beating your pole lap time? I didn’t see the yellow flag, I improved my lap time, in hindsight I didn’t need to do it but also in hindsight I think next time I’m anyway going to lift even if they would improve my lap time, just because they got lucky, they were in front of the accident. It is what it is but of course…. At the moment we are still not in a position to fight for pole position all the time so of course I was enjoying the moment as well. But still, it was a great result for us, it showed that after the few difficult races we’ve had in terms of performance the car was working really well so that was a big boost even though we didn’t start from pole position.
And then your second question, I think from my side it only shows that I’m in their heads and I guess that’s a good thing but from my side I don’t need to dig in to other people in the press conferences because first of all I think it’s a bit disrespectful as well and I prefer to fight on track which I love to do and of course I like to fight hard but on the edge. Otherwise, if they want me to stay behind, it’s also better to stay at home. I really want to take the fight to them because that’s what we are here for. We are racers, we in Formula One, I think we are the best out there and we do fight for victories because that’s what I live for.
