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DRIVERS – Brendon HARTLEY
(Toro Rosso), Kevin MAGNUSSEN (Haas), Lance STROLL (Williams), Marcus
ERICSSON (Sauber), Stoffel VANDOORNE (McLaren)
PRESS CONFERENCE
Marcus, if we could start with you. It’s been a busy couple of weeks for you
since Mexico. You’ve announced your plans for 2019, in IndyCar. Is that
farewell to Formula 1 or do you see IndyCar as a stepping stone back to
Formula 1?
Marcus ERICSSON: I don’t really know the answer to that question; I think
that’s what the future will tell. I go to America fully committed to doing a
great job over there. I see myself as being there for quite some time. But
then in the future you never know what will happen. I’m just super excited
to go there. I met the team and it felt really, really good. I think IndyCar,
from the outside, looks like a lot of fun, so I can’t wait to get started.
Q: So that means your Formula 1 tenure is over, at least for now. How do you
reflect on the last five years?
ME: It’s been amazing, I’ve really enjoyed it, but it’s also been tough.
Most of the time I’ve been running in back-of-the-grid teams and cars and
that’s always tough, especially when you’re used to growing up through the
junior ranks and you always fight for wins and podiums and you always go in
with that mindset to a race weekend, and then the last five years that’s
never been realistic and that’s been the tough part of it. That’s why also
I’m so excited about next year, that I can actually be back racing for wins
again. I bring a lot of experience and a lot of good memories from these
five years, for sure.
Q: Let’s just finish by talking about the on-track performance of you and
your Sauber. You had your sixth points finish of the year in Mexico. How
confident are you of repeating that here at Interlagos?
ME: We are confident that we can be competitive here. I’ve scored points now
two weekends in a row and I’m aiming to continue that. I think the car at
the moment is competitive. We know it’s very tight there in the midfield but
we’ve done a good job all year to improve all the time and we continue to do
that and I’m sure we’re going to be in the fight this weekend as well. I
feel really good, feel really confident so I’m sure we’re going to be there
and fight for those points on Sunday.
Q: Thank you, Marcus. Stoffel, you're another driver who has announced plans
outside of: is it farewell to Formula 1 or do you see Formula E as a
stepping stone back into Formula 1?
Stoffel VANDOORNE: It’s a bit hard to tell. I’m starting a new challenge,
which I’m really looking forward to, with HWA in Formula E. I don’t really
have a break this winter, so I’m going straight into that and that will also
be… my mindset is to do the best job there. So whatever happens in the
future, it’s difficult to tell at the moment. You know, the driver market
this summer has been a little bit crazy and no one could have really
expected what has happened. Things like that can happen in the future and
who knows what is going to happen. But for now I’m just focusing on Formula
E and trying to do the best job there.
Q: So how do you reflect on your couple of seasons with McLaren?
SV: Definitely it’s not been the best two seasons. I’ve had a great time
with McLaren through the junior series and they’ve supported me a lot to
make the step into Formula 1. But the two years I’ve had in Formula 1 have
been good in terms of experience but I would have much preferred to fight
higher up. The timing was right to get to Formula 1 and I think I was with
the right team, the right support, but I think just the competitive we’ve
had over those two years have not been great. It would have been nice to
fight a bit higher up.
Q: Well, we saw you back in the points in Mexico last time out, where you
finished eighth. Just talk us through that result: what changed on the car,
did you make a breakthrough, because you were more competitive?
SV: Nothing changed. That weekend we just looked a little bit more
competitive in general. From my side that weekend went really well from the
start. Qualifying wasn’t maybe the best for us but we were a little bit
closer to the group in front, which usually means on race day we are a
little bit better than them. It turned out to be that way. I think the tyre
degradation helped us quite a lot there to be a bit more competitive and to
make a bit of a difference. It was nice to finish eighth and get some points
on the board and also quite important for us for the Constructors’
Championship.
Q: Thank you. Brendon, we’ve been speaking to these guys about 2019. Any
update on your plans for next year?
Brendon HARTLEY: Pretty much the same stance I’ve had for the last races.
It’s probably not worth going into. I’m still very much focused on my own
performance, what I can do to get the most out of the weekend, working with
the team. I’m focusing on myself and not much has changed, so there’s no
real news to give you.
Q: You’ve started ahead of your team-mate Pierre Gasly in two of the last
three races, so it feels like you’re getting a bit of momentum behind you.
While we’re in reflective mood, can you just talk us through how you feel
you’ve improved as a driver during 2018.
BH: Yeah, I definitely have improved and there was a lot to learn, being a
rookie – an old rookie at 28 years old – but still a rookie in Formula One.
Coming from LMP1 there was a lot of similarities, which I’ve touched on many
times before but then also a lot of new things to learn. Tyres is a big one
that springs to mind. Maybe the environment in Formula One, the style of
racing, and I guess some of the external pressures that are sometimes put on
you as a driver. I felt through the season… yeah, I’ve maybe hardened my
approach, I’ve got stronger, I’ve learnt from mistakes, figured out, with
the engineers what’s going to get the most out of the weekend for me, in
terms of the car, the set-up. I think I’ve bought a lot of experience to the
team and in the second half of the season I’ve definitely been stronger.
Qualifying, me and Pierre have been quite aligned: sometimes he’s been just
ahead, sometimes I’ve been just ahead. The races haven’t always worked out
and I don’t think the points on the board is a true reflection. I think
sometimes people do forget it’s also a team sport, it’s not just an
individual, it is very much a team sport and I’ve been a team player. I
think now the focus is really on making sure we’re ahead of Sauber before
the end of the season. That’s the main focus for Toro Rosso right now and I
think we’ve got an exciting couple of races ahead. Mexico we had really,
really good pace considering we had the older-spec engine. Even with the
issue I had on the first lap with the flat spot, I was still in a points
position before the penalty and the damage, and I think that, knowing how
much performance we can gain from the new engine, and potentially the new
aero package that we’ll both have this weekend, I think we can be excited
and optimistic for the last couple of races for 2018.
Q: You mentioned the upgraded Honda engine there. How much of an improvement
is that? Is it something you can actually feel in the cockpit?
BH: It’s a tricky one to answer because these Formula One cars are very
light and you have close to 1,000hp – I don’t know the exact number – and
the objective from the drivetrain, which is massively complicated with three
different engines and all sorts of calculations going on to make it all work
but in theory you get power when you put down the throttle pedal and… I
guess the point I’m trying to make is that every track we go to, we have
different downforce levels, different altitude in Mexico, for example, so to
feel a power increase is tricky for a driver but the lap time shows a story
and there’s no question from everybody in the team and from all the data
that there’s a really big step. I think we suffered a little bit in Mexico,
especially in the racing environments and off the start line not having it –
but we have it onboard again for the next two races and yeah, it gives us
something to be optimistic about.
Q: Lance, we’ve spoken to everyone else about 2019, so I feel it’s only
right that I should ask you the same question. When are you going to tell us
what your plans are?
Lance STROLL: Yeah, well, right now I’m still focussed on the remainder of
this season. There’s two races left, that’s where my heads at. We’ll see
what the future holds.
Q: Can we expect an announcement about your future within this season or do
you think it’ll be a winter announcement?
LS: I believe so. Time will tell. That’s all I can say right now.
Q: I think that’s you telling us to move on. We’re in reflective mood here.
You’re coming towards the end of your second season in Formula One. Talk us
through your ambitions in the sport now. You’ve been able to observe all the
other drivers around you, including the world champions. What do you think
you can achieve in Formula One?
LS: That’s dependent on a lot of things. I mean, right now I’m just taking
it day by day, year by year. We’ll see – but there are so many factors in
Formula One that are important. You need to be in a good car first of all –
this year has been a good example: it’s been a very challenging year with
the car. The performance really hasn’t been there and therefore we couldn’t
score many points. So that’s a bit part of it – but yeah, I’m not looking
too far down the line right now, I’m really just trying to, y’know, focus on
the present, make the most of where I am currently and we’ll see down the
line what happens. It’s too hard to tell, sitting here today.
Q: How difficult has it been for you to make the most of where you are
currently, because it’s been a difficult season? What do you feel you’ve
learned during 2018?
LS: Yeah, it has been very challenging. The car just hasn’t been there so
we’ve just been surviving every weekend rather than actually competing. Been
getting knocked out in Q1 a lot, most of the races I’ve had good starts and
I’ve been in a points-scoring position, we’ve just fell back down the order
so it’s kind of always been the case, we’ve just been on the back foot
throughout the whole year. We haven’t really developed the car at all since
Australia, I don’t think we’ve really improved the car at all. It’s been
tough to see some of our competitors early on, like Sauber, for example, who
were neck and neck with us at the beginning, make big steps in the right
direction, compared to us. Yeah, it’s been a survival year, that’s all I can
say. But I’ve still developed as a driver, I’ve matured as a driver. The
second year in Formula One, more seat time, more experience. I’ve absorbed a
lot of information, even though it’s been a very challenging year compared
to last year but that’s the nature of the sport. As a driver, you have to
accept that some years are more challenging than others and that’s part of
the game.
Q: Kevin, we’re talking about 2018, so how do you reflect on the season
that’s just been? It’s been a good year for you. You can clinch your
qualifying head-to-head against Romain Grosjean this weekend in Brazil.
Kevin MAGNUSSEN: Yeah, it has been a pretty good year, I think. It has shown
that we are making progress with the team, year by year, and I think our aim
should be to keep that up in the next season. I think this year it looks
like we’re probably going to finish fifth in the Constructors unless we get
some very good weekends in the next two weekends. That leaves us at least
one realistic target for next year, to take another step forward. I think
this year we’ve had a very fast car. We haven’t always scored the points
that we should have for different reasons but the good thing about that is
that we can go into next season and know that we can do better, because the
performance is there.
Q: Well, Mexico really hurt the team’s chances of getting P4 in the
championship, didn’t it? Both cars knocked out in Q1 for the first time this
year; do you understand what the problems were in Mexico?
KM: Not quite, but I think we understand that it’s probably to do with tyres
as we hadn’t changed the car so the only thing that really can be such a big
factor is the tyres and I think in Mexico you have these factors like you
have very little downforce because of the altitude and that has a lot of
knock-on effects on different things so cooling as well and you run the car
in a different window in Mexico. I think we got the tyre performance a
little bit wrong so we suffered a lot in Mexico and that was a weekend to
forget, definitely, but also at the same time we of course are trying to
learn from it because last year and the year before the team also had a bad
weekend in Mexico, so hopefully next year we can learn a bit more and get
there a little bit more prepared, to not have such a big off weekend.
QUESTION FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Ian Parks – New York Times) Stoffel and Kevin; Stoff you touched on your
two years at McLaren, can you just expand a little on your relationship with
Fernando, what you might take forward from those two years, having worked
alongside an experienced double World Champion? And Kevin, could you just
give me your thoughts on Fernando as a driver? I know you’ve expressed some
disagreements in the past. Does that still hold true and what positives can
you say about him?
SV: Yeah, for me it’s definitely been a good experience to go alongside
Fernando, let’s say. The way he prepares a weekend – obviously Fernando’s
one of the most experienced drivers on the grid. I think as a rookie it was
very valuable for me to learn from that, especially the way he prepares his
weekend, through the practice sessions, how he’s building up to the race on
Sunday, how he’s trying to extract the most so there’s a definitely a lot
I’ve learned over the past two years which I can carry forward.
KM: My respect for Fernando as a driver is very big. There’s no doubt he’s
definitely one of the best drivers on the grid. Even though we’ve had some
tough fights and a few arguments, there’s no damage to my respect for him as
a driver. I think that’s it. |
