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1 – Carlos SAINZ (Ferrari)
2 – Charles LECLERC (Ferrari)
3 – Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing)
PARC FERMÉ INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Danica Patrick)
Q: Max, it's been a very emotional day for the whole team at Red Bull to
lose Dietrich. Tell me how you're feeling right now.
Max VERSTAPPEN: Yeah, I mean it's been hard news I think for everyone. I
think what he has meant for Red Bull but also for the sport and especially
also for me, what he has done for me in general, my career so far and
generally my life, you know. It's really tough. It's a very tough day and
yeah, we tried of course and we gave it everything today in qualifying.
Unfortunately, we missed out by a little bit. But there's still a race ahead
of course, and yeah, we're going to try to make him proud tomorrow.
Q: What's it going to take to win from the second row? Everybody that's won
here has won from the first row, with obviously how big this would be to get
your 13th win in the season and also with the news today. To win tomorrow,
what are you going to have to do?
MV: Well, I think our car normally in the race is a bit stronger than
qualifying and I think already today in qualifying it was very fine margins.
If you could switch your tyres on a bit better, I think that would have made
a difference. But nonetheless, you know, we are there and I'm expecting a
good race tomorrow.
Q: Charles, tell me about that lap. This is a tricky track. There's fast,
there’s slow stuff. How hard is it to put one whole lap together and is
there something out there that could have been different that would have set
you on the pole?
Charles LECLERC: It is obviously really difficult, especially with the wind,
the car changes a lot from lap to lap. But yeah, overall, I did my best. The
last lap wasn't the best. Carlos did a better job today and deserves to be
on pole. I'll be starting a bit further back because of the penalty. But the
goal is to try and come back to the front as quickly as possible.
Q: This is a sad day for everyone with the loss of Dietrich today. Tell me
about what it means to have someone like that in the sport, that believes in
racing, and everything that we love so much, to lose someone like that?
CL: It is incredibly sad. But apart from everything that he has done in his
career, which is incredible, he’s a human being and it is a really sad loss
for motor sport. So yeah, all my thoughts go to the family and friends.
Q: How much are you thinking about winning the race tomorrow versus the
championship? Is there anything that you plan to do differently? Are you
going to be careful in any way, because the championship is so close for
second place?
CL: Yeah, well, I'll give my best as always. Again, we are starting I think
12th or 11th with the engine penalty that we have. So yeah, I'll give my
best. No crazy risks but if there's an opportunity I will I'll be here to
take it.
Q: Good luck. Carlos, what an incredible lap. Walk me through the lap. How
was that for you? Were you in flow?
Carlos SAINZ: It was fun, a lot of fun. Very tricky out there with these
winds that we have today. So gusty that every corner is a bit of an
adventure with these cars. You don't know how much grip you're going to get
or how much grip to expect but I managed to put together a good lap without
mistakes and yeah, pole position that was a long time coming after a few
qualies in the dry, getting very close to it but not quite getting there.
Q: What does it take to have a good day on Sunday, with how easy it is to
make mistakes? Like, what is it that you're going to have to put together to
stay where you're at?
CS: Yeah, I'm not going to lie, I think for tomorrow Red Bull are still
favourites. I think they normally have the better race pace. They normally
get us in the race because they have a very, yeah, Max does a great job and
Red Bull has a very good car in race trim. But we're going to do everything
we can to try and stay ahead tomorrow and win the race, which would be an
amazing way to start these last four races.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Carlos, what a tremendous qualifying session for you, just talk us
through that final lap of Q3?
CS: Yeah, it was, it was good. Right from Q1 I had a good feeling with a
car. So yeah, it was all about building it up until Q3 and putting the lap
together in Q3. Yeah, it was quite tricky out there, a lot of wind, which
means in some corners you never know what to expect. You have to have faith
that the car is going to stay stuck to the ground and carry a lot of speed
without knowing what the wind is going to do. But yeah, a bit of an
adventure out there, but it was cool. It was a lot of fun. Like always,
Austin is a great track to drive and I always enjoy it.
Q: You told us on Thursday that your one lap pace is there now. Can you tell
us a little bit more about what has clicked between you and your car?
CS: It's been a long year, obviously, from the beginning of the year
struggling with the car and little by little making steps forward. I feel
like the last five to seven races have been very close to the limit already
in quali, but the pole position in the dry was never quite coming. It has
been extremely tight with these two guys since before the summer break. But
for some reason or another, I was falling half a tenth short, and I really
wanted to make one stick and today was great to get it and get that out of
the way.
Q: Now this race at COTA has always been one from the front row of the grid.
How do you see the challenges ahead tomorrow, when you will have Max lining
up alongside you after the grid penalties have been applied?
CS: I think, you know, tomorrow we are going to try everything we can to
stay ahead and win the race. But at the same time, we are realistic. And we
know what Red Bull is capable of doing on Sundays. They are favourites in
that way for tomorrow because they always manage to put a very good Sunday
together with tyre management, with race execution. So it will be a good
test to try and try and do it. I would love to win tomorrow. This is my
target and that's what I'm going to try. But I'm also realistic that it's
going to be tough out there.
Q: Charles, coming to you now. Second fastest today. Quickest after the
first runs of Q3 and you ended up just 0.1s behind your teammate. Can you
see where that time went?
CL: When you speak about such a small margin, you can always do better. But
every driver can do better in Q3 when you see the lap afterwards. So, Carlos
did a better job today and he deserves to be on pole. It was close. It was
very, very tricky with the wind. And yeah, I won't be starting P2 tomorrow
because of the penalty, so the race will be a bit uphill for me but we'll
give it all and try to come back at the front as quickly as possible.
Q: Charles, just tell us a little bit more about that second lap of Q3. Did
the car look a little bit looser?
CL: Yeah. But to be honest, that's how I like it. Maybe too loose in the
last corner and I lost quite a bit there but yeah, it's okay.
Q: You have this 10-place penalty tomorrow. What's going to be possible for
you?
CL: I don't know but I will try to make some places as quickly as possible
in the first few laps so I can be in the fight and join these two guys at
the front as quickly as possible.
Q: Max, many congratulations to you. Another great effort, although I'm sure
the shine has been taken off it following the news of Dietrich's passing.
MV: Yeah, of course. I mean, for us it was, I think, a tough entry to
qualifying. And then you don't really care about the result as well, you
know? it doesn't matter because we’re more about what happened today and
also what he has meant to everyone within the whole team, what he has built
up in Formula One, the company itself Red Bull, and personally to me,
because without him, I wouldn't be sitting here today and I wouldn't have
had the success I've had. So yeah, it's incredibly tough for everyone in the
team, and luckily I got to see him a couple of weeks back. So we could spend
a little bit of time together. But it's still a tough day.
Q: Just to bring it back to today and the performance of the car. Just a few
words from you about how the car felt out there.
MV: It was alright. It was very tricky today with the wind out there,
especially in the first sector in the high-speed corners, when you have the
tailwind on this track it makes it really tricky. But besides that, also
getting the tyres in the right window wasn't the easiest. So, we tried a few
different things. I think at the end of the day, we were competitive on both
strategies that we tried. Just in my first lap in Q3, I lost like
three-tenths in the first corner, just hitting a few bumps and losing the
rear. It was just really tricky out there. And then the second run was good
in Sector One, Sector Two, we look very strong. And then I ran out of tyres
a little bit in the last sector with big oversteer in the second-to-last
corner. But all in all, we're still very close to pole. Last race, it was
the other way around where I was on pole, but it was all fine margins. And
now, you know, when you don't get it entirely together, you are P3 but at
the same distance between the three cars. So yeah, I think still it's a
great result. I mean, we know that we have a quick race car, so I think
anyway tomorrow we should be strong.
Q: And do you agree with Carlos that you start favourite tomorrow?
MV: Ah, it doesn't matter if you're a favourite or not. I'm just going to
have fun out there.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Alex Kalinauckas – Autosport) Question to Carlos please. I think it's
four times you were within a 10th of a second of getting pole. I think you
mentioned you're getting frustrated with that at the last race. What do you
think was the one key thing that really made the difference to you
overcoming that stat today? Thanks.
CS: Well, I kept my head down, you know, and kept trusting that one day was
going to come. Also, I keep trying different things in free practice to keep
getting the car a bit more to my liking. I keep trying different things on
driving style, on set-up, on toys, on everything you know? Some weekends I
get it wrong, others I get it right and it gives me a bit of an edge, and I
can keep progressing. I think keeping faith, and keeping trust that it was
going to come was the key. And obviously keep making a clean lap. You know,
there's been qualifying this year where I was half a 10th of pole and I had
done a fairly big mistake in the last sector or in the second sector that
had cost me, so also having a decently clean lab for the wind conditions
that were out there contributed.
Q: (Christian Menath – Motorsport-magazin.com) Two questions for Max. You
mentioned the situation with the tyres, I think you started the first
attempt in Q3 with a used set of tyres. Can you explain the thinking behind
it? Was it easier to get them into the window? And the second question is
about Turn 1, because we've seen some… Mick spun in Turn 1, you have a
moment? Is it that the bumps there are getting worse?
MV: The first one, it’s just different strategies we tried. So they were
scrubbed from that out-in I did in Q2. So, it was just something to try. And
it clearly didn't work out in Turn 1. But yeah, I mean, for sure the bumps
around here. It’s not like normal bumps you get on a track just by running
and the cars grinding. Here, the earth, of course, is moving a lot more and
it makes it quite difficult in some places to drive in general. So probably
that also makes Turn 1 quite a bit harder again, this year.
Q: (Jesús Balseiro – Diario AS) Question to Carlos, you spoke about your
improvements on the Saturday during the second part of the season. But how
confident are you in your race pace on the Sunday, for tomorrow?
CS: This weekend, it hasn't been too bad. We've had quite a lot of
degradation, I think across the whole grid. We know when there's a lot of
degradation sometimes we struggle a bit more than Red Bull or Mercedes. So,
we need to keep an eye on that. But the pace itself has been good. So,
there's nothing to not be confident to try and go for the win tomorrow and
try and put together a good race. But we are also aware that with the
temperatures tomorrow, it could be a tough day out there.
Q: (Alex Kalinauckas – Autosport) Charles, could you please explain the
problem that stopped you doing a high fuel run in FP3? And does Ferrari go
into the race lacking a bit of race data against Red Bull?
CL: It was a small cut on the tyre that we didn't want to take any risks so
nothing too big really. I don't think so. We've got this FP2 run also that
nobody could do just because I didn't run in FP1. So I could use the medium
which gave us a little bit of data, a little bit less data this morning in
FP3 but all in all, I don't think it will be a factor that will… that has
compromised us for the race tomorrow.
Q: (Christian Menath – Motorsportmagazin.com) Have you been happy with the
explanation you've been given from the FIA about the incidents in Suzuka and
how fast they reacted? And, most importantly, do you welcome the step to
revert to only one race director?
CL: For now, to be honest, we haven't discussed it too much. There was a
long paper that I haven't got the time to read yet. But I think the target
is to speak about it at the next race. So yeah, I still need to go through
the paper to be honest.
CS: Yeah, same. We all decided to postpone the Suzuka talks to Mexico due to
a lot of drivers not having the time to read the paper and have these three
or four days to read it and comment with our teams and everyone involved to
see what other ideas we can come up with. But yeah, visibility was
discussed, which for me is actually nearly more important than anything
else.
Q: Can you comment on the race director situation?
CS: I'm going to keep my thoughts to myself on that one, and I'm going to
let the FIA know what is my preference, but I really trust that the FIA are
doing everything they can do to keep improving. I’m not going to lie, it's
been a tough year for them and we all want progress and we all want to go in
the right direction, and we're going to do everything we can to help them.
MV: Yeah, I think the main issue in Suzuka was the visibility because of
course, for myself, when I drove past Carlos’s car with the tractor or the
crane or however you call it, you see it, of course, but when you are
behind, and nobody tells you, or communicates to the teams that there is a
crane on the track, and you suddenly come out of the spray, because that's
the thing you do, right, when you're behind a car, I always try to go left
or right to see. And if you don't know that there is a crane there, then,
yeah, I can understand, of course, people get quite upset. So probably
already there, knowing that we have these visibility issues, you can
communicate faster and better about ‘guys, we have to send a crane onto the
track to get the car away.’ I think that would have helped already a lot. So
that's, I think, for sure what will change for the future if it happens
again. And then yeah, the rest of Suzuka, this is an ongoing topic which I
think is also not something you can easily solve overnight. And about the
race director situation, from my side I guess time will tell what is right.
Do you need one? Do you need two? Do you need three? Five? I don't know.
It's difficult.
Q: (Jeff Gluck – The Athletic) Max, how important is the single season wins
record to you and have you been thinking about that this weekend at all so
far?
MV: I know the opportunity is there and I know that we have a quick car. But
I'm anyway not really busy with stats or whatever, because you can't compare
them anyway because also now like we're doing more races so if you have a
competitive car, there's a bigger opportunity of you reaching that. So I
don't like to compare to, let's say, people who have raced in the ‘70s,
‘80s, '90s, early 2000s because it's impossible. So I just focus on what I
can do every single weekend, try to get the best out of myself, out of the
car and if we keep doing that, I'm just happy with that stat but not about
potentially winning 13 or 14 races in a year.
Q: (Jim Vertuno – Associated Press) Max, I know that the news is still
pretty fresh but I'm wondering if you've got a particular memory of Dietrich
or maybe the first time you met him or something that stands out for you in
your career?
MV: For me, Dietrich was always super kind and caring and he didn't like to
be in the foreground, like he always was there but he didn't want to be in
front of the cameras. When you get to know him more personally he was super
nice. He was a big race fan, but I think the commitment he has shown to
Formula 1 and basically to have two Formula 1 teams is incredible and also
the amount of young talent he has supported throughout all these years. And
especially from my side, to believe in me from such a young age and also
really see that relationship grow, year after year, was very special. And
yeah, I will forever remember those… or the final visit I had with him, what
we talked about, and just the time we spent during that day for me was, at
the time already, very, very special but it's definitely even more special
now.
Q: Can I put that question to you Carlos, as a former Red Bull driver: a
memory of Dietrich?
CS: Yeah, I would like to, first of all, send my condolences to his family
and to the whole Red Bull family, because I knew Dietrich quite a lot and
I've been also helped a lot by his support in the past. I wouldn't been in
Formula 1 without him, I wouldn't have reached Formula 1 without him and,
yeah, the amount of things that he's done for motor sport, not only Formula
1 and young drivers but if you think about how many Red Bull logos are out
there in all the categories from MotoGP to F1, to all the sports that you
can think about and how he has supported young talent, how many people have
been supported by him and by his vision, by his idea, is crazy and I think
he was a super important guy, a super nice guy, a guy that I always enjoy
being around and from here I want to send my condolences and rest in peace.
Q: (Alex Kalinauckas – Autosport) Max, you mentioned that Red Bull tried a
lot of different tactics throughout qualifying to get the best out of the
tyres. What was it that made you settle on going for that extra prep lap for
the second run in Q3, please?
MV: It was just very difficult, I think, to switch on the tyres, I think,
for everyone out there. I just wanted to try something different. I mean, of
course, we analyse what was the best but at the end of the day, we are still
in a great starting position. Nothing is lost. Nothing is won of course
today. We just have to be there. And like I said before, like I know we have
a quick race car so if we have a clean first lap I know that we can have a
very good race. |
