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1 – Lando NORRIS (McLaren)
2 – Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing)
3 – George RUSSELL (Mercedes)
TRACK INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Jolyon Palmer)
Q: George Russell,
a podium to start the year. I'm exhausted, having watched the race. How do
you feel having driven that one?
George RUSSELL: Yeah, it was a great
race to come home in P3. I just want to say a massive well done to Lando. I
think in a race like that, when you're leading, it's probably your worst
nightmare. But he did a great job. Also, really well under Kimi to come back
to P5, which is a really impressive first race. For us, it wasn't our
strongest weekend, but to end up on the podium—super happy. Yeah, let's see
what we can do next week.
Q: That looked like some of the toughest
conditions I've ever seen – a crash before the start of the race, a delayed
start, crashes under safety car. How do you keep it on the island in
conditions like that?
GR: Yeah, it was good fun. I was quite enjoying
it, to be honest, because I was hoping the two guys ahead would make a
mistake and I could slip through, but that just didn't seem to be the case
today. Really tricky, but that's what F1's about, and that's what makes it
exciting for us. I hope everyone enjoyed it at home.
Q: And the best
start of the season that Mercedes have made since you've been at the
team—podium, you've got Kimi Antonelli, your young teammate with you as
well. It's got to be confidence-boosting?
GR: Yeah, absolutely. It's
been, all things considered, a really good weekend. We know McLaren are out
in front at the moment, but this was a strong result.
Q: Well done,
George. Enjoy the podium. Max, unbelievable race. So much going on to unpick
through it, but let's start with the finale—pressuring Lando all the way.
Somehow through it all, it's you two at the front again, and you've just
missed out this time. But brilliant job. Well done.
Max VERSTAPPEN: Yeah,
it was a difficult race, of course, but at the end, it was fun. Lando had a
little moment on entry of six, so he lost a lot of momentum there. That's
why I got close, and then I got DRS. I got close but it's very hard to pass
around here. It was fun those last laps, you know, pushing at least, when
you're fighting for the win. I'm just very happy to bring it home, score
good points. This is, let's say, a decent starting point for us.
Q:
Talk us through the call to stay out on the slicks because that looked like
a split-second decision. One McLaren was off, one pitted, and suddenly
you're in the lead of the race.
MV: Yeah, it started to rain a bit. They
went off, so it was a bit like a panic. Like, "Oh, I need to box." So, they
went. I stayed out the first time. Honestly, the first lap, I think it was
alright. But then, unfortunately, the weather continued a little bit more on
the other side of the track as well, and we had to box. At the end of the
day, even if we had boxed one lap earlier, we would have still been P2 after
that stop. I think it was worth the gamble. It was quite spicy out there
with the slick tyres, but it was alright at the end.
Q: You
certainly gave it your best shot. So, what about the car in general? Moving
towards China next week, is it better than you expected to be able to fight
for a win straight away?
MV: It is what I expected it to be. You can see
also in that first stint, we were lacking a little bit of pace compared to
McLaren, but it's still 18 points more than what I had here last year so
I'll take that.
Q: Alright, well done, Max. Thanks for giving us a
great race. Lando, what an unbelievable victory. How difficult was that out
there? So much to deal with.
Lando NORRIS: It was amazing, thank you.
A tough race, especially with Max behind me. I was pushing. The last two
laps were a little bit stressful: I'm not going to lie. But an amazing way
to start the year. A tough one because we went off, made some big mistakes.
I went through the gravel, a lot of damage. Just tricky conditions, but
these are the ones that are enjoyable, fun, and unpredictable. This time, we
got it right and ended up on top. So, I’m very happy.
Q: And what
were your thoughts? You seemed so calm the whole way through the race. You
had a delayed start from pole position, you had Max behind you, Oscar behind
you, Max again at the end. And then there was this threat of rain coming
under the Safety Car. How much is that playing on your mind when you've just
got to keep it on a difficult race track as well? How do you keep calm? How
do you keep the communication so good?
LN: We got it wrong a lot last
year, so I guess we learned from our mistakes. We lost out on Silverstone
and Canada through a race like this. We've learned from our mistakes. I
think it's still only Round 1 of 24, but dealing with the pressure, dealing
with Max, dealing with Oscar behind me—I was pushing the whole way through.
I could relax inside, but I wasn't relaxing from how much I was pushing. A
tough one, so to not make too many mistakes, not to have a mistake that cost
me anything. I guess I can take a little bit of credit for that. A tough,
challenging race, but for McLaren, I need to give a big thanks because
they've given me an amazing car, so I have to start with them.
Q: No
one was ever going to make this one easy for you. The last laps—Max is on
your tail. You've got Will on the radio saying, "Don't over-push it." You've
got the Red Bull just there. How do you deal with that pressure?
LN: I
don't know, just drive, I guess. Max was quick. I knew I had good pace, but
I made one mistake in Turn 6, and he got within the DRS. The DRS around here
is probably like a second or something. That allowed him to keep staying
within that second and have a couple of little looks. I had to check my
mirror a few more times than I would have liked, but I stayed calm, kept it
together, and listened to Will, so that’s the most important thing.
Q: And it's just race one. You’re now the championship leader. You have the
car that put it on the front row with a lock-out with Oscar Piastri as well,
and you won the race with everything thrown at you. This must be a
confidence booster ahead of the whole year?
LN: You would hope so. It is.
My weekend's been amazing. From the get-go—from FP1, FP2, FP3, quali, and
now the race. It's not easy to put a weekend together like this, especially
when I've got a lot of pressure from Max and Oscar because they're hungry,
competitive, and want it just as badly. Stressful, but I know what I'm
capable of. I know what I can do. But like you said, it's just Round 1, so
we need to go and do it again next weekend and continue from there. A long
season ahead—we just have to keep our heads down and keep pushing.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Lando, very well done to you. Lots of pressure,
lots of weather throughout the race, yet you executed everything perfectly.
Just how satisfying was this win?
LN: Very, yeah. I mean, to start the
season off with a win is good enough, but to do it in such a stressful race,
where it's so easy to make a mistake, so easy to ruin everything, you know,
so quickly, it can all go wrong within any second of the race – you lock up,
you hit the white line wrong, you have a big snap. It was just very
difficult at times to not go into a wall or a tyre barrier somewhere. That's
a big enough challenge, but then when you've got the weather changing and
the track conditions changing, knowing when to make the correct decision to
change onto a slick tyre or stay out on the Inter tyre, and then even more
when I’ve got Max behind me and Oscar behind me, it's stressful, but that's
what makes it rewarding and such a nice win.
Yeah, difficult. A lot of
tough moments. I guess that's what makes it sweeter. But, you know, we
worked a lot over the winter to prepare for a race like this because it's
where we threw away a lot of opportunities last season – Canada, Silverstone
– where we were not the best at preparing and knowing how decisive we've got
to be. And today we were very decisive. Calling to box five minutes before I
boxed, but it was the right call in the end, and that won us the race.
Stressful, but rewarding.
Q: Just talk us through the peak stress
moment, when you ran through the gravel?
LN: Yeah, I mean, this is a
tough one. Max was on the Mediums, myself and Oscar on the Hard. So, I think
we knew if it started to rain, we'd struggle more than Max. At that time, we
still didn't have all the temperature in the tyres. Also, being first, you
just take the risks – how much do I push it? You don't know if you have to…
You see some drizzles of rain on the visor, and I got a call from Will
saying that it's drizzling a bit in the last sector. But you don't know if
you have to slow down five kilometres an hour, 10, 11. If you slow down 11,
maybe it's perfect; if you slow down 10, maybe you're off. Making those
decisions two metres before you brake, it's not easy. You’ve got to do a lot
of things on the fly and just wing it. Obviously, I went in a bit quick for
how much rain was coming down and I’ve completely gone off. I’ve managed to
just about get it stopped for the corner, but I looked in my mirror as I was
off and saw Oscar go through the gravel as well, and Max then catching. It’s
a very stressful moment because it all could have gone wrong there. If I
stayed on track, I think Max probably would have passed me because he was on
the Medium and probably in a better window than I had with the Hards. But we
boxed, and then half the track was completely dry, and half of it was wet –
kind of like a Spa kind of race. You don't know how much to push in the dry
bit because you destroy the Inters quickly. I think that's why I struggled a
bit at the end of the race – my Inters were just a little destroyed from
when it was still dry. A lot of things to factor in, so to get it all right
and deal with the stress in a good way was very nice.
Q: Lando. I'm
sure there are going to be lots of questions from the floor. So, final one
from me – just how sweet is it to lead the Drivers’ Championship for the
first time?
LN: It's great. Doesn't mean anything. I've not won it, so
yeah, I don't really care at the minute.
Q: Alright, very well done
to you. Max, let's come to you now. You ran Lando very close at the end.
What were you thinking? Just one more lap?
MV: No, not so much, to be
honest. I just tried my best, tried to be close, tried to put a bit of
pressure on, but it's very hard to pass around here. There was only one
line. Even if I had gotten a run into whatever, Turn 9, you have to go onto
the wet part, so you can't really do a lot. But at least it was close. It
looked good on TV.
Q: Can we talk a lot more about the rain? Tell us
about the call to stay out one more lap?
MV: Two more laps! We were on
the Medium, and of course, you never know how that's going to work out. But
I thought it was quite a sensible call with 15, 16, or 20 laps to go when
the Safety Car came out. Then, of course, it started to rain. I saw them go
off in front of me, kept it clean, and when I saw Oscar rejoining, I
thought, "Well, let's stay out," because it was only those three corners.
The rest was still dry. When I continued, basically, the first two sectors
were fine – it was just if I could survive the final sector. I think that
lap I did was okay. If there wasn't much more rain coming, I thought it
could work. You also have to factor in that even if they caught me on an
Inter, they’d have to box again for slicks, if it’s not going to rain
anymore. So, it was fine. I thought, "Yeah, we'll do another lap," but then,
unfortunately, on that lap, the first sector was still okay-ish, but then in
Sector 2, it started to rain a bit too much and we had to box. But in
hindsight, it wouldn't have mattered. If I’d boxed with Lando, it would have
been P2. If I’d boxed the next lap, it would have been P2. And the lap that
I did box, I was also P2. So, we tried something else—it might have worked.
In a way, it didn’t work, but we didn’t lose any position, so it’s fine.
Q: Max, when you think where you and the team were at the start of the
weekend on Friday after practice, how satisfying is this P2?
MV: I think
it's good compared to the teams behind us. But if you look at the first
stint, we were quite a bit off. As soon as the tyres started to overheat, we
had no chance. McLaren just took off. So, we still have a lot of work to do
to fight for a win. But yeah, I’m happy that we are second here. It's
basically one place better than we should have been. And it's 18 more points
than I had last year at this race.
Q: Alright, very well done to you.
Thank you for that. George, let's come to you now. Your best result in a
season-opening race. It was very difficult conditions out there. What was
the key to the podium for you?
GR: Yeah, I think just staying out of
trouble, to be honest. It was pretty clear from the beginning that these
guys were too quick for us, and we were quicker than Ferrari. So, I was kind
of in no man's land. I made a decision quite early on that the best way to
approach this race was just to bring it home. If I risked it more, there was
no extra reward on the table because they were just so far ahead. Very
difficult. As Lando said, any small mistake and you'd be punished. But
pleased to come home with this result because I don't think this is probably
our strongest circuit. Especially after yesterday with the hot temperatures,
I was also very happy with the P4 in quali.
Q: How hard was it for
you to pit on the right lap? Just talk us through the process.
GR: The
process started this morning, to be honest. We had some really good
conversations about how we were going to make these decisions, what they
needed from me, what I needed from them. I knew the rain would be getting
heavier, so it was down to me to make that decision. Similar to Lando, I
made the call five seconds in advance, and the guys were ready to change the
tyres. That was a key moment in the race. I’m really happy about it because
these mixed-condition races—for both of us, to be honest—they've gone away
from us in the last couple of races. When we look at Brazil last year, we
both got it wrong with strategy. Also in Montreal, it kind of went away from
us as well. I think now, just to be here, is a good result.
QUESTIONS
FROM THE FLOOR .
Q: (Michael Butterworth – Xinhua News Agency) Lando,
on the basis of what we've seen so far in Bahrain and this weekend, McLaren
looks to have the edge over the rest of the pack. Are there any circuits or
types of circuits where you think you might struggle more than you have so
far?
LN: I do, but I think we'll have both. I think we'll have tracks
where we will be even better, and I think we'll have a couple where we’ll
struggle. We were good last year, especially in the second half of the
season, but Vegas was woeful. In fact, we were shocking. There are other
tracks along those lines where we did struggle quite a bit. We've definitely
made our car much more balanced across all types of circuits – high speed,
low speed, high downforce, low downforce. We’re competitive at most. But
these low grip tracks like Vegas, we really struggled. It highlighted our
issues with the front of the car – the graining, the lack of rotation. We
know that, though. We know where we're going to struggle. Even in Bahrain a
couple of weeks ago, we came out confident, but everyone was hyping us up a
lot. Mainly just because our high-fuel pace was very strong. But on low
fuel, we were struggling. We were not as quick as some of the others. Even
if we took all our fuel out and max the engine mode, I don't think we would
have been quicker. We know we have work to do. If we raced in Bahrain again,
I wouldn’t be confident we could win the race. But I’m confident that when
we go to China next weekend, we can be very strong, because we were strong
there last year with not a very good car.
So, a mixture. But I hope not.
Vegas was our worst last season, so I’m hoping we’ll improve by then.
Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Lando, you were talking about the work
you did over the winter. What does that work look like? Also, in the race,
at one point, it almost looked like you were going to pre-empt the
conditions with a tyre change, which is not often a good decision in Formula
1. How does that fit in with that work? What’s going on in that whole
situation?
LN: I mean, like I said, we lost out on a few races last year.
Not even ones where it was a guaranteed win, but I think Silverstone was
probably a guaranteed win. I don’t know what call we made, but it was a
shocking one and we accepted that. Canada wasn’t a guaranteed win. George
was quick, Mercedes was quick, and Max was quick. But we didn’t nail the
strategy. We knew we had to improve in certain areas. There’s been a lot of
work on trying to make sure we're snappier and better with communication. To
be honest, today, I wouldn't say it was snappy – I felt like I was having
story time with Will on the radio. We were talking so much every lap; I
might as well have left my radio open the whole race. It’s a difficult
situation being first and not knowing what to do with tyres. You just know
someone behind will get it right behind you, because they’re going to gamble
something, and it’ll work out for them. I didn’t want to lose out to someone
in the middle of the pack who gambled and somehow won. So, I was just making
sure we were prepared. I was making sure the guys on the pit wall and
everyone back in Mission Control at MTC were aware of what was going on.
Making sure we were on top of it, ready to make the right call. That right
call was made literally half a second before I boxed, as I was still trying
to save the car and didn’t shunt. It turned out to be the right decision. It
was more about relaying information and making sure we’re not overdoing it,
a good amount of information—giving them my feelings. A little drizzle
seemed to make a big difference for us today, especially for me on the hard
tyres. That’s what allowed us to make that call to box as quickly as we did.
There’s a lot more behind the scenes that even I don’t know. A lot of it is
the strategy team doing their work. I owe them a lot of credit today because
they’ve put in a lot of time and effort over the winter. It’s not just about
driving a car quickly on a day like today, strategy is a big part of it too.
I owe a lot to Will and the strategy team today.
Q: (Michael Doyle –
ABC Sport) A question for all of you. A couple of the crashes today happened
in parts of the circuit that don’t have a big run-off area. In those
situations – particularly the Fernando Alonso crash – would you have been
happy as drivers for a red flag, or were you comfortable driving past the
lorries and marshals on track?
LN: I was comfortable.
MV: Yeah, I
thought it was fine. I mean, if you crash behind the safety car, you're
really stupid.
LN: You shouldn't be in Formula 1 then.
GR: Yeah, I
think it was fine.
Q: (Luke Smith – The Athletic) Lando, just talk
through those closing stages when Max was closing up on you. You talked
about the pressure in your opening answer. How did you deal with Max in your
mirrors?
LN: The thing is, I knew I was going to struggle a bit because I
put the Inters on two laps before Max, and with half the track still being
dry, I pushed. Even the high-speed was dry, so I kind of destroyed my tyres
a little. The front tyres— you could see the rubber was already rolling over
on the edges. I knew my pace advantage wouldn’t be as much as at the
beginning of the race. At the very beginning, when it was wettest, Max was
just as quick as us. As it dried, we got a lot quicker, and Red Bull started
to struggle. So, I knew Max would be quicker in those last few laps, and I
knew he would risk more because there were only a few laps left. I did make
a mistake at Turn 6 – I just put a wheel on the gravel and lost all my
momentum and drive. Max got within DRS, and DRS really helped him stay
there. It's tough because it's not just the pressure of him being there,
it’s the pressure of knowing that if I put a wheel too close to a white line
on entry, I’m off. If I clip the kerb wrong in Turn 6, I’m off. If I dip a
wheel in the gravel, I get a bad run and he's past. There are so many little
things that can go wrong. Just trying to concentrate on not locking up, not
rear locking, not hitting the kerbs wrong, but still trying to go quicker
than before because the guy behind is doing the same. It was stressful. I'm
not going to lie. I was checking my mirrors a lot. Even Will came on the
radio and told me to chill out a bit. He knows, and Jarv, my performance
engineer, knows very quickly from my driving when I’m pushing too much or
when I’m pushing the entries too much. They're quick to jump in and say, "Do
this better" or "Watch out for that" because they know what I struggle with.
Especially in a situation like that. That situation was new for me. I’ve
never led a race with five laps to go with Max behind me, trying to put me
under pressure, in these conditions. Maybe Max has had that a few times –
he’s raced against Lewis a lot and can deal with it better than I can. For
me, it was a first. So, it was about seeing how I handled it when I got
there.
I'm happy I got through it and stayed calm. It’s something I
improved from last year.
Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) Lando, before the
season started, you were billed as a favourite. Now we've had a race, and
you've won well—would you concede that you actually are the favourite to win
this championship? You’ve laid down a bit of a marker today. And to George
and Max—do you think McLaren can be caught? Lando and Oscar were a long way
ahead at the start of the race. Do you think it’s theirs to lose?
LN:
Let’s see. Max was three-tenths off yesterday. Last year, we were much
further off and ended up with the best car by the end of the season. We were
over half a second off at the beginning of last year behind Red Bull and
ended up with the quickest car. I know George made some comments earlier
this weekend that they can just turn our focus to 2026. If that’s their
mentality, wonderful, but that’s not the mentality to have. Sorry, mate. We
know we still have a lot of work to do on this year’s car. If you relax in
this position, you fail. In Formula 1, if you start thinking things are good
and groovy, that’s when you get caught. I do think we're favourites because
the team has done an amazing job, and the car is flying. But we will have
races where we struggle. If we started the season in Bahrain, I don’t think
we would have won, and you wouldn't be asking me this question. Let’s allow
a few more races to take place before making any obvious statements. But we
are the team to beat, mainly because we have two drivers up there pushing
each other. That helps. Do I think me and Oscar pushing each other in
qualifying yesterday allowed us to get one and a half, one tenth more than
the two drivers here because their team-mates aren’t as equipped or
experienced. Yes, so add that into the equation as well. It’s not just about
the car. The team has done an amazing job, and I thank them for everything
they’re doing. But we know we can make it better, and that’s our aim.
MV:
We'll try our best.
GR: They look pretty good and groovy at the moment.
So yeah, we’ll see.
Q: (Sönke Sievers – Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung) Lando, you've mentioned that when it comes to strategy calls and
difficult situations, you've practised and improved these processes over the
winter. How exactly does that work? How do you practise these tight
situations and moments?
LN: That’s for us. That’s not something I need to
share. The team works very hard to improve. Strategy engineers, mechanics. I
don’t need to say these things to the media. I let them do their job. It’s
the same as when I work hard to improve in areas I do. Some things I say,
some I don’t. People spend a lot of time, they dedicate their lives to this.
I’m not going to give away how people work and improve to be the best in
their sport or job.
Q: (Laurence Edmondson – ESPN) Question for Max.
When Oscar got past, the two McLarens disappeared quickly. I know you said
you had tyre overheating issues, but were you surprised how fast the race
turned at that point and how quickly they built a gap?
MV: I could see it
coming. I was struggling with my tyres. It was similar to yesterday. Now,
Intermediates are even more of a soft compound, so they are even more prone
to overheating. That’s where we – and a lot of teams – are struggling
compared to McLaren. They’re simply doing a better job on that. That’s what
we need to work on.
Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Max and George,
you were having a chat before Lando came in. Have you cleared the air? Is
everything good between you now?
MV: No, it’s still shockingly bad. It’s
always been. Yes. I mean, it’s all good, all good.
GR: What he said. |
