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1 – Oscar PIASTRI (McLaren)
2 – Lando NORRIS (McLaren)
3 – George RUSSELL (Mercedes)
Excused from
press conference on medical grounds
TRACK INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Jenson Button)
Q: George P3, not a
bad result considering most of the weekend you felt you haven't really got
to grips with the car around Miami?
George RUSSELL: Yeah, to be honest,
really happy to come away with P3 because I've been struggling this weekend,
personally, and always on the back foot. But ultimately, when it mattered,
got a really good result today. But well done to the McLarens – they're just
down the road.
Q: Obviously, you lucked in a little bit on the Safety
Car, but at the end of the race you had to keep Max behind you. It's never
an easy challenge.
GR: No, it's not. But I was pretty calm and I felt
really good with the car to keep him behind me, so it was good. I think
Lando's a bit upset with me because we had a bit of a crash on the Lego race
this morning. I gave him a bit of an injured leg, so I don't know if he's
going to complain at me for something.
Q: So George, what was your
favourite race of the day here in Miami?
GR: Oh, without a doubt the race
this morning – the Lego race. That was awesome! We need to do that every
race.
Q: Lando, congratulations. It’s a P2 – a formidable job by the
whole team to get both cars 30 seconds in front of the rest of the field. It
must hurt a little bit though?
Lando NORRIS: Yeah, I mean it's never the
best feeling but, you know, the team have done an amazing job, so I can't
fault them at all. Good pit stops, great pace… Yeah, we were up the road. So
it was a good feeling. But Oscar drove well. Max put up a good fight as
always, and I paid the price. But it is the way it is.
Q: So was it
too inviting to go around the outside of Max in Turn 2? Obviously, it was
always going to get narrow.
LN: What can I say? If I don't go for it,
people complain. If I go for it, people complain. So, you can't win. But
it's the way it is with Max – it's crash or don't pass. Unless you get it
really right and you put him in the perfect position, then you can just
about get there. But I paid the price for not doing a good enough job today.
But I'm still happy with second.
Q: The important thing is that you
did what was right for you.
LN: Exactly, because that’s what I should do.
Q: Oscar, the Sprint race didn’t quite go your way, obviously with the
safety car, but you won the Grand Prix here in Miami.
Oscar PIASTRI:
Yeah, I mean, I won the race that I really wanted to do. Yesterday was a
tricky day. Obviously, the Sprint was what it was, but qualifying was
probably one of my trickiest sessions of the year. And to come away with a
win still on Sunday is an impressive result. So yeah, obviously there was a
bit of argy-bargy at Turn 1 [inaudible]… but we had a pace advantage, and
clearly the car was unbelievable today.
Q: For me, the big difference
I see from you from last year to now is the race pace – how you control a
race. It seems that when we put Oscar in the lead of the Grand Prix, there’s
no looking back. You can control the pace from the time you get into the
lead until the chequered flag.
OP: Yeah, I mean I think the first stint
was really, really strong. Then the Hard stint, I was honestly struggling a
little bit. So it was a good thing that I built that gap in the first stint.
I think towards the end I started to get things a bit more back under
control. But there’s still definitely some things to work on from this
afternoon. So I’m very happy with the win, very happy with the points – but
constantly got to keep learning. So yeah, very, very happy to leave Miami on
top.
Q: The last one is about the team. Have you got any comments
about the team – they’ve given you this absolute weapon?
OP: I mean, it’s
just incredible the hard work that’s gone in. You know, remember two years
ago here in Miami we were genuinely the slowest team – I think we got lapped
twice – and to now have won the Grand Prix by over 35 seconds to third is an
unbelievable result. And the hard work of every single person – firstly the
people here at the track, but everyone at the factory as well.
PRESS
CONFERENCE
Q: Oscar, we'll start with you. Great race. Very well
done. First up, what’s with the little dance in parc fermé? Hint of a
Griddy?
OP: I knew that was going to be the question! It was an attempt
at a Griddy, as you can tell, poorly executed. I met Justin Jefferson on
Thursday, who has essentially made the Griddy world famous, and stupidly
made a bet with him that if I won the race, then I would do one for him.
After qualifying yesterday, I didn’t practice because I thought that was
definitely not going to be needed. So yeah, that was my first attempt at a
Griddy live on world TV. I stayed true to the bet, but that’s the one and
only time you’ll be seeing me do that.
Q: Let’s talk about the
on-track business. You had to fight hard in those early laps and then
demonstrated phenomenal pace in clean air. Just how much did you enjoy
yourself out there today?
OP: I enjoyed it at certain points, yes. It was
tough at the beginning trying to get past Max. I tried pretty hard to get
past, with everything still on my car. It was not easy but I picked my
moments when I needed to. I could tell that we had a lot of pace from the
get-go today, and it was going to be a matter of when I got past, not if.
But I wanted to do it as efficiently as I could because I knew once Lando
got back behind me, he was going to be catching us a lot. I wanted to get
through quickly but cleanly. I felt like I did a pretty good job of that,
then built a gap. Maybe not the strongest second half of the race of my
life, but I think building that gap and being quick at the right times was
what I needed.
Q: You were clinical dispatching Kimi Antonelli. Just
how tough was it to get past Max Verstappen?
OP: I mean, to be honest
with you, Kimi was very nice to me and didn’t make life very tough, which is
nice when you race against people who identify when someone’s quicker and
don’t make the race more difficult for both of us. So that was nice of him.
Obviously, for Max, leading the race, a different story. But I knew to
expect that. I could tell we had a lot of pace. Like I said, it was a matter
of just biding my time, waiting for a moment, or forcing him into a moment.
That’s what I was able to do. Once I got past, I knew I had to try and build
a gap while Lando was behind him. That got me the win.
Q: Oscar, you
were 37 seconds ahead of the first non-McLaren car. That could be described
as dominance. When you reflect on the weekend as a whole, where is there
still work to do?
OP: Celebrations – that’s definitely top of the list at
the moment! I think this weekend was not my best, and a lot of that was
yesterday. The race today was pretty solid, but yesterday I was pretty
frustrated with my performance. Ultimately, yes, I won the race this
weekend, but I think the likelihood of winning many races [after] qualifying
fourth is pretty low. I did a lot of things right today, but there was
definitely some good fortune there as well, and a very quick car. I don’t
want to rely on that every single Sunday. Clearly, this is the exception to
the pace we’ve had this year. Yes, we’ve always had a strong car, but the
pace we had today from lap one it felt like was unexpected, even for us.
I’ll definitely take the performance and we’ll try and work out how to do
that every weekend, but there’s still definitely things to work on from a
personal side and from a team point of view.
Q: What part of the
racetrack was the car particularly strong on here?
OP: Honestly, I don’t
know. In qualifying we were not the quickest in the high-speed corners. I
think generally in the low-speed corners is where we seemed quite good this
weekend. In the race, all the corners become even slower, and looking after
the tyres becomes more important. That’s probably been a strength of ours so
far this year. This has been the first very hot race we’ve had in terms of
track temperature. Saudi was hot, but the track temperature today was the
highest we’ve had all year. I think that helped our pace.
Q: Alright,
very well done to you, Oscar. Thank you very much. Lando, we’ll come to you
now. A great, very determined race by you. How difficult was it to work your
way through from P6?
LN: It was good fun. It was enjoyable. I never
wanted to let Oscar get too far out of my sights, but I had to put up a good
challenge in the first quarter or third of the race trying to get past the
Mercedes, trying to get past the Williams, trying to get past Max. So yeah,
not an easy start for sure, but I made my way through reasonably quickly I
think. And of course, the car was very strong today, so that definitely
helps.
Q: And can we get your thoughts on the battle with Verstappen
today?
LN: It was fine. He’s fighting hard, but it’s up to him to do
that. He’s ruining his own race. He’s not racing very smart. We probably
could have finished 1-2 today, and he didn’t because of that. So yeah, he’s
fighting, that is always expected, but that’s what it is.
QUESTIONS
FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Ticiano Figueiredo – Diário do Rio Claro)
Oscar, thinking about this race and the whole season, what do you think is
going to be harder: to overtake Max or to keep Lando behind you?
OP: Both
very different challenges, I would say. On days like today, our two cars
were clearly the best in the field by some margin. I know how strong Lando
is as a driver, being his teammate now for a couple of years. It’s never
easy. But also, racing Max is never easy, as we saw. Both very different
challenges. In the long term this season, it’s clearly going to be a strong
fight between Lando and I, but both are challenging.
Q: (Holly Cain –
Palm Beach Post) Two years ago, neither of you had a win. This year, you
guys are dominating. What’s the change? Is there a change of energy in the
team? How does it feel palpably different to a year ago, certainly two years
ago?
OP: Compared to two years ago, it’s an incredibly different place to
be. The determination and the hard work has always been there. Even two
years ago, we knew that things were in the pipeline to help us come back to
the front. So while we got lapped twice that day in Miami two years ago,
there was optimism and determination, still. Clearly, last year with Lando’s
win, that was nice for the whole team in terms of finally having a car
capable of winning a race again, on merit. There was obviously the 1-2 in
Monza a few years ago, but Miami last season was the turning point in
winning races because we could be the quickest on track. That’s an
incredible place to be. Now, it’s a continuation of that. The determination
and hard work are still identical, just the joy and the celebrations are a
bit more frequent, which is nice. But we know we have a lot of competition.
Being first now means we have less tunnel time, less development time.
That’s something we’ve enjoyed over our competitors for the last few years.
So there are going to be challenges with being at the front, but it’s an
incredible place to be.
Q: (Graham Harris (Motorsport Monday)
Question for both of you: winning a race with a 35-second lead, when should
the team stop focusing on this year’s car and shift to next year? Clearly,
it will take the others quite some time to catch up.
OP: I don’t know.
There are a lot of other smarter people than me who calculate when it’s time
to switch to next year. Clearly, we do have a strong advantage at the
moment, but not every weekend has looked like this. Saudi last weekend, our
competition was very close, and we didn’t have it that comfortably. This
weekend, a very different story, but I don’t expect every weekend to look
like this. I think we have the advantage everywhere we go. Sometimes it’s a
little, sometimes a lot. Clearly, in this position now, we have a lot of
focus on next year. We want to make sure we win both championships this year
and put ourselves in a good spot for next year.
Q: (David Neal –
Miami Herald) For Lando: After you got into second place, did you think you
could chase down Oscar, even though the gap was nearly 10 seconds?
LN:
No. I gave it a good shot from when I got into second. There was a long way
to go, I think 25, 30 laps almost at that point. I probably only stopped
pushing the last 4-5 laps. The gap went from almost 10 to four or three,
almost. I did all I could. I tried the whole race basically until the very
end. I kept belief the whole race, but Oscar’s driving well. He’s quick. To
catch from 10 seconds was always pretty much going to be impossible, but I
gave it a good shot. I almost got there. Just not enough laps.
Q: (Ticiano
Figueiredo – Diário do Rio Claro) For both drivers: it’s always tempting to
imagine an internal battle between teammates, especially at McLaren. Could
we witness something like Lewis vs Nico this year?
LN: Time will tell.
OP: Yeah, we said that we’re trying to repeat 2007, so… I don’t know. We
clearly know that we have our strengths. It’s always been close between us.
It’s going to be a good battle. There will be weekends where Lando is
stronger, and weekends where I am stronger. We’re very aware of the fact
that we want this success for as long as we’re at McLaren, which is a very
long time for both of us. We’re aware there’s going to be a fight. We both
want to become world champion, obviously. But we don’t just want one
opportunity at this success. We want it for the next however many years, and
that’s an important and an easy thing to keep in mind for us and the whole
team.
Q: (Holly Cain – Palm Beach Post) A follow-up to that. Is it
tougher racing for a championship against your teammate?
OP: In some
ways, yes. In some ways, no. We know pretty much exactly how one another
drives. We know our strong points, maybe some of our weaker points. So from
that side you have more information, but it goes both ways. We both know
we’ve got the same car, so that removes one factor. But there are other
complications with having the same car. You can have the same strengths and
weaknesses on track. With how difficult it is to follow cars, 9 times out of
10, whoever’s in front at the start is probably going to be in front at the
end. So it’s difficult like that. Then there’s the pit strategies and
whatever that become a factor when you’re in the same team. There are
positives and negatives. |
