Spanish GP: FIA Friday Press Conference

TEAM REPRESENTATIVES - Christian HORNER (Red Bull Racing), Flavio BRIATORE (Alpine), Mario ISOLA (Pirelli)

Q: Christian, can we start with you, and just talk about what we saw in FP1 first of all and the impact of the new front wing technical directive. What were the drivers saying? How was the car to set up?
Christian HORNER: Well, the drivers were making all the usual comments about understeer and front grip and so on. So, the change is reasonably subtle, but it is reasonably significant. Now whether it's a net same effect for each of the teams is difficult to tell, but, yeah, they were just working on getting a balance. It's incredibly hot out there, and so the tyres are getting a bit of a pounding. Particularly now we're on the old circuit configuration. The front left really gets a hard time around here. So, I think it's going to take more than one session to see if there is an impact. Or if so, how it’s affected the different cars.

Q: Is there more head scratching for the engineers? Is the car harder to balance now as a result of this change?
CH: Again, difficult to say. It didn’t sound from the driver’s comments too different to a normal Friday. For sure, it is different, and I think there’s a lot to understand. And it’s probably on long runs as well as short runs that it’s going to play a factor here. Still early days, but the net effect to us has been rather small.

Q: Now Red Bull has a fantastic record here in Barcelona. Max Verstappen going for his fourth consecutive win here. Just how much confidence do you have coming into the weekend?
CH: I mean, you’ve got to say McLaren are going be the favourite here this weekend. They’ve looked incredibly strong throughout all the early races. We take a lot of hope from the race we had in Imola, where we had great pace and we were able to win that race. But for sure, in these temperatures, they’re going to be super competitive. Now whether it’s Lando or Oscar is difficult to say. But for us, what’s crucial is we definitely try and take points off them this weekend. Yes, we’re only approximately a third of the way through the championship with a long way to go, but we need to start nibbling away at their points advantage.

Q: In the past, Barcelona has been a good barometer of a car's potential. Is that still the case?
CH: I think Barcelona is a proper workout — high-speed, medium-speed, not so much low-speed these days. But if you’ve got a good working chassis, then you’ll see that here, particularly with the range of corners and also how hard the car is on the tyres. That’s going to play a crucial role in the race on Sunday.

Q: Flavio, if we could come to you now. It’s been 12 months since you were announced as Alpine’s executive adviser. How do you feel that year has been for the team?
Flavio BRIATORE: Good afternoon to everybody. Oh, it’s less than that. It’s 10months. I see my pay cheque it's ten months only! It’s not 11. Fine. You know? We’re back in the business, with Alpine. Not easy because the team has gone through a lot of change, especially in the last four or five years, not only now. But little by little, we try to put the team together, the people together. We’re looking for next year as well — for the new engine and the new gearbox from Mercedes-Benz. So, this is our goal for next year. In the meantime, we need to be more competitive. We are not competitive for the moment, like I want, but takes time. You see this maestro next to me, it takes a lot of time to build a winning car, a winning race, a winning team. I know I’ve done it before. I hope I’ll do it again.

Q: How far through that process are you? Because you said recently you'd like to be challenging for the world title in 2027. Do you have everything you need at Enstone to do that?
FB: You need a dream as well, you know. When you are in Formula 1, you're dreaming as well to do the job. You hope. And in this moment, the team is quite new. The team is not performing like I wanted because we still have… a lot of the situation in the team is not clear. But we need to clear up everything. Before we start performing like I want, I believe we need all of 2025 now, and we need 2026 to be competitive, to at least sometimes see the podium very close. These are what we're looking for. And why not 2027? We see what happened to Red Bull. We see what happened to everybody else. Depends as well on what kind of driver we have in 2027.

Q: It's been a month now since Ollie Oakes left the role of Team Principal at Alpine. How far through the process of finding a replacement are you?
FB: We’re looking. For the moment, nothing changed. I feel sorry for Ollie, honestly, because I had a very good relationship with him. He was a good team principal. Everybody knows for personal reasons he stopped and resigned from Alpine. We’re looking. We don’t want to make any mistake. I’m prepared to take some time. But the moment we decide what is the new team manager, put in this way, we’ll tell you.

Q: What qualities are you looking for in that person?
CH: Cheap.
FB: Cheap? No. This month's the difference, I have between 10 months, 11 months. Now we're looking for somebody, you know, there's a lot of people it is possible to be doing this kind of job. But we’re looking for somebody good, somebody who understands, somebody who wants to be part of the team. I know a few people who want to be part of this new trip with Alpine. We decide quick.

Q: Mario, if we could come to you now. Let's start by talking about the C6 tyre compound. It's had a couple of races. How would you assess its performance so far?
Mario ISOLA: We had mixed feedback from the teams. I believe that it's quite normal when you have a new compound, especially a soft compound like the C6. The compound is quite close to the C5. Ideally, I would like to see in the future a C6 that is a more aggressive choice, different from the current one. We didn’t have a lot of time to test and develop this compound. It was something that we felt at the end of last season — that we needed a compound that was softer than C5. So, at the moment, I’m reasonably happy, and I’m looking for Canada where we’ll probably get more information on the C6.

Q: You've now announced your tyre compounds up to the summer break. What are the highlights?
MI: We have more information now compared to the first draft of the compound selection. And talking to F1 teams and drivers, and the FIA of course, it is clear we need to be a bit more aggressive or find a way to encourage teams towards a two-stop strategy. That was not a choice for the races where we went one step softer. So at the moment, we modified the selection for Silverstone — we’ll go one step softer with C2, C3, and C4. And we also decided to skip one level in Spa. So instead of C2, C3, and C4, we go with C1, C3, and C4. That means between C1 and C3 — the Hard and the Medium — you have a much bigger delta. If teams want to be aggressive, they have to use C3 and C4 on a two-stop. If they want to be conservative, they use C1 and C3, but that means they are slower. So, I’m curious to see if it works.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Giuseppe Marino – Motorionline.com) Flavio, could we see Mick Schumacher racing for Alpine in Formula 1 in 2025 or 2026?
FB: Well, I’m not sure why we’re talking about Schumacher now. We are here in 2025. I don’t understand. What you want to know?
CH: Are you going to sign Mick Schumacher?
FB: Yeah. Sure. Everybody said that. I don’t think it’s the question to ask here, now. Next question.

Q: Just to be clear, is Mick going to be signed?
FB: I don’t want to talk about that.

Q: (Ian Parkes – RacingNews365) Question for Christian. That second seat alongside Max has always been very problematic to fill. Yuki's obviously got his opportunity at the minute, but we know he's out of contract at the end of this season. How impressed have you been with Isack Hadjar so far this season, and could he be a possibility for even later this season or 2026 perhaps?
CH: I think I’m going to take a leaf out of Flavio’s book and say, ‘I don’t want to answer it’. Look, it’s early days for Yuki. He’s still settling in. He’s been in Q3, scored points, he’s scored points from the pit lane. He’s had a few incidents as well, so he has a long way to go. We’ll decide. We’ve got plenty of time on our side.

Q: (Jack Smith – Motorsport Monday) Christian, Max said yesterday that he doesn't feel as if he's in a title fight at the moment. Do you share that sort of glass-half-empty approach of his, or do you still feel that the McLaren pair are competing against each other gives Max an edge to chip away at both of them?
CH: Well, look, we’ve got to make sure we keep in touch. And to beat them, we've got to start taking points off them. Imola was strong for us. Monaco wasn’t a strong race for us. They are the car to beat. They've got two strong drivers, and the car's performing very well. So, it's down to us to make improvements and get performance on the car over this summer part of the championship and make sure that we hang on to their coattails before the summer break and try and build a bit of momentum.

Q: (John Noble – The Race) Flavio, you’re now 10 months into your spell at Alpine. Have you made the progress you hoped to make in those ten months? If not, what factors are making it harder than anticipated?
FB: I think so. You know guys, it’s difficult when you arrive at a team, especially at Alpine, and we make some progress, but we are not there at the moment. And what is more important is the result. We are not there in this moment. I think we made some progress, absolutely, but we don’t see the progress yet in the performance.

Q: (Diletta Colombo – Automoto.it) Question for Flavio. Given your ambitions for 2027 and beyond, do you feel like Pierre Gasly could be a world champion with your team?
FB: I don’t know. We see McLaren, two years ago, three years ago, was in the bottom of the line. We see Renault was in the bottom of the line two years and after, they won the championship. We see Benetton was always in ’91, ’92, ’93 in the bottom of the line in qualifying. In ’94, ’95, ’96, we competed. In ’95, ’96, we won the championship. In this business fortunes are changing a lot. A few years ago, Red Bull was dominating completely. Now McLaren is dominating completely. Everybody is working hard in this business. We are 10 teams. Everybody wants to be the best of the 10 teams. I hope it’s not nonsense – working. If I believe in 2027 that I don’t compete, I prefer to stay on the beach drinking Coca-Cola and not to come here in this warm weather in Barcelona, sweating.

Q: Flavio, just on the topic of Pierre Gasly — do you think he’s a future world champion? Are you impressed with how he’s stepped up to the role of team leader this season?
FB: You know, it’s chicken and eggs. If you don’t have a competitive car, it’s very difficult to understand where you are with the driver. First, the driver needs the balance of the car, needs the car to be competitive. Feels strong in the car. It’s very difficult to understand what level Gasly is at in this moment if we don’t give him a competitive car. Let’s build him the competitive car, and after we’ll know where we are with the driver. I believe it’s the same for everybody. The most important thing is the performance of the car and the driver — they go together. In Formula 1 If the car is not competitive, I don’t know. Maybe Christian has a better idea.
CH: I have no idea what you’re talking about! But all I want to say is how refreshing it is to have Flav back. I mean, he had a bit of time out, but it is so much fun. These press conferences were so boring before you came back.
FB: Nothing’s changed in 20 years. Maybe a little bit — more people with white hair.
CH: Or no hair.
FB: Me and you as well.
CH: Yeah, exactly.
FB: Isola, no. Isola is still good looking.

Q: (Martin Vriesema – NOS) Question for Christian. You just talked about Yuki. What can a team do — and what can you do — to give this driver more confidence? Because that's something that's lacking now. Can you give us some insights?
CH: I think the only thing that we can do is give him time and support and try and get a set-up that he’s got confidence in. Driving these cars is all about confidence, and that’s what he needs to find. I think he’ll get there. He’s fast. He’s just got to piece it all together. We keep seeing flashes of performance. We just need to see him put it all together. I think he’s capable of that.

Q: (Leonid Kliuev – GrandePrêmio.com.br) Question for Flavio. How do you evaluate Franco Colapinto’s performance, and is there any update on how many more races he is going to compete in for you?

FB: Franco Colapinto — we need to wait one second to judge Franco. We see. We see this race. We need the full race. We did Monte Carlo. It was a very special race for everybody. We made a lot of mistakes in qualifying. And in Monte Carlo, you know, qualifying well is the race. Especially this race. Monte Carlo, it was very boring and very annoying. Let’s see. This is the first real race of Franco. Races, I don’t know, honestly. I never tell five races, three races, four races, one race. We see. If Colapinto is performing he’s driving the car. If not, we’ll see. 2025 is a year we need to prepare ourselves for 2026. So whatever experiment I need doing, we’re doing. I don’t know at this moment if Franco will stay for the season or not, but let’s see. Depends on the performance. We’re only looking at the performance — nothing else.

Q: (Lewis Larkam – Crash.net) Christian, there are rumours that Ferrari contacted you about potentially becoming Team Principal. Can you confirm if that’s true or not? How far did the conversation go? And is that something you would ever consider?
CH: Look, I mean, of course, it’s always flattering to be associated with other teams. But my commitment, 100%, is with Red Bull,. It always has been and certainly will be for the long term. There’s a bunch of speculation — always in this business —people coming here, going there, whatever. I think people in the team know exactly what the situation is. I mean, my Italian is worse than Flavio’s English, so how on earth would that work?

Q: (Ian Parkes – RacingNews365) Question for Mario. You’ve set a precedent with your tyre choices for Belgium by skipping a compound. Could you first explain that? And secondly, is that a potential option next season for Monaco, considering the two-stop didn’t quite work?
MI: The step with the compound in Spa — the reason is what I mentioned before: to give the teams a Hard compound that is much slower than the Medium and the Soft. That means if they want to use the Hard for a one-stop strategy, they are, let’s say, penalised by the slower compound. So, if they go more aggressive — Medium and Soft — on paper, they should go for a two-stop race. It’s to try to create more action, more overtaking, and less tyre management. Monaco is a different story. Monaco is a circuit where it’s difficult or impossible to overtake. The idea of the two-stop came from someone else. But personally, I believe it was a good idea — at least to avoid a boring race like it was last year. Not perfect, probably, but it was a good try to do something different. I heard everything about Monaco, but if I have to reply on tyre selection, I believe we can go C1, C5, C6, whatever you want, it doesn’t change anything because the driver that is leading just manages the tyre and goes to the end. The only option was to try to create some unpredictability with a pit stop.

Q: Can we bring the other two in on this? Your thoughts on the mandatory two-stop in Monaco, Flavio?
FB: This was a very bad idea. I don’t think it was a good idea at all because it was worse. Everybody had a different… to have the window to have the pit stop, you slowed down everybody. It happened to Williams…
MI: It was the same years ago, in 2018.
FB: But nothing better. So the two pit stops didn’t improve the racing in Monaco this is sure.
MI: You’re right, but it’s really difficult to improve the actual track, unless you don’t destroy some buildings and you—
FB: No, no…
CH: Maybe, if we could knock a couple of your buildings down and get an overtaking spot in. Because I don’t think the problem is the tyres. It’s the track.
FB: The cars are too big.
CH: And the track’s too small. Yeah. So it’s a pretty simple equation.

Q: Christian, on a serious note — did you think the two-stop was worth it?
CH: I think Monaco is Monaco, and the two-stop was worth it. The year before, if you remember, there was a red flag on lap one, and nobody did anything. It was just a display drive. Everybody just went around in order. This year, you had a race of two halves. And anybody at the back end of the top 10 was trying to slow everybody down to give a pit stop. It was a little bit more jeopardy, but it didn’t really solve the problem. I think we’re tickling an itch here. If we want to change it, we’ve got to change something significantly. Maybe the chicane. We need a bigger stop. Maybe more space at Rascasse. There needs to be at least the hope of an overtake. Max made a good comment after the race — maybe, like Super Mario Kart, we should all be throwing bananas or something. Because the drivers — it’s frustrating for them. They get out of the race, they’re not even sweating. They’re not pushing. The race is dictated by what happens on Saturday. Monaco is a wonderful place to go. It’s a brilliant event. But I think we need to move with the times and say, “How can we create an overtake?”
FB: Monaco is a big event for Formula 1. Everybody wants to be there. The race was like an exhibition of the Formula 1 car — no more a race. For us, for the sponsors, for everybody financing Formula 1 — it’s really a big event. A lot of people come to Monaco because it’s Formula 1. Not to see Formula 1. A lot of people are on the boats. They never go to the grandstands. But it’s a big event for Formula 1. Everybody wants to be in Monaco – all the sponsors, the people supporting Formula 1, was in Monaco. In the end, the race is like a Formula 1 exhibition. The race really is Saturday in qualifying. If you see Saturday, that’s when everything happens.

Q: (Daniel Lloyd – Racecar Engineering) Question for Mario. Why did you choose Belgium for this sort of experiment, to skip one of the compounds? And are there any other tracks or races where you think it might be worth having that bigger delta between the compounds?
MI: As usual, we run simulations to try to understand how many strategies are possible with different compound selections. We found out that Belgium was the one where we had the highest number of strategies by moving to C1, C3, and C4. There was an initial idea to have C1, C3, and C4 also in Silverstone. But then we realised that with C1 and C3, probably in Silverstone you can easily complete a one-stop race without any big issue — because the C1 is working quite well there. While in Belgium, it’s probably slower. And this is creating this uncertain situation.

Q: (John Noble – The Race) To Flavio — with both Benetton and Renault, you turned teams that were struggling at the back of the grid into world championship-winning squads. How different is the challenge now in this era of Formula 1? And is it harder under the cost cap?
FB: Formula 1, for sure, is different now. But the difference with the cost cap — I believe it’s good. This was a very good idea to have the cost cap for the teams. I believe it should stay. I also believe the salary of the driver should be part of that — not only what we have now. We need to increase it, because we’re spending really... What I see the difference between my time in Renault and now, the cost really has gone up dramatically. The races are the same. What you see on television is the same. The fighting between the drivers is the same. The best driver is winning the race — etcetera. What we now see is the cost. The cost has increased dramatically. It’s not because the cost increased that the business is better or the show is better. It’s the same. The race, for me, is the same. It’s very competitive. We have great drivers. But the costs go up dramatically. The cost budget cap was a very good idea. I believe we should increase the budget including the salaries of the driver.

Q: Just to be clear, Flavio — you said include the driver salary in the cost cap?
FB: Yeah. Absolutely. Include it.

Q: (Luke Smith – The Athletic) Christian, just picking up on the fixes for Monaco — how far do we push it before it gets a bit too artificial in terms of what we do to try and improve the race? Or do we just accept that it’s going to be an exhibition, like Flavio said — people will still turn up, business will happen, and Sunday is just going to be Sunday?
CH: I don’t think you should ever give up. For sure, when you look at how Monaco has changed — the pit complex and everything — they’ve spent a huge amount of money there and what they’ve developed over there, as an event, it is one of the pinnacles — if not the pinnacle — on the calendar. It’s the race that is the most famous on the calendar. It’s a race that every fan wants to go to. I don’t think we should just give up and accept, “Oh, it’s Monaco — you can’t overtake.” There’s enough passion around Formula 1 and enough interest to say: “OK, what can we do that’s a little bit different?” You’ve got to keep progressing. You’ve got to keep evolving. And I think that applies to all the circuits — including Monaco — because even Formula 3 cars are too big there now, in reality.

Q: Should unsportsmanlike behaviour be punished — like what we saw in Monaco on Sunday?
CH: I mean, there’s a big difference. Was that unsporting, or was that just part of the rules? I mean, that’s entirely permitted. Formula 1 is a team sport. It’s the biggest team sport in the world. The drivers drive for the team, at the end of the day. So, you can understand — if they’re instructed to drive slowly to assist another car to score points — they’re going to do it. I don’t think there was anything unfair about what happened. Nothing breached the regulations. Was it what was intended? No. But it’s a consequence. If you introduce something else, teams will always find a way to try and maximise it. And that’s what came out of it.

Q: (Vincent Sondermeijer – NRC Handelsblad). Question for Flavio. In the 15 years that you've been away from the sport, the calendar has changed quite a bit. We’re now going to places like Miami, Jeddah, Vegas, and next year also Madrid. What’s your opinion on the fact that Formula 1 is leaving behind traditional locations more and more and going to these new places?
FB: From what I see, there are a lot of changes in the perception of Formula 1. Now we see Miami, we see the United States — etcetera, etcetera — and the perception of Formula 1 is much, much bigger. If you remember in our time, it was impossible, I think, in the United States — Phoenix, no spectators. There were horses next to us and the people who were supposed to come and see Formula 1 were going to the horse derby instead. The job that’s been done in the last 10 years about Formula 1 is unbelievable, especially in the United States. Now, I believe Formula 1 is very strong. A lot of young people follow Formula 1. In our time, it was not like that. I think in our time the average age was around 50, 55. Now you have a lot of young people. This is fantastic for Formula 1. It’s fantastic — the perception young people have about Formula 1. Young drivers, everyone communicating — it’s a really big step forward, especially in the United States.