|
1 – Oscar PIASTRI (McLaren)
2 – George RUSSELL (Mercedes)
3 – Lando NORRIS (McLaren)
TRACK INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Jolyon Palmer)
Q: Well, down
here with the top three. First things first, welcome back, Oscar. What a
weekend it's been for you so far and that looked like a really controlled
drive.
Oscar PIASTRI: Yeah, I mean, it's been a good weekend so far.
I think everything went smoothly in the Sprint there, so yeah, happy with
how it's been so far. Just need to keep it rolling.
Q: What do you
feel has changed for this weekend compared to the tricky ones you've been on
recently? Because from the first lap yesterday, you looked like you were
right back in the zone.
OP: It's obviously a very different circuit
to where we have been. Much higher speeds, much higher grip. I think the
last couple of weekends it's just been things going wrong rather than a lack
of pace, so to speak. So, I think here, everything’s going smoothly so far
and the pace has been strong. So yeah, it's a track I've enjoyed in the
past, so enjoying it again, clearly.
Q: Three out of three Sprint
wins, well done. George, playing detective, I saw you at the end out of the
car. We heard a little bit of chatter about your left front. How was the
race for you? And obviously, you spent a bit of time in the dirtier air. How
was that?
George RUSSELL: Yeah, I mean, it was a good race. Good to
get P2. We obviously know these guys are really quick but those last two
laps were a real struggle. This track's so quick. It's one of the most fun
tracks to drive and it's obviously brutal on the tyres, on the car. So yeah,
glad to bring it home.
Q: Talk me through the physicality around this
place. Obviously, the high-speed corners, especially that last sector. I
imagine the necks of all of you guys are going to take a bit of a working,
but particularly for the Grand Prix tomorrow.
GR: Yeah, I mean, I was
trying to rest it as much as I could to be honest. It's pretty brutal. I
mean, I don’t know what the G-force is — it's like five G for what feels
like forever around that triple right. But it's really cool. It's what it
should be like everywhere really. And yeah, glad we got the chance to race
around here.
Q: Absolutely. And Lando, good points for you, up in the
top three once again. I can't imagine you loved seeing Max in your mirrors
so close in the early laps, but you dealt with it very well. How was it?
Lando NORRIS: I never saw him, actually, I just saw George ahead. So
yeah, I tried to go forwards. We got pretty close at the start, but it was
good. No, I didn’t see what happened behind. So, long stint, it felt like a
lot of pushing. So, like you said, it's going to be a tough race tomorrow.
But yeah, just not easy to pass around here. Too difficult. So yeah, it's
all about qualifying.
Q: He was having half looks down your inside at
Turn 1 on lap two…
LN: Never saw him!
Q: Good to see you
focused all the way in front then. Speaking of being in front – qualifying.
You said yesterday you thought there was a little bit more in there. Didn’t
quite hook up the soft tyres. You’ve got another chance later on. Feeling
confident?
LN: Yeah, I mean, George was almost on pole, so he’s
showing that the Mercedes is quick and he's doing a very, very good job. So,
I think it’ll be close. I don’t think it’s going to be an easy one. But, you
know, the team have also given us a very good car once again, as they always
do this year, and it’s been quick. It’s a hell of a lap around here in
qualifying, so I’m looking forward to it.
Q: Great. And Oscar, back
to you. Lando’s saying the car has been great for you, but we know from the
Sprint to the Grand Prix, things can change. You've been so good so far. Do
you stick with where you're at or do you have to keep moving forward to find
more pace for qualifying?
OP: Ideally, if we can find more pace. I
think, you know, everyone slowly finds a little bit more through a Sprint
weekend, so you’ve got to try and get every bit out of the car that you can.
But yeah, we’ll try our best to do that. But I think our base performance
seems very strong around here, so it’s more just tuning rather than trying
to reinvent the wheel.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Very well done,
Oscar. Your first P1 of any sort since Zandvoort. Just how sweet was it to
be back up front with a clear road ahead?
Oscar PIASTRI: Yeah, it was
nice. It was nice to have some clean air again. It makes a pretty big
difference. So yeah, just nice to get off to a smooth start to the weekend,
really. So yeah, car's been good so far and I feel like I've been able to
gel with it pretty good. So yeah, obviously, the short part of the weekend's
over, and now the real stuff begins.
Q: It looked like a very
controlled race from you. Were there any anxious moments? At one point, you
were talking about a vibration on the radio?
OP: Yeah, like five or
six laps to the end. I think it was front left that was starting to vibrate
a bit, and I hadn’t locked up or anything, so it’s never a great sign when
you start getting vibrations out of nowhere. So I think it was a similar
thing for other people as well. So yeah, we’ll see if there’s any concerns
with that, but that was pretty much the only concern.
Q: You seem
much happier in the car here in Qatar. What do you put it down to? Is it the
different circuit? Is there something different in the car?
OP: I
mean, it’s definitely a different circuit. You know, incredibly high-speed,
much higher grip surface as well. But I think, honestly, the last couple of
weekends have been not bad in terms of pace. It’s just been mistakes or
things out of our control going wrong. So, I think this weekend, the pace
has been probably a little bit stronger, but everything’s just been smooth.
So, I think that’s the biggest difference.
Q: Any changes set-up wise
ahead of qualifying this evening?
OP: I’ll find out shortly, but the
car’s been good so far. So, if it is, it’ll be tweaks rather than anything
major.
Q: George, let's come to you now. Very well done to you. From
your point of view, how was the Sprint? How was the performance of the car?
George RUSSELL: Yeah, it was a pretty lonely race, to be honest. It was
fun, because it was flat out, but I didn’t really have any chance of
attacking Oscar and had a pretty good gap ahead of Lando as well. So it was
pretty uneventful until the last three laps – similar to Oscar’s – started
getting a big vibration on the tyres. I could just see it opening up and I
thought, “yeah, this could be it,” you know, bit of a puncture or something.
So just brought it home in the last two laps.
Q: It was quite a
static race at the front, as you say. Coming into the weekend, did you
expect to have a similar pace to the McLaren?
GR: We weren’t too
sure, to be honest. I think we all expected Red Bull to be the favourites
this weekend based on their high-speed performance. Qualifying was strange
yesterday. You know, every single lap was improving so much, and it was
whoever put the lap together on the last lap of Q3 that defined the starting
order. And ultimately, on a track like this with the lack of tyre
degradation – at least at the front – where you finish lap one is where
you’re going to finish the race.
So I was happy with qualifying. It
doesn’t mean that this afternoon is going to be the same again because
ultimately, it’s just so tight.
Q: Going to make any changes? Do you
think you can challenge for pole again today?
GR: Yeah. I mean, I
felt really happy with my lap yesterday. It was one of my strongest of the
season. I don’t think we’ve really got the pace, to be honest. I think if we
absolutely nail it, we can be there or thereabouts as we were yesterday. But
I don’t think it will be as straightforward this evening.
Q: Lando,
let’s come to you. Congratulations. Another Sprint podium for you. Just how
did the race play out?
Lando NORRIS: Pretty simple, really. You know,
there’s not a lot going on. Nothing much throughout the whole race. Just
impossible to follow around here, you know? As soon as you’re within three
seconds or so, you start to struggle. So yeah, not a lot. I tried to save my
tyres a bit for the end and the pace was certainly a little bit better. But
yeah, after doing the whole race not too far behind George, then you pay the
price in terms of tyre deg. So yeah, honestly, not too much.
Q:
Paying the price for tyre deg – is that the understeer that you were
referring to over the radio with your engineer Will Joseph?
LN: A bit
of everything around here, to be honest. It’s understeer, oversteer. It’s a
little bit more all over the place than in some of the last few tracks. So
yeah, I mean, it’s just such a quick track. You really require every bit of
downforce possible. And when you’re following so closely, you lose a lot of
the downforce, so it just makes your life very, very difficult. Nothing out
of the ordinary.
Q: And just how happy are you with the car? I mean,
Oscar’s talking about only making minor tweaks ahead of qualifying this
evening. Are you in a similar boat, or do you feel there’s more to find?
LN: No. I mean, the car is in a pretty good place. There’s certainly
little things you might want to tweak as well, but it was more I just didn’t
put things together at all yesterday, but the pace was there. So yeah, some
things, some driving styles that have been working the last few weeks have
just really not worked at all here, especially when it got quicker and
quicker. The more I leaned on what’s been working, the more I just went
slower and slower. So yeah, I tried to use the Sprint to try and learn some
things. I feel like I got some things figured out and other things not. So
yeah, maybe not in a perfect place, but probably a bit better than
yesterday.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Ronald Vording –
Motorsport.com) Question to all three, please. George, you said yesterday
that maybe we need to look at the length of the DRS zones after the Sprint.
Given today’s Sprint throughout the field was not the most exciting to
watch, do you think that might help something for the main Grand Prix, or is
it just as Lando said, almost impossible to follow here no matter what?
GR: Yeah. Well, I mean, I didn’t even get DRS one single lap, so it
doesn’t matter if it was three times the length or shorter. I didn’t get
within DRS. Obviously, when you go around a corner almost flat out with
three high-speed corners before the straight, it’s challenging to stay
close. And then Turn 1, we’re braking, let’s say, around 40 metres before
the corner, whereas at other tracks we’re braking at 100 or 110 metres. So
yeah, as I said, it’s definitely one of the best tracks on the whole
calendar to drive. Overtaking? It’s one of the toughest.
Q: (Matt
Coch – PlanetF1.com) To all three again, if I could. There’s a 25-lap stint
limit with tyres. A couple of you reported vibrations. There are concerns of
cuts in tyres with gravel and things as well. Do you guys have concerns with
tyres and safety and what will you be feeding back following your experience
in the Sprint?
OP: I mean, I think whenever you’ve got a vibration
that sort of just comes from driving and not doing anything – me, you know,
no lockups or anything – it’s never a great sign. I think in terms of
safety, I think it’s the front tyres that are the main problem. So, I think
the risk of having a catastrophic shunt from a rear puncture is probably
pretty low. But yeah, whenever you’ve got to put a limit in for things like
this, obviously it’s a little bit of a concern, but everything was fine in
the Sprint. There was a bit of a vibration. It’s not the first time we’ve
had a vibration from just driving, but I think it should be fine. I think
they’ve taken the measures.
GR: Yeah. I guess when we see the tyre
wear after the race, we’ll get an indication. I think the vibration was
probably coming from major tyre wear. And you see in those corners – if you
probably saw a slow-motion replay – the front left is all going to be
rolling over onto the outside edge of the tyre, and that’s the bit that’s
going to give up first. So I think it’s required to put this limit in
because, at the end of the day, if you make a tyre for a 24-race season
that’s specifically designed for a track like Qatar, you’ll then struggle
everywhere else, if that makes sense. Or you’ll have different issues
everywhere else. So I don’t think we should be putting any heat on Pirelli –
they made the best tyre possible for 24 races – but it’s just the nature of
this track being so quick. They need to introduce something like that.
Q: (Sam Johnston – Sky Sports) Question for Lando. We just heard you in
the post-race interview saying that you didn’t see Max behind you. He’s been
saying earlier this week that he would have won the championship easily in
your car. Are we seeing the mind games ramping up? And maybe if Oscar has
anything to say about Max saying he would have won easily in the McLaren,
you're welcome to weigh in too.
LN: No. Look, yeah. Of course, I saw
him. But he was never too much of a threat at all. So no, my focus was more
just on George and seeing how I could keep the tyres in a good place for
later. But Max is very welcome to say everything he wants, to be honest.
He’s kind of earned the right. You know, he’s won four World Championships.
I have a lot of respect and I think that gives anyone a lot of credit. He’s
achieved an incredible amount – more than anyone generally dreams of
achieving. So, you know, Max generally has a good clue about a lot of
things, but there’s also a lot of things he doesn’t have much of a clue
about. It’s also Red Bull’s way of going about things, this kind of
aggressive nature and, yeah, just talking nonsense a lot of the time. So it
depends if you want to listen to it and talk about it – like you love to –
or you do what we do as a team, which is just kind of keep our heads down,
keep focused. So maybe he would have done, but he hasn’t so far, and he
keeps trying.
OP: [Gives thumbs up]
Q: (Adam Cooper – Adam
Cooper F1) For all three of you. So it’s our first chance to speak to you
since the driving standards meeting. Was that a productive gathering, and
did you get some clarity after reviewing those various case studies?
OP: Yeah. I mean, I think it was very productive. I think it’s good to
always give out direct feedback to the Stewards. I think [it was] tidying up
a few things. I think generally things have been pretty good. Whenever you
try and put any kind of guidelines or wording around going racing, there’s
always going to be gaps somewhere. It’s impossible to cover everything. So,
I think just some ideas and opinions on how we can close some of those gaps
was good. So yeah, I thought it was productive.
GR: Yeah, definitely
productive. I think from the incidents that were shown, all of the drivers
agreed what the penalty either should have been or lack of penalty. And
yeah, like Oscar said, the general consensus in the room is: if you put
these guidelines in place, they absolutely have to be guidelines. Every
track is different. Every overtake is different. Every circumstance is
different. Sometimes you’ve got to use that racing knowledge that, as
drivers, we’ve all accumulated over 20, 30, 40 years of our life. And the
Stewards – the driving standards Stewards – sometimes have to judge it based
on the common sense of racing, as opposed to exactly what a guideline says.
Otherwise, you may as well have a lawyer dishing out the penalties. So yeah,
hopefully we can migrate more in this direction.
Q: (Leonid Kliuev –
Grande Prêmio) Question for all three. Kimi and Yuki had some problems with
track limits – Yuki got a five-second penalty. Do you expect track limits to
play a part tomorrow in the results of the race?
OP: No, I don’t
think so. I mean, I think here, normally, if you have a track limit, you’re
touching the gravel or just running wide.
GR: Turn 10 entry.
OP: Turn 10 entry? Ah. Maybe not then. Maybe there will be a problem! I
don’t know. I think it should be fine.
LN: Yeah, I mean, every corner
is okay except that Turn 10 entry. So shouldn’t be an issue. But anyway, the
only reference we have… well, there is no reference. It’s a white line. And
we usually judge a track limit based on a kerb or up to a gravel trap. So
yeah, I think that was a bit of a surprise for a few people. Could be an
easy solution just widening that white line. But yeah. |
