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1 – George RUSSELL
(Mercedes)
2 – Lewis HAMILTON (Ferrari)
3 – Kimi ANTONELLI (Mercedes)
PARC FERMÉ INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Naomi Schiff)
Q: George, a big
congratulations. It’s pole position for you out here in Barcelona. Momentum
hasn’t been on your side lately, but you’ve come back to the European season
and you’re coming out swinging. So how does it feel?
George RUSSELL: It’s
been a great weekend so far. I kind of feel like my old self again, where
every lap I’m doing my job, always fighting those top positions. Obviously,
for the last few races, for numerous reasons, haven’t quite been on our
side, but I came in this weekend with just a clean slate, felt good and,
yeah, just great to be on pole.
Q: It’s obviously a very different
track here. It’s a traditional circuit. We’ve also got a step softer on the
tyres this year. Tell us, how was your experience during qualifying there in
the car?
GR: Yeah, I think it’s going to be an interesting race tomorrow.
Lewis did an amazing job to get up there. I think that was a real surprise.
We thought a fight was between ourselves and McLaren but then Lewis has been
really quick all this session. So, I’m sure there’s going to be a fight on
our hands. Obviously, Kimi has been doing an amazing job, so tomorrow is not
going to be easy from every standpoint, but I’m feeling ready.
Q:
Thanks. Kimi, just coming over to you. Congratulations, it’s P3 here. This
is actually the first time this season you’ve qualified not on the front
row, so that just goes to show how well your season’s gone so far. But tell
us how it was in the car for you out there.
Kimi ANTONELLI: Yeah, it’s
been a little bit of a difficult weekend so far for me. Didn’t really have
the feeling with the car but, yeah, long run was strong yesterday, so
definitely that’s a positive. But today I’ve been lacking a little bit but
looking forward to tomorrow.
Q: It’s a long, hard race tomorrow, as I
was just saying to George, but also one of the longest runs to Turn 1. So,
do you think being in third might be of an advantage to tuck up behind the
others and get a bit of a slipstream?
KA: Yeah, I mean, we’ll try to get
a good start and then, for sure, we’ll try to make the best use of the tow.
Also, without using, we won’t use any SM, so definitely the slipstream is
going to be even stronger. So, yeah, now obviously a lot of work to do in
order to be ready for tomorrow.
Q: Fantastic. Lewis, coming over to
you. Congratulations, it’s P2 for you. So front-row start, which just goes
to continue another great run of form. So, tell us about how this weekend
has gone so far for you and how it was out there for you in the car.
Lewis HAMILTON: Are you speaking South African to me?
Q: I mean
English with a South African accent.
LH: I can’t hear anything. No, I
can’t hear anything. We’ve got a great crowd here, by the way. Always, the
weather’s incredible out here in Barcelona, so gracias. It feels great to be
up here with them. Honestly, this weekend’s been so difficult. Missing P1…
Normally it’s OK to miss P1, but it had a huge offset. So, every time we
went into P2, I was just over a second off and then we just didn’t feel
quite comfortable enough. And these tyres only last one lap, right? So, you
only have two shots at it in each session. And even if you do a cool down
lap and go again, the car balance is completely off, so it’s not a good
reference. So, then I went to P3 and again I was easily four tenths, five
tenths off and I was thinking, “Jeez, where am I going to get that pace?”
And I went and left the track between P3 and qualifying.
Q: Where did
you go?
LH: I went back to my motorhome. Came back and then Q1 I was
first and so I knew that I had a good balance and I was really comfortable
on that first session. Q2 was a little bit harder with traffic and
everything, and then these guys did a great lap. Naturally, congrats to
George, but we’re in a good position to be able to fight for tomorrow, so we
have a race.
Q: Well, even though it hasn’t been a very
straightforward weekend, as you’ve just pointed out, you’re on the front
row, you’re P2, and this is a track that we often say shows us exactly what
the pecking order is, a traditional circuit, and we get a great balance of
what the teams have. Would you say, even though we’ve seen you up here quite
a few times lately, that this is the true position of where Ferrari is at,
ready to take on Mercedes every time?
LH: But again, I think all weekend
we’ve been kind of like four tenths off these guys. And so we really, even
with the upgrade, we thought that maybe that’s where we were. So, for us to
be that close, less than a tenth between us, shows just it’s a real showing
of the hard work everyone at the factory has done to bring these upgrades to
this track. So big, big thank you to everyone back in Maranello. And, yeah,
we just got to keep pushing, keep pushing, keep developing, and I’m hoping
tomorrow we can squeeze some more out of this and hopefully keep up with
these guys for once.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: George, many
congratulations. What a session for you, what a statement in Q3. Just how
good was that final lap?
GR: I’ve got to be honest, just really happy to
be back in my groove over the course of the whole weekend. You know, it’s
been a difficult few races for me. Obviously bad luck, there have been some
poor performances in there, but went back to an approach that I knew works
for me this weekend, and more important than the pole position for me was
just in sort of every lap of the whole weekend, you know, I was in the top
two positions and I felt confident, I felt good. Just felt like my old self
again. So that was, regardless of what happened in Q3, you know, Lewis did a
really amazing job and also could have got the pole position as well, but
regardless, that was the most important thing for me this weekend.
Q:
You say you went back to an approach that you knew worked. Was that from a
driving point of view or from a car set-up point of view?
GR: Car set-up,
mentality, just going back to basics really. And, you know, these cars are
so complicated, the tyres are complicated, the power units are complicated,
and it’s challenging to get on top of things. And, you know, especially when
I’ve got a guy like this next to me who’s been performing so well, you know,
you’re trying to constantly improve, and I think that, you know, doing some
copy-pasting probably really put me on the back foot. So, as I said, this
weekend I’ve just gone in my own direction and that’s what I’ve done in the
past for the last few years, and really glad to see it paying off.
Q:
And is this the best you’ve felt in the car this year, including Melbourne,
for example?
GR: It just feels back to what I felt at the start of the
year during winter testing, you know, Barcelona here, Bahrain testing,
Melbourne, China. I felt really comfortable in the car, really happy. And,
you know, Miami was just the first weekend where everything felt pretty
challenging, and that’s where I think, I can accept, and with my direct
group of engineers we can accept, we probably made some wrong decisions in
these last three races. As I said, more than anything, more than this pole
position, I’m just glad to feel myself again, feel at one with the car
again, as I have done for the last few years.
Q: What about tomorrow
then, your 100th Grand Prix start for Mercedes. Twenty-five wins here have
come from pole position. Just how confident are you feeling ahead of the
race?
GR: I think we have a really great race car, to be honest. We
showed really great pace on Friday. Of course, you know, Kimi is going to be
a real threat, no doubt. But Lewis, I think, really surprised all of us with
his strong pace today. We all thought the fight was going to be with the
McLarens in qualifying. We made a step to McLaren, but then Lewis, you know,
from lap one in Q1, it was, “Well, you know, where’s this come from?” So
maybe we’ll have a surprise tomorrow as well.
Q: Alright, very well
done to you, George. Thank you. Lewis, if we could come to you now. George
says you surprised everyone with your pace. Was it a surprise to you and
Ferrari?
LH: Yeah, for sure. I mean, it’s been a very tricky weekend for
me, personally. Really struggled to get on pace after missing P1. I’ve never
been so down before in a sense of the gap between Charles and I and to
everybody else. It was half a second to eight tenths. I think it was one
second in one session to the front row, so I needed to make a huge leap
going into qualifying, and I knew where the time was. It was just having the
confidence in the car, in the rear of the car. And I think we did a really
good job, making adjustments. But this is really down to everyone back at
the factory. They’ve been working so hard. We kind of know where our North
Star is and for them to bring this upgrade here this weekend, I can’t thank
them enough for the hard work that they’ve put in to bring it, because it’s
a competition between all the teams to who can bring the most and it helps
us close the gap. The car felt great in qualifying. Obviously, they’re still
so quick, the Mercedes, so still have work to do to fully close the gap or
at least get ahead, but I’m really hoping that tomorrow we can. It would be
nice for us to, for once, be able to hold on to them, but we’ll see.
Q: Lewis, we saw the problems Charles had in Q3. Just tell us more about
what it’s like to drive this upgraded Ferrari on the limit. Is it tricky?
LH: I think just these cars in general, it is tricky. I mean, for me the car
felt really good. We basically had this exact same set-up now in quali, and
I know Charles has been quick all weekend. I think, on the day, too, I think
I was braking very late into Turn 4, which had been visible, and I think
Charles probably tried to carry a lot of speed into that corner and
unfortunately, it didn’t work out for him. But, you know, he’s still going
to be really quick in the race. I think from the car standpoint, I think
we’re just constantly trying to strike that perfect balance, which is
inevitably almost impossible to ever find, but you’re trying to get closer
and closer. And these tyres are very peaky. There’s a small window that the
fronts and the rears work, and you have a push in Turns 1, 2 and 3, and then
you’re struggling through 4 and the rest of the lap. So, it’s the finest
line that I can remember ever being to get every ounce of the car’s
performance out on track, but I’ve been really happy with the progress that
we made in terms of the balance. Of course, we can always continue to
improve.
Q: You’re going to start the race in a Mercedes sandwich.
Just how tricky is it for you tomorrow? Do you think you can genuinely
challenge these guys?
LH: I definitely will be challenging without my
team-mate within the group, but it’s been done before. So, I think really
it’s a long way down to Turn 1. For one, I’m on the dirty side, which is not
the greatest. But yes, these guys I think were really quick on the long
runs, as they have been all year. So I have no idea whether I’ll be able to
keep up. We’ll find out tomorrow.
Q: Alright, Lewis, thank you very
much. And Kimi, let’s come to you now. Well done to you as well. You said a
moment ago that it’s been a difficult weekend for you so far, so given
everything, how satisfied are you with this P3?
KA: Yeah, I mean, to be
fair, not really happy. Just struggling with the feeling of the car, very
low grip here, and just been attacking a bit too much corners. And yeah, in
the last lap I lost basically everything in the last sector, a couple of big
slides and tyre just went away from me. So definitely was not the best
performance, but long run was good, so looking forward to that for tomorrow
and hopefully we will have the same kind of pace.
Q: Lewis said a
moment ago that he was on the back foot after missing the first practice
session. You were out of the car as well during FP1. How much do you think
that has cost you?
KA: Difficult to say. I think maybe a little bit, but
I think overall this weekend I was just lacking pace, to be fair, on a
single lap, so I don’t think how much more of a difference it would have
made. For sure, FP3 was a very messy session for me, a lot of traffic and
not being able also to try the second tyre definitely made things a little
bit more complicated, but it’s what it is. Still P3, and now we’ll focus on
tomorrow.
Q: And do you think your main opportunity tomorrow is at
the start, or will the tyre deg that we’re seeing this weekend give you
opportunities later in the race as well?
KA: I think both. It’s a long
run into Turn 1. Also, without the use of the wing, the slipstream is going
to be much stronger, so important to get a good start and then try to get
away cleanly into Turn 1. And then from that point on, it’s going to be
trying to play the long game. Tyres are very fragile here and we might see a
lot of stops during the race because, yeah, they don’t last very long.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Jake Boxall Legge – Autosport) A
question for all three, if possible. Kimi, you’ve kind of already touched on
the strategic variation, degradation, but just how much variation are we
going to see tomorrow? Because I was looking at some long runs a little bit
earlier in the weekend, it seemed like the Mediums were dropping off after
maybe 12 laps or so. Are we looking at two-stop, three-stop? What can we
expect tomorrow?
GR: I think closer to a three than a one. I don’t think
a one is going to be possible at all. It’s not clear what the best tyre is.
It’s quite interesting, on a track surface like this, all three tyre
compounds look quite similar. That was the case last year. Everybody was
running the C3s and the twos last year, and obviously with the C4 this year,
it still looks not a bad race tyre. So, there’ll be a lot of variation, but
I don’t think a different tyre will make that much of a difference.
Q: Lewis, anything you can add on strategy tomorrow, tyre wear?
LH: I
think the tyre wear, did you say it was double? The deg was like double than
what we expected. So maybe not for the…
GR: I said it was a one-stop.
LH: Yeah, a half-stop! We came into the weekend with an expectation of
whether what the tyres are going to be, and for us, we had twice the amount
of deg. It will be interesting to see if that’s improved going into
tomorrow, but yes, it’s going to be at least a two.
Q: (Luke Smith –
The Athletic) Lewis, just given in light of today’s result, your first front
row with Ferrari, your growing confidence, does tomorrow feel like your best
chance yet of getting that first win in red?
LH: I mean, it’s the closest
I’ve been to the front in quali, right? So, I’ll give it a go. You know,
still what’s clear is what we’re doing is working, we’re improving as a
team. I think clearly, I mean, these guys just seem to have extra in the
pocket. Every time we bring an upgrade, they’re still ahead, so we’ve got
some work ahead of us to… I don’t know when they’re going to bring something
else again, maybe the next race or whatever. It’s going to be swapping and
changing, but it’s great for us, this is the closest we’ve been pace-wise, I
think, in quali. And as I said, I’m so grateful to the guys back in the
team. I’ve seen how focused and how hard everyone’s working, and everyone’s
just quiet and goes about their business and is just so passionate. But I
really want them to know how thankful I am, because it felt great out there
to put a lap together and see that we’re that close, this early. We’re still
early in the season, you know, so the fight is on.
Q: (Edd Straw –
The Race) One for you, Lewis. You mentioned on the radio that you lost a
little bit in Turn 1 on that last lap. Can you just talk through that? And
although it’s a small loss, could it have been enough to have you sat in the
middle rather than in P2?
LH: I mean, I need to go look at the data. I
haven’t seen the sectors. But basically, we were in the garage… We went out
and started the first lap, and then obviously with the red flag we came in.
I think I did basically the whole first sector. I think these guys, maybe
you didn’t get the whole sector, so the tyres were a bit fresher. We had a
big debate in the garage. They put on new tyres and we were going to wait to
do one lap, and I was saying to them that I want to go out on this tyre and
get a benchmark… Not a benchmark but at least a reference lap in. And they
were like, “No, no, just go out for one.” And I was like, “No, take these
new tyres off, put the reference ones on.” And then we went out, and the
tyres had dropped off significantly already. I mean, one lap to the next
lap, it’s usually around half a second to eight tenths or something like
that, so they had already dropped off half a second. So, anyways, I was
happy I got that, but whether or not they’re right or not… So when I went
into Turn 1, I gunned it and I probably I went in too deep, I had massive
understeer and went quite wide on the exit of 1, which meant 2 was slower
than normal. And yeah, these guys are flat through 3. You flat through 3?
GR: No.
LH: So I had, you know, half a tenth to a tenth, I would assume.
But I’ll look at the data, maybe I’m wrong.
Q: (Fred Ferret –
L’Equipe) I have a quick question to Lewis. What do you still miss to have a
victorious car tomorrow compared to the Mercedes?
LH: Well, tomorrow is
not done yet. So I think for pole and for us to get ahead, I think obviously
we missed a little bit of power or deployment. It seems like we’re a little
bit closer this weekend than normal, but there are areas where they just…
where we tail off at the end of going into Turn 4, for example, they just
pull a little bit more. And it’s just small bits through the lap. Overall, I
think the rear end can always get better, and that’s what I’m always asking
for, is more rear downforce. That’s the driver’s dream, is always to have
more rear. And these guys have had a really solid at the back for some time.
So, I’ll keep asking for that. And I think it’s just also refining kind of
through-corner balance.
Q: (Matteo Senatore – FormulaPassion.it) A
question for Lewis. Lewis, you made a great improvement from yesterday to
today. What kind of adjustment you did in the team for such a great
qualifying session that, the best you had?
LH: Yeah, honestly, I couldn’t
believe once I came around and was P1 in Q1, the gap was so big. And I was
thinking all weekend, “Why am I half a second off?” And I just was down
everywhere. Struggled through 3, struggled through Turn 9 and having that
confidence in that high-speed. But the engineers did a great job with the
small adjustments on the set-up. For the first time ever, I left the track
between P3 and qualifying. So, I said, “I’ve got to get out of here.” And I
went back to my motorhome and I was just on the engineer call, just on my
phone, but I kind of went where I had a bit of a reset. Came back and I was
able to somehow get back on it. So yeah, whatever it did, it worked. |
