Fahrerstimmen – Tag 2

“Yesterday I wasn’t smiling, today I am” said Seb. “When you belong to a team, you need to believe in each other and this is the perfect proof. Our Friday was messy, but our team has worked all night long and I am grateful for that. Here the guys worked all night and got to sleep around breakfast time, I believe. Meanwhile, back at the factory, Charles Leclerc worked at the simulator and other people analysed the data. Yesterday it seemed that we were not competitive enough and a lot of answers were missing. At the beginning of qualifying I was just thinking about doing my job. Then in Q3 I attacked, and I am very happy it worked”. He then continued: “For us it’s important to turn up the day. If it’s a bad day, we want to change it making it a good one because we always try to have good days. I think yesterday was very important for us because we learnt from it. It was a hard lesson but we improved our understanding of the car and the track evolution came to us. Now we probably have a better idea what the car needs. There are always lessons that need to be learnt and I am quite happy that we had a bad day yesterday. We are happy we got the pole today because it always helps. But the race is tomorrow, so we’ll see what happens”.

“All weekend has been a good build up, getting faster and faster and finding a smooth rhythm so to come away with second is a really good result. I took a little bit of risk to put down a good lap as we had predicted the others would improve from yesterday and this morning’s sessions. Perhaps there was a bit of time in the last sector to find but in general I am very pleased with how the car and I performed. That was the best balance in terms of set-up I have had with the car in Qualifying all year and that is a big positive. My quickest time was more or less the maximum I could do, Sebastian just had an even better lap. Race pace is good so we have a chance tomorrow but it looks like Ferrari have found quite a lot. The start will be important and maybe if there are a couple of safety cars that could impact the result too.”

“I really thought I could get on pole position today so I’m a bit disappointed to be honest. Seb’s last lap was strong and we couldn’t run with that. That pace was good for us in Q3 and it seems like he did most of his time in the first sector. I didn’t really know what else we could do. If we get the start right tomorrow then we can put some pressure on him through our strategy. I still believe we have a good chance to win this race. I do enjoy a street circuit and the challenges that come with it, brushing up against the walls and all that. I feel I can do this lap after lap for two hours tomorrow and still hold my concentration. I really want this one so hopefully that hunger prevails tomorrow.”

“It has been difficult since yesterday and even today it was not easy. The whole track felt very tricky to drive, it was hard to be quick and put the car where we wanted; in some sectors we were more competitive than in others. In qualifying it was a bit better compared to yesterday and this afternoon’s P3 practice, but I was still far from feeling comfortable to push. I was still fighting trying to do a good lap and it was easy to make mistakes and lose lap time. To finish fourth is not ideal but I’ll take it considering all the struggles that we have had so far ; it could easily have been worse. At least we gave ourselves a chance for tomorrow and hopefully with a bit of luck we can gain some positions. We’ll tackle it as a new day. Lately our starts have been quite decent, so we’ll try to make good progress and see where we end up”.

Für uns war es bislang jedes Jahr relativ schwierig in Singapur. Wir wussten also schon, als wir hierherkamen, dass es knifflig werden würde. Ich dachte mir, dass Red Bull so schnell sein würde, wie sie es schlussendlich auch waren. Aber ich erwartete nicht, dass Ferrari so stark sein würde. Ich gab heute alles, aber ich konnte nicht mehr aus dem Auto herausholen. Ich quetschte absolut alles heraus, was drin steckte. Heute werden keine Punkte vergeben, also bleiben wir optimistisch und konzentrieren uns darauf, morgen die bestmögliche Arbeit abzuliefern. Auf dieser Strecke ist das Überholen allerdings schwierig. Es wird ein langes Rennen. Ich muss versuchen, einen guten Start hinzulegen und so zumindest ein Auto zu überholen. Sebastian startet neben Verstappen, am Start kann also alles passieren.

Bis jetzt war es ein schwieriges Wochenende für uns. Wir sind eindeutig das drittschnellste Team hier und das ist nicht genug. Wir suchten die ganze Zeit nach dem richtigen Setup für das Auto und haben gestern und heute viele Veränderungen vorgenommen. Leider haben wir nicht die optimale Abstimmung gefunden. Man kann an den Rundenzeiten erkennen, dass ich das Auto mit diesem Setup nicht richtig fahren kann. Wir waren etwas davon überrascht, wie groß der Abstand zu Red Bull und Ferrari ist. Vor zwei Wochen hatten wir ein großartiges Wochenende in Monza und nun haben wir wirklich zu kämpfen. Das heutige Ergebnis zeigt, dass wir immer noch Schwierigkeiten haben, um auf einer Strecke wie dieser genügend Abtrieb und mechanischen Grip zu erzeugen. Daran müssen wir eindeutig noch arbeiten. Wir wissen, dass unsere Pace alleine morgen nicht für einen Podestplatz ausreicht. Deshalb brauchen wir ein sauberes Rennen, eine gute Strategie und auch ein bisschen Glück.

“We have a strong package here this weekend. I had a nice battle with McLaren in qualifying today. They had the upper hand until the last lap where I managed to squeeze a really good lap out. I’m very happy to start seventh, it was a good effort from the team. Everyone gave us the best possible chance to have a good race. We know the Singapore Grand Prix is unpredictable, anything can happen, you just have to be ready and stay on your toes for the entire race.”

“The first target of having both cars in Q3 has been achieved, so 50 per cent of the job is done. Now our second target is to get both cars in the points tomorrow, which I think is possible from these starting positions. “Race pace here is always a bit of a question mark; it’s difficult to read. Yesterday’s long runs were not long enough and, added to the difficulty of overtaking on this track, positions will be more or less set after the first lap. “That means we need to concentrate on making a good start and having a clean first corner. After that I’ll keep focussed and not make any mistakes. It is a very demanding race but hopefully we can bring some points home. “The first six cars are too far away in terms of race pace, so our aim will be to defend our positions and possibly climb up to seventh. “I hope we can complete the job tomorrow.”

“We came into the weekend more or less expecting to get both cars into Q3, and we achieved that today. “We were always on the pace throughout Q1 and Q2, but perhaps we lacked that little bit extra in Q3 compared to our rivals. But nonetheless it’s been a smooth and solid effort from the whole team. “While today is a good starting point, tomorrow is where it really matters. I might be hoping for quite a few Safety Cars in the race, but I still think we can conclude the weekend on a high.”

"I'm very happy with making into Q3 today! If I say the truth, after yesterday's FP2 and today's FP3 we didn't look that competitive and I thought that Q3 was a bit out of hand for us today, but in the end we managed to put a very good lap together – the pace came back in qualifying and I'm very satisfied! We now need to think about the race because it's not going to be easy. Unfortunately for us, a few of our closest competitors are quite a big step ahead of us here so it will be a race more on the defending side tomorrow, looking in the mirrors, but I'm up for it and will try my best to keep this point-position!"

“We found a lot of pace in the car, especially in Q1 where it felt like the car came alive. Q2 was also looking good but we overheated the rear tyres in the last run and I ended up losing a lot of time there and wasn’t able to improve. I am eleventh but I’m not too dissatisfied with that, we get a fresh set of tyres and we are in a good position to score some points tomorrow.

“It was a difficult qualifying session. All the way up to my final run in Q2 I was struggling with the front end of the car. We made some changes which helped the front, but I lost rear grip instead. I’m not really sure what went wrong so we need to look into the data to really understand why we didn’t deliver tonight. It’s going to be a long and tough race tomorrow, and we need to be patient. We are only a couple of positions away from the top ten so we will fight for as many points as possible.”

"The start to my qualifying wasn't that bad – I had one run in Q1 which was particularly good, but then in Q2 the track evolved and the car just got worse. I felt it sliding everywhere, had a lot of understeer and I just didn't manage to warm up the front tyres, which is all quite disappointing. This is something we have to analyse, because it's very frustrating for me. Regarding tomorrow, it's hard to say what we can do as we haven't had much pace this weekend. We just need to do our race, follow a good strategy and see where we end up."

“It’s been a disappointing day for the team - the first bad qualifying session in quite a long time, actually. It’s not something we want to see, obviously, but sometimes that’s the way it goes. I felt comfortable with the car until qualifying, but the track evolution went away from us. I struggled under braking and it was very easy for me to lock the fronts. We now need to focus on trying to recover in the race. Points are still very much possible, even starting in P14, so we will just go for it. There has been a 100% record of Safety Cars here over the years so there may be opportunities. Our car is better in the race than in qualifying and it’s my birthday tomorrow so I really want to get a good result for me and the team.”

“As long as you do your best in qualifying, that’s the most important thing. I think from both of us it was the maximum we could’ve hoped for. We pushed pretty hard but, unfortunately, we don’t have much balance here. I’m sure we’re going to learn a lot from this weekend for the future but, of course, when you’re deeply into it, it’s a bit painful. From yesterday we’ve made some improvements. I’m proud of the work. It’s a long race, a tough race. Hopefully, the car will work better tomorrow. We’ll aim for the best strategy, maybe we can get lucky with a safety car, and try to get to the front somehow.”

“I don’t think Q2 was out of reach. I caught a Renault in the last corner of my last lap, which cost me the margin I needed to get through to Q2. It’s been a tough weekend. We’ve not been strong enough, but we’ll fight anyway. It’s hard to say how the race will go. We’ll wait and see tomorrow.”

It’s been a very frustrating day to be honest. On my first run I had big oversteer, I hit the wall and got a puncture. I was lucky enough to have the problem at the last corner, before the pit entrance, so I changed tyres and went out again. Unfortunately, I had big oversteer in the last corner on my next run and lost half a second, and the chance to go into Q2. I am very disappointed because today Q2 was possible. These mistakes are frustrating and every day of this weekend has not gone well. We will try everything tomorrow and hopefully it can be a different day.

I didn't get everything out of myself, and so I am not happy with the session and myself. Coming into it I predicted more grip, so I locked up and touched the wall. It was a scruffy session, I needed to risk a lot to try and get into Q2, but instead I just went backwards. The track was changing so much and it was very different to all the other sessions this weekend. We just really got it wrong, but for sure the car is not as good here. It is frustrating going from the front row to the back. We had some hopes to get into Q2, but the pace was really not there. We are just missing a lot and that is going to cost us until we fix it.

„Ich habe das Maximum aus dem heutigen Qualifying herausgeholt. Meine Rundenzeit ist ganz in Ordnung, obwohl ich die Streckenbegrenzung touchierte und dadurch etwas Zeit einbüsste. Wir arbeiten als Team weiterhin sehr hart daran, Fortschritte erzielen zu können.“

„Es war ein schwieriges Qualifying für mich. Ich musste meine erste Runde abbrechen und kam schon frühzeitig zum Boxenstopp, um mit neuen Reifen einen weiteren Versuch zu starten. Das war kein idealer Einstieg ins Q1. Am Ende konnte ich nur eine gezeitete Runde fahren. Es war ein enttäuschendes Qualifying. Wir werden sehen, was morgen im Rennen möglich sein wird.“