Fahrerstimmen – Tag 2

“Pole position is always important”, said Seb “and for Scuderia Ferrari this track and this country means a lot, as this is the place where Gilles Villeneuve came from. That’s why I am very happy to have qualified on pole. It’s a great result for all the team, but I think I could have been even faster. I was quite happy with my first run in Q3 but I knew there was something more in the car for the first part of the lap. So I tried it all but I wasn’t sure until the end if it was enough. We have definitely improved since yesterday, I was very happy with the car today . Choosing the Ultrasofts for the start of the race was a pretty straightforward decision for us, now we have to do our best on Sunday!”

Das war ein ziemlich gutes Qualifying. Ich konnte vom dritten Training bis zum Qualifying noch viel an Performance nachlegen und hatte das Gefühl, dass ich alles aus dem Auto herausgeholt habe. Das ist ein gutes Ergebnis, obwohl es nicht ganz perfekt ist, hinter Ferrari zu starten. Aber uns war klar, dass sie an diesem Wochenende einige Verbesserungen bringen würden. Red Bull wird ebenfalls eine Gefahr für uns sein, aber es ist cool, dass wieder drei Teams um den Sieg kämpfen können. Wir sind happy damit, dass wir uns im Q2 mit den ultraweichen Reifen qualifiziert haben. Ich glaube, das ist die richtige Wahl für unser Auto. Jetzt wird es interessant, zu sehen, wie sich das am Start des Rennens auswirkt, besonders, da Red Bull auf den HyperSofts startet. Alles in allem scheinen die Abstände zwischen den drei Top-Teams sehr gering zu sein. Entsprechend könnte die Strategie der Schlüssel zum Erfolg sein. Es dürfte ein interessantes Rennen werden.

“I think we did a really good job today, the car has been performing very well and we made the most of it. In Q3 we were just lacking a little top speed but we were close and I’m happy. We have no issues, the pace was decent and we are not too far behind. The whole weekend I felt very good on the hypersofts which makes me more comfortable to attack the corners and this is always a good combination. The little engine upgrade probably pushed us a bit closer which is always nice to have. This track feels a little like a go-kart track and hitting all the kerbs is good fun. We have been fast all weekend and in the race we are usually faster than in Qualifying. We are starting on a different tyre which will make things interesting in the race but we will see, because many things can happen and if the safety car comes out that can change everything. We can definitely overtake on this track so that will give us many possibilities.”

Das war ein schwieriges Qualifying. Meine Runden waren nicht gut und es hat für mich nicht ganz hingehauen. Im Training sah es gut aus und ich glaube, dass ich im dritten Training die Bestzeit hätte holen können. Aber im Qualifying konnte ich das Potenzial nicht ganz ausschöpfen, das wir zuvor gezeigt hatten. Ich denke nicht, dass die heutige Performance etwas mit dem älteren Motor zu tun hatte. Sebastian hat einfach bessere Arbeit abgeliefert, als es in Q3 darauf ankam. Man kann sehen, wie eng es an der Spitze zugeht. Entsprechend könnte es morgen schwierig werden, zu überholen. Von Startplatz vier wird es hier sicher schwer, das Rennen zu gewinnen, aber nichts ist unmöglich. Ich werde heute Abend in mich gehen. Meine Konzentration gilt voll dem morgigen Tag.

“On my last try in Q3, I suddenly had a lot of understeer entering Turn 2, I struggled to turn the car round. At that point I had no choice but to try and get out of it as quickly as possible , but obviously I was off the line and my lap finished there. What happened was a bit odd, my car had been working well all day. I’m sure there was more to come today, and the end result is not what we were looking for. Tomorrow is a different day though, we’ll see what happens. For sure it will be tricky, with different tires on different cars in the front. It’s difficult to have a clear picture of how it will pan out, but we believe we made the right choice for the start of the race”.

“I think my weekend has lacked a little bit of rhythm and we’ve been one step behind due to some of the issues on Friday. In Qualifying, we actually made really good progress and I feel like we should be better than sixth with the way we performed. It’s all very close; disappointing to be at the tail end of that top pack but actually I don’t think we could have done more. Even though Max was quickest in each practice session, I think we still knew getting pole here would be tricky and for that reason we thought it would be better to start tomorrow on the hypersoft. We knew we would probably have a couple of cars to pass and it gives us a chance off the start and on the first lap with a bit more grip, afterwards we will have to manage them. This strategy sets us up to be aggressive and attack. The first few laps will dictate a lot of the race but I think we still have a chance of a podium and it should hopefully make some good TV as well.”

“I’m satisfied with that today. I felt a little on the back foot heading into qualifying due to the lack of running yesterday, but I’ve been confident in the car all weekend. I think we did the best we could in terms of position. There was probably more in me and a couple more tenths out there to extract in Q3. We have the top speed and a generally good package with the high fuel runs yesterday, so we’ll be there to fight and pick up positions tomorrow.”

“I’m happy to finish in eighth today. I had a fantastic feeling with the car and we’ve been getting better with each session. The work last night and in final practice really paid off and we took big steps forward in the build-up to qualifying. So I have to say a big ‘thank you’ to the team because we are really making good progress with this car. I think there is all to play for tomorrow: we are often stronger with race pace so the job tomorrow is to try and get ahead of Hulkenberg and bring home some big points.”

“I’m quite happy with how things have gone today. This Q3 is definitely thanks to all our mechanics for sorting the car out and completing an amazing change on my turbo to help me get out in qualifying. It was a great job by the whole team. For tomorrow we have good pace but it’ll be a tough race, especially starting on the Hypersoft tyre, but we’ll be pushing flat out to have both cars in the top ten.”

“I’m a bit disappointed to have finished behind the Renaults, but I am still confident we can fight with them tomorrow. Our set-up was completely geared towards the race and I felt it was very difficult to deliver a clean flying lap. Tomorrow, however, we should have an advantage and the opportunity to score good points. The first stint will be very important: degradation is quite high around here and we need to make sure we manage the hypersoft and don’t have to pit too early. The cars starting outside the top ten will be on a better tyre compound and we’ll need to fight them off if we want our strategy to work. This is what we’ve been working for and hopefully tomorrow it will work in our favour.”

“We brought an upgrade here and we hoped that would improve the car, and it looks like it has. This kind of track – we knew it was going to be difficult here. We put this upgrade on and, of course, it’s difficult to see as we’re not as quick as we were in Barcelona, where we were dominating that midfield. I think without the upgrade we’d have been a lot worse here. Low speed tracks are our weak point, but I’m happy that, so far, we’ve been able to limit the damage. I think we can attack tomorrow. Our race pace, if anything, is better than our qualifying pace, and we’re starting with a free choice of tire in P11 – that’s probably a better position to be in than P10 and P9. We’re going to fight.”

"I was really happy with the job I did today, and how we've worked as a team throughout the weekend to get the car in the right place. I think 12th was more or less where we've been this weekend, there was probably another tenth in the car on that last lap, but to move much further up the grid and into Q3 was a bit of a tall order today. I've really enjoyed driving the track here, it's got a lot of character, bumps, kerbs, you're close to the walls... I felt strong all weekend in Monaco as well but Q1 was a bit of a mess and we missed Q2, so it was nice to get a better result in Montreal. I'm quite optimistic for tomorrow! The upgrade performance in qualifying was good, and we think the bigger step is in the race trim which is where we have been struggling recently. Hopefully we can battle it out and try to muscle our way into the top 10 - everything has been really positive so far and we've seen races in the past here where a lot can happen, so I'll keep focussed and do my best to bring home some points."

„Es war im Allgemeinen ein guter Tag. Wir haben zwischen FP3 und dem Qualifying einige Schritte nach vorne gemacht, und ich bin zufrieden, dass ich es wieder ins Q2 geschafft habe. Als ich in Montreal ankam, kannte ich die Strecke noch nicht. Nach den letzten zwei Tagen fühle ich mich allerdings schon sehr wohl hier, und das Auto fühlt sich ebenfalls gut an. Auf P13 ins Rennen zu starten ist positiv, und ich freue mich darauf zu sehen, was im Rennen für uns möglich sein wird.“

"We knew this could be a difficult circuit for us, but yesterday we felt competitive, the car was feeling good and we were fast. “Today the car was still feeling okay, but we lost that level of competitiveness. In FP3 we felt a little bit worse and less competitive and unfortunately, we confirmed in qualifying that we were not on the pace today. “It’s a disappointing day but the race is tomorrow, and hopefully we can recover some places with a solid start and the right strategy. This is a circuit that provides good opportunities for overtaking, and I still think points are a possible target for us.”

“Today’s result is a bit disappointing. From this morning, we’ve found ourselves in this very tight group, and it seems like we didn’t make a step forward into qualifying. It’s a shame, as yesterday we had good pace going into FP1 and FP2, especially considering we didn’t run the Hypersoft in FP2. “This morning we looked to be getting close to being able to get into Q3. In qualifying, there was nothing particularly wrong – the balance was good and I think we more or less got the maximum out of our car if you look at the lap-times – but we’re just lacking pace. It’s a shame we weren’t able to progress further. “The race is a different story. There’s a lot to prepare for tomorrow – the race is always interesting here in terms of tyre degradation, especially for the guys that are going to have to start on the Option tyre – so we’ll have to wait and see. Our race pace is usually better, and at least we have the freedom of tyre choice, so hopefully that will give us an opportunity tomorrow. This is also a circuit where we can overtake, so we’ll see what we can do.”

I thought there was a bit more in it. I locked up in the last chicane on my best lap and that lost something like two and a half tenths. However, it would not have been enough to get into Q2, and not enough to get another position as we were six tenths off Gasly in P16. Unfortunately, we are not as competitive as we should be, but I am still happy with my first run and my performance. In the race it is a whole other story and I hope the race pace will be better, as last time I started 17th here I finished 9th, so anything is possible. This weekend will be very special as it is my home race, I love the energy and I have a lot of butterflies in a good way.

It’s been a very difficult session. We were struggling to understand how to make the tyre work best in the hot conditions that we faced yesterday in FP2, and today in qualifying. This is crucial as you can play around with the car balance a lot but we missed the peak of the tyre completely. I really tried to be positive going into the session as we have been working on improvements and felt we had a better understanding of the car. However, I am quite disappointed we couldn’t fight.

„Nach einem vielversprechenden Freitag, war es heute ein komplizierterer Tag für mich. In FP3 war ich mit der Balance des Autos weniger zufrieden. Wir haben einiges an Arbeit in die Vorbereitungen für das Qualifying gesteckt. Anfangs fühlte es ich besser an, allerdings habe ich im Q1 leider die Barrieren berührt, und dabei das Auto vorne rechts beschädigt. Danach konnte ich nicht mehr am Qualifying teilnehmen, was enttäuschend war, weil das Potential da war. Im Moment habe ich etwas Schwierigkeiten im Qualifying alles zusammenzuführen. Für das Rennen bin ich zuversichtlich – in den letzten Wochenenden haben wir bewiesen was möglich ist, wir haben die Rundenzeiten die wir brauchen. Nun müssen wir konzentriert bleiben und kämpfen.“

"We were quite unlucky today, everything looked promising until FP3 where we had an issue with the power unit, so we changed back to an old version. Unfortunately, at a track like Canada where we know the straight line speed is really important, it cost us quite a bit. It made qualifying quite tough, and of course it's always frustrating to miss out on Q2 with such a small margin. Looking at the positives, Honda made a really good step with the updates they brought to Canada which seems to work very well so far, I can't wait to put them back on my car as soon as possible! I think tomorrow will be a tough day... but we'll try everything! Anything can happen in Canada, it's a challenging track and it's easy to make mistakes, so maybe there'll be some opportunities for me."

“Something went wrong. Maybe the beaver from yesterday was still in there somewhere. Seriously though, we laugh about it as it’s been a terrible series of luck since the first race of the season. We’ve had some really tough luck. Anyway, the feeling in the car was really good since FP1. I was very happy with the upgrade. Kevin was improving and getting better in qualifying, which is great for the team. Starting last is never ideal, but it’s one of those racetracks where you can overtake, so luckily it’s not Monaco. I think everyone starting on hypersofts is going to suffer from the degradation, especially if it’s warm. We’re going to try something different. There are a lot of cars to get around. A good safety car, some luck at a good time, and we could be up there.”