Fahrerstimmen – Tag 2

Today was a good day, I stayed out of trouble at the beginning and I had a smooth race, I picked the cars off one by one. I had a good stint on the hard tyres which I think was integral to the win today. I had a good battle with Checo towards the end there too. I of course had the advantage with the new tyres but I think that’s what we like to see, we are free to race. Yesterday was a bit of a setback, today we kept it calm and clean, and winning the race from P9 was very satisfying.

We have to be happy with this result. This year, we’ve tended to perform better on Sundays – but starting from the first row in Monaco is a really positive achievement. Job done today. It was a great final run, but when the team told me I was in P1, I already knew there was a chance I’d get bumped to second. I pushed the limits to uncomfortable levels – I risked a lot today. Our pace in the final sector is a bit of a weak spot, so we need to take a look at that for future races. Tomorrow, I’m aiming to finish the race and take the maximum possible points. If it’s a straightforward afternoon, we’ll hopefully finish on the podium; any more opportunities and we’ll be there to take them.

What a day! First of all, a big well done to the entire team, both at the track and at the factories in Enstone and Viry. Our result really shows that hard work pays off. I felt comfortable right from the beginning in Qualifying and I gave it my all on that last lap. Starting in fourth place on the grid in Monaco is great spot to be in and while I’m very happy now, we know we cannot settle for that as there’s a long way to go this weekend. We worked incredibly hard to get ourselves in this position so we will stay focused to bring home some good points for the team. Bring on tomorrow’s race.

Honestly, I’m not happy with how things ended in Q3. Having to pass three slow cars during the last push lap is far from ideal especially when things were so tight. I’m disappointed because the weekend had been quite positive up to this point.
Anyway, we still have a chance to do well in the race tomorrow, so we’ll aim to use our good pace and the strategy to try and make up some places.

The car was feeling good throughout yesterday, particularly in FP1. We then worked overnight and made some changes after FP3 to refine the set-up. It improved the car in the middle of the lap, but it wasn’t good in the first and last sectors. It was tough today therefore and difficult to progress from Q1 and Q2, but we just managed it. Given that, I was happy with my final lap, and I think that’s as good as we could have managed. I’m also hopeful that the set-up we have will work well for the race.

I love being on this circuit and the challenge is immense. It’s very difficult to overtake but we’ll work as a team to make sure we’re prepared to capitalise on any opportunities that present themselves tomorrow. I’m grateful for where we are, and I’ll keep pushing.

It was a very tricky qualifying on a weekend where I have struggled quite a lot with the car. I think our SF-23 is not handling the bumps so well but in qualifying it was a bit more alive and we managed to secure P3, very close to the pole position time. A qualifying lap here is like nowhere else on the calendar and it feels really good to drive.
So all in all I can be happy but I would of course have preferred to be first. For tomorrow, I need a bit more luck than in the past years here. The forecast says there is a chance of rain and if that is the case anything is possible. I will go for it anyway and then we will see where we end up.

That was a very intense Qualifying and it’s good that we’ve come away with a great outcome for the team. I’m relatively satisfied with seventh but there was definitely more on my side so I do have bittersweet feelings in that regard. The car felt strong and we were obviously up there and competitive, with Esteban doing a really good job to be in fourth place. I just didn’t quite get it together in Q3 with some rear sliding on my push lap. Even so, to start seventh in Monaco puts us in a very good place for tomorrow’s race where we must aim for a big haul of points from both cars.

We didn’t strike the right balance with the car today. We were often strong in sector one but from there, the lap just went away from us. We also seemed to struggle more as Qualifying progressed. In Q3, that was more down to my part as I didn’t get it together. Naturally we’re disappointed as there were moments where we looked quick, but I think the maximum wasn’t much more than what we got today.

It's going to be a long Grand Prix tomorrow. Monaco is a unique circuit and historically as a team, it’s not always suited our car or been our best race. We also know you’re likely to finish where you start, but we will be doing everything we can to move forward.

A big congratulations to the team. We struggled a lot yesterday during both practice sessions but made a big step forward overnight. I felt a positive change in FP3 straight away and we were able to find extra performance on top of it for qualifying. The massive work done by the mechanics and engineers showed; I felt confident immediately, especially during the last run in Q1. From then on, I enjoyed it a lot. It was my first Q3 appearance in Monaco and it was definitely special. I am happy with my performance, which allows us to start the race in the points position, so I will give it my all and extract everything possible to be able to score points tomorrow.

Disappointing qualifying for two reasons. One through my own fault, hitting the wall, I messed up on my side. The mechanics did a mega job to put everything back together, so a big thank you to them. Unfortunately, we then just got blocked completely in my fastest lap in Q3, which wasn’t our fault. It was a bit up and down, and sadly not the result we wanted. We probably wouldn’t have achieved a lot more, but maybe a P8 was possible, which around Monaco means a lot. Frustrating, but we did many things well, so we’ll hang on and try to get some good points tomorrow.

P11. Shame to have missed out on Q3 by so little but, happy with the improvement I made. We struggled through the practice sessions, so to get so close to Q3 in quali, I’m quite happy with. Only one spot out of the top ten and anything can happen tomorrow. We’ll work hard this evening and see what we can do to work our way in to the points tomorrow.

It was a challenging session, and we knew already before going into Q1 that it would be messy because of traffic. Of course, we always want more, but it has been a solid weekend so far. If we repeat the good work we have executed so far in tomorrow’s race, we can be satisfied with ourselves and the weekend in general. The track evolution is big here and you could see the track was only coming alive during qualifying when it counts, and the team did a good job of constantly improving with the changing circumstances. I have raced here previously, but it’s another level in a Formula 1 car, and I am excited for tomorrow!

It was a good day today; we were on the back foot all weekend but, with this track, we knew it was going to be difficult and the weaknesses in our car were going to be challenging around this circuit. We made a lot of changes from FP3 to qualifying and they worked, so that’s always a positive thing. These changes made the car much more drivable for Qualifying but we did use three sets of tyres in Q1 to get through. I was happy with my lap but I lost too much time in the traffic whilst the tyres warmed up so, despite this, I feel like our car was better than the results today. Let’s hope for some rain tomorrow.

A frustrating qualifying session – the potential was definitely there: in Q1, I finished fifth and I was feeling good in the car. Then things went downhill in Q2: I didn’t get my tyres prepared properly on my out-lap, then I got caught at the weighbridge, there was traffic, and then I lost a few tenths at Turn 18 on my final run. When the margins are so tight, those things just compound the situation. Tomorrow is another day, we’ll roll the dice with the strategy – either going long or pitting early and undercutting people. Hopefully, a bit of rain will mix things up, let’s see.

We looked capable to get into Q3, and with a clean lap we could have been in the top ten, but I found traffic in the final sector on my last run and that cost us dearly. I lost a couple of tenths, probably, and this was enough to knock us out and put us 15th – with these tight margins, we can’t afford to lose that much. Overtaking won’t be easy tomorrow, and it can be a long day at the back, but we will try our best. We can also take some positives: we did better this weekend, until qualifying; the car feels improved so we can hopefully build on this for the future.

It’s my first time driving an F1 car in Monaco this weekend and I’ve loved every bit of it so far. Every lap on this track keeps you on your toes. The build-up has been great; tomorrow is going to be a long day but we’ll make the most of it. This afternoon in Qualifying was probably the most relaxed I’ve been this weekend, I’ve been driving well in the Free Practices and I was happy with my qualifying lap; coming from the FP sessions, I didn’t think we would be as close as we were and I felt like I got everything out of it. Alex’s [Q1] lap was pretty impressive, I’ll have to see what he did! We got the car in a good window. There were a few bits that could have been better, but it’s tough to accommodate for all the different types of corners here. Starting 16th isn’t ideal around here but I want to execute a full, clean weekend, so if I can go out tomorrow and have good race pace then that would be a nice way to round out the weekend and then move on to Barcelona which is a track that I love.

All week we thought we were a little better than this. We opted to do two push laps on the second set of tires in Q1 and everyone else did three and improved a lot. The team did a fantastic job to get the car ready after the issues in FP3, they always do, so I was confident we’d get running but I was also confident we could maybe even challenge for Q3, so I got that wrong. We’ll see, hopefully the weather will play its part and we’ll have a fun race.

A disappointing qualifying as we all know how important it is in Monaco. We had the option of two runs after the red flag which would mean using three sets of new tires or, as planned, two runs of fast- slow-fast. We opted for the latter thinking that would’ve been enough. Other people went out immediately after the restart of the session and stayed out, but for us the tire is really only the best in the first lap. I also thought we were a bit faster than it turned out in the end and we would be into Q2, but ultimately, we were missing pace.

Our performance in FP3 had made me confident in a place in Q2, and I believed with a small improvement we could even get to Q3. However, it turned out to be a tricky afternoon: the good feeling I had in the first run of Q1 disappeared and, as the track improved, I couldn’t find any extra grip. I was sliding around too much and, although I improved in my final run, this wasn’t enough in such a competitive field. Starting from the back will make our job very difficult tomorrow, but we owe it to the work of everyone in the team, and to our fans, to go out there and give everything in the race.

Well done to Max, he had a tremendous race and deserved to win, I am really happy for him. It is not always nice when you lead the race and end up second, certainly I didn’t have the pace of Max and it is something we are going to analyse to see how we can do better. When I saw how strong Max was coming through the field and I was struggling a bit, I thought 'this isn’t looking too good'. It would have been a gamble on strategy to start on the hard tyre from pole position. Of course, I wanted to win but I knew early on the race was looking tricky for us. This is one to learn from because clearly Max had the fastest pace. I think the performance Max showed today was not reachable for me, so I have to understand why. I think some was tyre related but equally, overall, he was the stronger driver today. There was maybe a bit more we could have done; it is a bit of a shame really but in general, on a tough weekend P2 is not a bad result. We will review the weekend. I want to get back strong for Imola and get back to our normal level.