Fahrerstimmen – Tag 3

Grande gara, bella macchina! (A great race and a beautiful car). Sorry for starting to speak in Italian, but today is such a special day for me. I don't really know what to say, I am speechless. It's not only one childhood dream that becomes true, it seems to be many dreams together. It was amazing to look down from the podium and see the mechanics, the engineers, the whole team and listen to the German and Italian anthems. The atmosphere in the team has always been great, but it's just getting better and better. For today, the important thing is for all of us to enjoy this moment together and celebrate. I did not swap teams that much in the past, so winning for a new team is always a relief. Since I joined Ferrari I felt incredibly welcome and together we have worked to improve things. The potential, as I always said, is huge, it's good to see what a step forward we did over the winter. There were a lot of changes in the background (including one driver…) which never make things easy, but everyone saw the positives of that. It just doesn't compare to last year, when the car was also good but I couldn't get on top of it. With Ferrari I had a good feeling right from the start. This is a special day, it has been a while since both I and team won for the last time. I'd like to be in the same position at every race, but we must be realistic, Mercedes were a bit struggling today but they have a great package and our target is to make the gap smaller at every Grand Prix and make sure that we are the team right behind them.

Zunächst möchte ich Seb und Ferrari gratulieren. Das muss man ihnen lassen. Ich hatte nicht erwartet, dass sie so schnell sein würden, wie sie es heute waren. Sie hatten eine richtig gute Pace und haben den Sieg verdient. Für die Fans ist es großartig, sie da oben zu sehen. Ich kämpfte mit der Balance und fühlte mich im Auto nie hundertprozentig wohl. Wir hatten so viel Untersteuern, dass der Umgang mit den Reifen sehr schwierig war. Auf den Option-Reifen war es viel besser. Deshalb dachte ich, dass wir sie am Ende noch einmal einsetzen würden und war überrascht, dass wir die Prime-Mischung verwendet haben. Aber ich holte das Maximum heraus und bin überzeugt, dass das Team die Entscheidung aus den richtigen Gründen getroffen hat. Einmal gab es ein bisschen Verwirrung im Funk, als mir nicht ganz klar war, wie unsere Strategie aussah. Aber ich bin mir nicht sicher, ob es einen Unterschied ausgemacht hätte, wenn wir mit Seb gemeinsam an die Box gegangen wären. Sie waren heute genauso schnell, wenn nicht sogar schneller als wir. Sobald ich den Rückstand aufholen musste, war es einfach ein bisschen zu viel. Jetzt freue ich mich auf das nächste Rennen und den Kampf, um wieder an die Spitze zu gelangen.

Das war kein besonders tolles Wochenende für mich. Mit dem dritten Platz kann ich nicht zufrieden sein. Als das Safety Car herauskam, habe ich viel Zeit an der Box verloren. Ich hatte damit gerechnet, dass ich mich hinter Lewis würde anstellen müssen, aber so kamen auch einige andere Autos vorbei, die mich Positionen gekostet haben. Ich glaube, ganz besonders, als ich warten musste, bis sich die Red-Bull-Schlange fortbewegte. Deshalb musste ich mich wieder bis auf die Spitzenplätze vorkämpfen. Das war hart, aber meine Rennpace war okay. Darauf kann ich aufbauen. Wir müssen Sebastian und Ferrari gratulieren. Sie hatten heute eine großartige Rennpace und es ist sehr beeindruckend, wie sehr sie sich über den Winter gesteigert haben. Jetzt erwartet uns wahrscheinlich ein Kampf gegen Ferrari. In Shanghai möchten wir zurückschlagen.

We had a pretty poor weekend in terms of things going wrong. I had a good speed but in qualify it didn't go well and then today, after a poor start where I had too much wheelspin right off the line, I found myself fighting with all the other drivers and I had a puncture on the rear left tyre while battling Nasr at the last corner, which means I had to go one full lap before coming back to pits with no tyre. At that point my floor had got a little bit damaged, I had to do a full lap with no tyre and then, even if the safety car helped us, I had to start from way back behind. We did our best and the forth position was the maximum we could achieve. The win of Sebastian is a very good thing for him and for the whole team , knowing how difficult the last year has been; it's a very good job what the team has done. We knew from winter testing that we have a good car, so it did not come as a total surprise, and probably the track with these high temperatures suited us. I don't know how it will be in other circuits, but the car has been strong so far, not yet as we want but we have a good package, and we are getting stronger.

It was a nice race in the end. I was always in the wrong place at the start and lost a lot. I made the most of the performance of the car and it was nice to be able to race Felipe at the end. We know we have some work to do, we need to learn from our mistakes and keep progressing. Some upgrades that are due shortly will hopefully be a step in the right direction.

I don’t think we had a fantastic day today. We had a small problem in the pitstop and as a result it gave Valtteri the chance to catch me, it was good to race wheel to wheel though. We got the best points we could for the team given the where the car is at the moment.

I really enjoyed that! I'm very happy to have scored my first ever points in F1 and to end seventh! I think we did a great job as a team. The first few laps were a bit tricky for me as I was struggling a lot on the Medium tyres, so we boxed early for the Hard ones and that worked perfectly, the car felt great. We had a few good fights with other competitors and it was good fun. This was the right strategy and we did a great job managing the tyres. I felt well physically, it was quite hot at the end but I was still able to cope with it and be consistent, so I'm happy with that. This is a big boost for the team, we couldn't have done a better job today.

It was a mega day for me today! A two-stop strategy at a track like Sepang was never going to be easy, but it worked out well in the end and it's definitely made me forget yesterday's result in qualifying. Starting from P15 and making it to P8 is amazing! There was a lot happening around me throughout the whole race, so it was very easy to lock-up, make mistakes or lose positions, but I kept calm and in the end it paid off. The conditions have been very tough here in Malaysia, much more than in Australia obviously, but we prepared well for it and I had no problems. Such a result gives us great confidence and motivation to keep up the good work. The team is doing an excellent job and to finish with both cars in the points is a great way to end the weekend.

"We took the maximum out of the situation today," said Kvyat. "We are lacking some pace and need to catch up, I am confident that the team can do it; it's a challenge and we have to face it with a strong mind. Fighting for P9 and P10 is not what we want, we struggled today and we need to work out why."

"A really frustrating race," he said. "I was ready for a fight going into the race and hoping for something special – but it wasn't to be! I had a bit of contact on the first lap, which hurt us and then we had a few issues throughout the race, which we had to manage. It took a long time to pass cars as we didn't have the pace and we had some problems with the brakes, which didn't make our afternoon easy. It was a good job by Seb, a great drive from him."

“Overall we had quite a good race with a strong first lap and some nice overtaking,” said Romain. “I lost a lot of time behind Nico Hulkenberg and then the spin with Sergio Perez in such a fast corner. I had some fun overtaking with Red Bull, Toro Rosso and Force India, which was great, and we had a good strategy but we lost too much time to benefit from it. “I also had an issue with my drinks bottle which added to the fun. Overall the car behaved well though and we’re not far from the top ten so we’ll work to close the gap for China."

Es war kein einfaches Wochenende. Schon von Beginn an hatte ich Schwierigkeiten eine für mich gute Fahrzeugabstimmung zu finden. Wir müssen verstehen, warum die Rundenzeiten nicht schnell genug waren. Das Rennen war schwierig, zumal ich schon in der ersten Runde Kimi (Räikkönen) touchierte. Ich hätte es verhindern können, aber solche Zwischenfälle können beim Rennen fahren passieren. Nun müssen uns auf das nächste Wochenende in China konzentrieren.

We knew ahead of the race it would be a big fight to get close to the points and it turned out to be just the case. I struggled with degradation in my first stint, on mediums, and that cost me a lot of time after the Safety Car. We had slightly better pace with the hard compound, but in the end it was not enough to get back in contention. The penalty didn't help us either; I felt I had nowhere to go and couldn't avoid contact with Romain. I thought it was a racing incident but it ended up costing us a lot. It's a disappointing result but at least we were able to learn a lot from this race and this will help us going forward.

It was a tough afternoon and I was always kept very busy with lots going on around me. I was really struggling with the general balance and the car was sliding around, especially as the tyres became older. We chose not to pit during the early safety car, which gave me good track position, but it was not an easy decision. We were trying to make the two-stop strategy work, but it just wasn’t possible with the degradation and so we switched to three stops. Perhaps it would have been better to commit to the three-stop earlier, but I’m not sure it would have changed the result that much. The penalty for the contact with Daniil [Kvyat] also dropped me out of the fight for points. I went a bit wide in turn one and chose to go back on the inside going into turn two. I was quite well alongside him, but he probably didn’t think I would try to come back at him.

I’m so happy for the team. P15 is not only a great result from today’s race, but also a huge reward for a fantastic effort over the past few months. I’m really proud of us. Coming into the weekend we knew things would not be easy; we had to work very hard and stay focused every step of the way. We missed out on some of our targets but in the end it was the race that mattered and we brought the car home with a full race distance. That was my main objective, as the information we now have is so important for our development, but it’s good to know that we got a good result along the way and finished ahead of some of the other teams. I’m sorry for Will that he was unable to race today but we have a very good starting point for us both to work from in China and beyond. My thanks to the whole team for a really positive weekend.

“This whole weekend has been better than I expected. “The main positive to take away from today is the fact that we were able to run with other cars – Jenson and I weren’t simply fighting with each other. That was the first step we needed to take, and we’ve taken it already. “Indeed, our race pace was surprisingly good; I was running with the pack, and I was even able to catch the Red Bulls before the pit-stops. That was a nice surprise. “We still need a little more time to investigate the exact cause of my retirement. The team came over the radio to tell me to back off a little, to save the car, so I brought it back to the pits. “For us, these are the sort of reliability problems you’d usually discover in pre-season testing, but, given our lack of running over the winter, unfortunately we’re likely to encounter such issues in the first few races of the year. “Hopefully, we can take another step forward in China.”

“The start of the race was a bit of a mess for me: I’d had a longer-than-normal pit-stop under the Safety Car, and came out behind Roberto [Mehri], who didn’t close down the gap before the Safety Car came in. At the restart, I then started about four or five seconds behind the pack, had to get past him, then chased down the cars in front – which hurt my tyres. “But I enjoyed it out there – we’re actually racing people. To be able to see one of the Red Bulls ahead of me – and so far into the race – was obviously a nice surprise. And we were able to mix it with the others a little bit more, too. Fighting in the pack is the most positive thing to take away from this weekend – hopefully, before too long, we can start to pick them off on a race-by-race basis. “Today has been a useful day; it’s just a pity that both Fernando and I ended up finishing it early.”

Es ist sehr frustrierend, ein positives Wochenende auf diese Weise beenden zu müssen. Ich fühlte mich von Beginn an wohl im Auto und konnte in Runde 1 einen Platz gutmachen. Nico (Hülkenberg) hatte auch einen guten Start und lag vor mir. Ich war schneller als er und habe versucht, ihn in Kurve 1 aussen anzugreifen. Ich weiss, dass man an dieser Stelle gut überholen kann, allerdings habe ich das Heck verloren, bin ins Kiesbett gerutscht und konnte nicht mehr weiterfahren. Nichtsdestotrotz sollten wir die positiven Aspekte dieses Wochenendes mitnehmen. Ich habe aus meinem Fehler gelernt. In China werden wir umso stärker zurückschlagen.

“Unfortunately there was an incident on the first lap which lost me a lot of time and compromised the race from then on,” explained Pastor. “Despite dropping to the very back fo the field, we switched to a different strategy and we recovered well. Unfortunately, we suffered from a brake issue, which isn’t great but it’s effectively our first race and we need to keep working through issues, ready for the next Grand Prix. “As soon as we have a clean race, we will be fighting for good points. The potential is clearly there, especially in the race where the car pace is very competitive and we can score good points.”

Obviously I’m disappointed that I wasn’t able to race today. We pushed as hard as possible all weekend and there are quite a few positives that I can take away from Malaysia, including the promising pace in free practice. We’ll work on that for China, but for now my congratulations to the whole team on completing our first race distance. It’s a fantastic reward for all the hard work of the last few months.