Fahrerstimmen – Tag 3

"It's a very special feeling. Of course I didn't expect to win; after the Mercedes pair crashed then you're targeting a podium, but in the end to come out on top, it's incredible. To hear the Dutch national anthem for the first time in Formula One, I have to think about my dad for sure and I heard he was crying, so yeah it's unbelievable. He invested a lot of time in me and this achievement is also because of him. I wasn't nervous during the race, I was just trying to focus and drive the best I could. "We focused a lot on keeping the tyres alive because at my last stop I still had to do 32 laps until the end, but it worked out well! With five laps to the end I saw Kimi was dropping off a bit, he tried a few times and of course it kills your tyres and from there I just like 'okay, focus on the tyres now and bring it home'. I will for sure remember this and at the moment it's just a great feeling. "It's amazing, I have no words for it. It was very good company on the podium, I mean Kimi even raced against my dad, so it's very funny! I was celebrating a lot on the in lap and I got a bit of cramp, but that's part of it!"

“I had a poor start, with massive wheel spin when I released the clutch. I managed to recover some places in the first few corners and then I caught up with Max pretty easily. The car was ok and the speed was good, but once you are following another car for many laps this doesn’t help the tires and I was missing a bit of grip and downforce. It was a struggle to follow him close, I never really had a good run on him out of the last corner because he was really fast there. It’s a bit disappointing when you get that close and you don’t win, but after a difficult weekend we have to be somehow happy for this result. As a team we keep working as hard as we can and try to get the wins, we keep fighting and when we have difficult weekends likes this one, we have to keep the fight alive and be up there to score points. Max really deserves this win, for me he’s not a surprise. He was doing a very good job already last year and today in a better car he was able to win”.

“Today there was a big chance to win the race, so definitely I was attacking to win, that was what I was hoping for. But that lasted up to the point where I came out after the last stop and I realized the advantage I had, with a set of tires that were a couple of laps fresher, over the guys ahead was practically not there. We struggled on the Medium tires, where Red Bull was strong, and this is the reason why Kimi and I couldn’t attack, but we were very strong on the Soft tires. We decided to split the strategies between the two cars: I went for the three stop strategy, then I tried to attack the leader and I succeeded, but in the end both Daniel and myself came out behind the two stoppers. So all in all we were lacking pace, which is something we need to understand. There is nothing wrong with our car, it’s good, it works well, and the stuff we brought here seems to work. My congratulations to Verstappen. The first win is one of the best moments you can have, it’s something really special. So ‘chapeau’, Max managed to stay ahead, even if he had a lot of pressure from Kimi”.

"Mixed emotions today, for sure. Some of it was just bad luck today, I was leading and then went on a three stop strategy, which meant I had to try and pass three cars on track, which isn't easy. Seb had already jumped us on the pit stop, which resulted in more overtakes to get back to the front. In hindsight, a three stop strategy was the wrong thing to do, but maybe during the race it seemed like the right thing to the team. "I wasn't content sitting in fourth so I tried to pass Vettel, I had a crack, but it didn't work out. It really sucks to not even be on the podium and then the puncture at the end just rubs salt in the wound. It's a big day for Max with his first race win, so congratulations to him. He got the job done, everyone questioned the decision during the week but he has proven today that he is a top class driver. It's not hard for me to see Max on the podium, it's just hard not to be there myself. Let's move on to Monaco and hopefully we will both be on the podium next time."

I think we got the maximum today and I’m pleased to get decent points. We know our car wasn’t quick enough this weekend, but we had a good result, so that’s positive. Of course we would like to battle for the podiums and wins, but it wasn’t possible this weekend. We need to keep pushing on the development and we need more pace on these type of tracks. We knew that if something happened we could gain a couple of places, otherwise it was always going to be tricky, but this is racing. A lot of things can happen and this time we took a small advantage from it.

“What a fantastic race! We finally put a whole weekend together – we had a productive Friday, were fast in Quali and had good pace in the race today – and I’m a very happy man! P6 is an amazing result for me and the team, and to achieve this at my home race makes it even better. The start to the race was great, I think I did one of the best race starts of my life to be honest, running in a podium position and battling with Ferrari… Those first laps were really nice! I felt comfortable during the rest of the race, the team did a very good job with the pitstops and I had a big smile on my face when I crossed the line in sixth position. I’d like to thank all the fans that have shown their support all weekend here in Barcelona, especially to those who came to my grandstand at Turn 12, they really gave me an extra boost. I’d also like to congratulate Max on his win today, I’m very happy for him and the Red Bull family – I think it’s great that Red Bull brings young talent into Formula 1 and we keep succeeding, proving them right.”

“It was a very good race and I think we managed to get the maximum result we could hope to achieve today. We were able to keep some very fast cars behind us and we capitalised on the accident on the first lap [between Hamilton and Rosberg] to bring home a good amount of points. I had to fend off Felipe [Massa] in the last three laps: I was on very old tyres and he was closing in on me, but I managed to defend my position. This was pretty much the only action I had all afternoon; the rest of my race was quite lonely, which helped me look after the tyres and allowed me to defend in the final few laps. We had a good strategy that helped us leapfrog the Haas and brought us this good result on a track that has never been our strongest.”

It was definitely a very good race for us with some good points, finishing eighth positon from starting 18th. It was a difficult race, and not on our best track to finish in the points, so I’m happy. I know we’ve lost points compared to Red Bull, but that’s the way it is. I am really happy for Max. I know what it means to win for the first time, and he is only 18-years-old at a top team. Looking forward to Monaco, I hope we can show that we have a better car for that type of track, as we have struggled there over the last two years. Monaco is Monaco though and anything can happen.

“It’s a shame that Fernando retired, because we were having a good battle out there.” “I had a great start – it must’ve been the best getaway out there! “But it wasn’t a very easy race for me. There was no grip at all out there – and, whatever we did, we struggled. But, equally, the leaders weren’t very quick at the end, which made it really difficult for me to manage the situation because Dany [Kvyat] was right behind Seb [Vettel] and Ricci Bobby [Daniel Ricciardo], and he was on fresh rubber. Fortunately, I was just quick enough to stay ahead of those cars, and he couldn’t jump me. “We knew it was going to be difficult to score points here, so this result wasn’t too bad.”

“It was a good race for us today. We had to give two positions back at the restart of the race, so we lost a bit of time there. But a part from that, the pace was strong and we were competitive. It’s positive to be back and to finish in the points straight away. The car felt good and it didn’t take me a lot of time to get used to it. The second half of the race was fun, following the leaders without interrupting their fight, and I was able to overtake Gutierrez and get back into the points. The team also did a great job with the strategy and I’d like to congratulate them for this. It was a very productive day for the team, overtaking Haas in the Championship, so all in all, a positive weekend and we will continue fighting.”

“It was a very tricky weekend for us, which started with a few problems in FP2 (Free Practice 2) on Friday. However, the team did a great job in recovering. In the race, I was doing my best from the beginning to the end. I think we could have done a bit better with the tires – maybe taken a bit of a longer stint with the softs as toward the end of the race I just ran out of tires. However, it was really enjoyable out there and I had some great battles throughout. Today wasn’t straightforward for us to finish in the points, but we’re finding more consistency in the car, which will give us more opportunity to go forward.”

“I am happy with my race today. We went for a good strategy from my point of view. I am also satisfied with my driving, as I did not make mistakes and had a good pace at the same time. I would say it was one of my best races in Formula One so far. We all know that we are still struggling with our car to keep up with other teams, but today I was able to beat one of our main competitors. Without updates on the car, I think we can be satisfied with this result today. We will keep pushing for Monaco.”

“I think that was probably the best race I’ve done in terms of pace and performance. The car was feeling okay, we were battling tyre degradation a bit but it was managable. It’s a bit disappointing not to finish in the points but for myself, I’m happy. More performance should be coming from the upgrades we have in store so I’m looking forward to Monaco.”

“It was a difficult weekend. I had a good start to the race, and I was able to gain some positions on the first lap. I was surprised we did not change from our initial plan - a two stop strategy - to a three stop strategy. I do not think the two stop strategy was the right choice, as I could not keep up the pace. The stint was too long on the medium tyes, and I lost all the track positions I gained at the beginning of the race. Now we have to look forward to Monaco.”

“We had decent pace on the soft tyre but on the hard and the medium – especially the medium – we were weak. It wasn’t a good day for me and I’ll be working closely with the team to understand why we weren’t able to deliver. I’m definitely looking forward to the test and getting some new bits on the car as today certainly wasn’t representative of what we’re capable of achieving.”

“We got both cars to the finish, which was good, but otherwise there isn’t much more to say today; our race was pretty much as we expected. The upgrades are positive but they didn’t influence the overall result at this track with the way the race panned out. We also suffered from quite high tyre degradation again, so there is still some way to go to keep improving the car. I think the next couple of races will be a little better for us and of course Monaco is a track I’ve been most looking forward to. My first race there will be something very special so we’ll keep working hard and looking forward.”

“After the disappointment of Russia, it was good to see the chequered flag today. We decided to go long on the Medium for the first stint but there was too much traffic at that stage of the race so our strategy didn’t work out so well for us. For my third stint I was quite quick on the Soft tyres, so we need to understand why the Mediums worked less well for us. It’s been a mixed weekend but I’m looking forward to Monaco where I think things will go better for us.”

“My car felt okay this afternoon, but I didn’t manage to make a good start and lost everything – so my race was effectively over by the first corner. “After that, I followed Jenson for 50 laps and had traffic all race long, so I wasn’t able to do too many laps in free air or show my true pace. “At the end, I lost power somehow – we don’t know the exact cause. “We weren’t able to capitalise on our reasonable level of competitiveness. With both Mercedes out, we had a good opportunity to score some points today, but we didn’t manage it, so we need to keep improving.”

Ich hatte einen ordentlichen Start von der Pole. Auf dem Weg in die erste Kurve verlor ich jedoch die Führung, weil sich Nico im Windschatten heransaugte. Ausgangs Kurve drei holte ich ihn sehr schnell ein und stach rechts in eine Lücke hinein. Ich war mit einem Teil meines Autos daneben, musste dann aber in die Wiese ausweichen. Die Lücke war da und als Rennfahrer versucht man dann, sie zu nutzen. Wir haben gesehen, was danach passiert ist. Ich bin enttäuscht und es schmerzt mich vor allem für das Team, da wir heute 43 Punkte verloren haben. Wir ziehen alle an einem Strang, um das gleiche Ziel zu erreichen. Mit seiner Arbeit gibt mir das Team die Möglichkeit, Rennen zu fahren. Als ich im Kiesbett stand, hatte ich nur einen Gedanken: wie leid es mir für das Team tat. Diesen Schmerz fühlte ich. Aber wir werden uns gemeinsam aufrappeln und in Monaco gestärkt zurückschlagen.

“It’s frustrating not to finish another race. I saw some smoke coming from the back of my car and then it developed into a fire so I had to park quickly at the side of the track. It’s a shame because I missed the chance to fight for points and we also missed out on learning more about the car in race conditions. Sometimes in racing you have periods when things don’t go your way, but you have to keep the faith and believe that sooner or later your luck will change. There are also some positives to take away from this weekend because we’ve made progress with the car and I think the performance will continue to improve. So we will keep working hard and come back stronger at the next one.”

Ich hatte einen großartigen Start und freute mich sehr, als ich Lewis in Kurve eins außenherum überholte. Zu diesem Zeitpunkt war es mein Rennen. Als ich aus Kurve drei herausfuhr, merkte ich, dass mir Leistung fehlte. Der Grund dafür war eine falsche Einstellung. Der Schalter für den Motor-Modus war nicht in der richtigen Stellung. Da Lewis aufschloss, entschied ich mich, so schnell wie möglich deutlich nach rechts zu ziehen. So wollte ich die Tür schließen und ihm zeigen, dass dies keine Option darstellte. Ich war sehr überrascht, dass Lewis es trotzdem innen versuchte. Im nächsten Moment standen wir im Kiesbett. Ich bin enttäuscht. Nicht nur persönlich, sondern für das gesamte Team. Es ist das schlimmste Gefühl, das man als Fahrer durchmachen kann.

“I had a very good start, a very good first lap. I managed to get into the top-10 and was fighting there. Then my front wing decided to go, for some reason. We came back to the pits, fitted a new nose, got some tires, but then the brakes went. The car wasn’t having a good day. We really need to find out what’s going on because we reverted back on most of the setup, and we’re still very much struggling with the balance. Testing this week is going to be very important for us.”