Fahrerstimmen – Tag 3

Monaco dürfte der beste Ort überhaupt sein, um meinen 44. Sieg einzufahren. Zum letzten Mal habe ich hier vor acht Jahren gewonnen! Das ist wahrlich ein besonderer Tag... Es war eines der härtesten Rennen, an die ich mich erinnern kann. Voll konzentriert zu bleiben, keine Fehler zu machen und dann ganz oben zu stehen, ist einfach unglaublich. Ich laufe hier jeden Tag entlang und denke an die Legenden, die dieses Rennen schon gewonnen haben. Fahrer wie Fangio, Moss, Hill und Senna. Es ist ein absolut fantastisches Gefühl, dass mein Name nun erneut in dieser Liste auftaucht. Es ist sehr ungewöhnlich, dass ich so einen Anteil an einer Strategieentscheidung habe wie heute. Aber als das Team mich bat, an die Box zu kommen, konnte ich erkennen, dass die Strecke abtrocknete. Meine Reifen fühlten sich aber noch ziemlich gut an. Das teilte ich ihnen mit und sie sagten dann, dass ich draußen bleiben sollte. Das ist super aufgegangen. Ich achtete nur weiter auf die Reifen. Als ich bemerkte, welche Zeiten die anderen Piloten auf abtrocknender Strecke mit den Intermediates fuhren, legte ich bei der Pace etwas zu. Meine Rundenzeiten waren zu diesem Zeitpunkt auf ihrem Niveau. Also dachte ich mir: „Das könnte ich tatsächlich halten, bis es trocken ist.“ Es war richtig knifflig, innerhalb dieses Fensters zu bleiben. Denn die ersten beiden Sektoren waren beinahe trocken. Als ich auf den Slicks auf die Strecke ging, fuhr ich wie auf Eis. Es war schwierig, zu wissen, wie hart ich attackieren konnte – und wir kamen sehr eng beieinander auf die Strecke zurück. Wenn er keinen schlechten Stopp gehabt hätte, wäre ich nicht vorne gewesen. Aber so etwas passiert stets aus einem Grund und dieser war heute mein 44. Sieg.

“On the extremes in the beginning we were quick and I did everything I had to. I asked a couple of times how the people on inters were doing but they said that my pace was really good on the extremes so we stayed out and that was no problem. And then they said “box this lap”. We put the inters on and then we came out behind Lewis. Then when Lewis pitted we tried to pit the lap later to overcut him. It was all prepared and then I came into the pits and there were no tyres. "I actually hate being like this. I hate being miserable. I got a podium in Monaco. I should be extremely happy, grateful and thankful. I’ve been fast now for two races and that’s the positive, but again no win so I’m a little bit sick of being fast and not getting any real rewards. I don’t like being the sad story. To end it on a positive note, we are fast in all conditions, which is good.”

“A podium in Monaco is a very special moment. It’s one of my best ever races, especially when you see how difficult the conditions were today: you had to concentrate so hard and it was easy to make a mistake. The key to my race was the strategy and we got things just about perfect today. The first difficult decision was when to fit the intermediate tyre and we delayed this as long as possible. The team said it was my call when to come in and it paid off because we managed to jump a couple of cars, including my teammate. The switch to dry tyres was another key moment because I pitted early, a lap before Rosberg and Vettel, and managed to jump ahead of them. The soft tyres worked really well, but I knew I needed to look after them and it wasn’t easy because there was pressure behind from Vettel for most of the race. Everybody in the team deserves this result and I want to dedicate this podium to Vijay Mallya in particular.”

”It was a difficult race, I think I could have done better when I stopped and I came out behind Felipe. We made the right strategy call but then I should have found the way to get past, I think I lost the podium there. When I was behind him I was in the Intermediates tires, it was very slippery, very easy to get it wrong, but I feel I should have made it possible. Yesterday we didn’t do a good job in not putting the car in the place where we belong, yet I think we were very quick this weekend, the pit-stops were fantastic, a great job from the guys. But the rest is up to me and I apologize because I couldn’t get to the podium. I tried everything to close the gap to Perez, and I did come very close a couple of times, I was also lucky not to ‘kiss’ the wall at the end. Now it’s over, so in the end we got good points and after 6 races there’s a lot more to come.”

“In terms of driving and concentration, today’s was an extremely tough race. “We started behind the Safety Car – with almost zero visibility – then switched to Inters; but nobody had done any laps on those tyres before the race, so it was unknown territory for everyone. “Once we’d switched to dry-weather tyres, there was still only a very narrow dry line on the track, so if you went just half a centimetre off that line, you’d crash. There was just no room for mistakes today. “Nonetheless, we got a good result – both cars in the points ought to make us reasonably happy. I think we’re progressing well: the results make it quite obvious what we’re achieving, so we’re heading in the right direction. “We’re still not where we want to be – right at the front, fighting for wins and podiums – but I’m happy about how things are going.”

“It was ultimately a disappointing race for me, despite getting back to scoring points. I feel the timing of our first pit stop was wrong and that cost me track position and put me straight into traffic. This effectively ruined my race, as I spent the rest of the afternoon stuck there. It’s very frustrating as I had the pace to be on the podium today, but this is racing and it’s just the way it often is in Monaco. I was able to finally get past Rosberg with a good move on the exit of the final corner: we were on worn out tyres, it started to drizzle and it was very tricky to keep the car facing in the right direction. I got a better exit out of the corner and I think I got him by just a car’s length. All in all, I still feel it’s a huge missed opportunity for me. The car was in the sweet spot, it gave me a lot of confidence and I just had a good feeling today, but it was not to be.”

Im Rennsport gibt es gute und schlechte Tage. Heute erlebte ich einen schlechten. Ich hatte nicht die Pace, um vorne mit um den Sieg zu kämpfen. Jetzt müssen wir herausfinden, warum das so war. Möglicherweise war es ein Bremsproblem. Aber ich weiß es noch nicht genau. Zu Beginn des Rennens hatte ich nicht das Gefühl, dass ich auf den Regenreifen ans Limit gehen konnte. Es war einfach, dem Wunsch des Teams nachzukommen und Lewis vorbeizulassen. Obwohl es in diesem Moment natürlich sehr wehgetan hat. Ich war weit weg von der Pace und Lewis hatte eindeutig den Speed, um das Rennen für das Team zu gewinnen. Diese Regel pflegen wir schon immer: Wenn du vorne liegst und dein Teamkollege hinter dir eine Siegchance hat, ermöglichst du ihm diese Chance. Danach lief es einfach nicht für mich. Mein Boxenstopp war knifflig: Das Team hielt mich in der Box, weil in der Boxengasse viel Verkehr war. Die Autos fuhren einfach alle an mir vorbei und plötzlich war ich nur noch Sechster. Wenn man in Monaco einmal hinten ist, war es das – dann steckst du fest. Gegen Rennende hatte Nico (Hülkenberg) viel mehr Gummi auf seinen weichen Reifen übrig. Meine ultraweichen Reifen waren hingegen am Ende. Da es nieselte, sanken meine Reifentemperaturen und ich verlor an Grip. So rutschte er auch noch durch. Das fasst meinen Tag ziemlich gut zusammen. Ich bin extrem enttäuscht, wie es gelaufen ist. Ich wollte unbedingt wieder mein Heimrennen gewinnen, aber das hat nicht geklappt. Das ist hart und ich werde wahrscheinlich einen Tag brauchen, um es zu verarbeiten. Aber dann gilt meine volle Konzentration Kanada. Das ist meine Chance, um zurückzuschlagen.

“I’m not that happy finishing in P8 if I say the truth, because I felt that today there were some big points on the table for us and we lost the opportunity of making them ours. From my side, I kept the car away from the walls and was fast on all three compounds, so I’m happy with that, but it’s disappointing to have lost positions during our pit-stops… We definitely need to analyse why this happened, as we threw away many points because of this. Anyway, P8 means 4 points, which is not that bad – I would’ve been happy with this if you had told me before coming to Monaco, but after starting from P6 and seeing how chaotic the race was, I’m sure we could’ve done better. I have to say that this was my first time ever driving in the wet through the streets of Monaco and it’s the most difficult thing I’ve done in my life!”

“My car felt almost undriveable during the wet opening laps – we were struggling to get heat into the rear tyres, and were locking the rear wheels whenever we hit the brakes, which was a bit scary. “I boxed for Inters at probably the right time – that first-call was the trickier one. I feel I’m pretty good at making those tyre calls, but, on such a short lap, and when everybody else follows suit, it didn’t make too much difference. Then I got stuck behind Pascal’s [Wehrlein] Manor, which I couldn’t overtake. “I think we made the right calls in terms of strategy, but lost out a little with the attendant traffic – which I couldn’t help – but the team made some good calls nonetheless. “We wouldn’t have scored this many points if it’d been dry, so it’s good to get a decent haul today.”

It was a very tough day, having to start in the wet with laptimes of 1m40s and upwards. It was looking like a very difficult race to finish, so the positive thing is I managed that. It was definitely the most difficult race weekend of the season so far, but one point is better than zero.

“It was a pretty difficult race. I’ve mixed feelings, as the first part was very good. We had a really great pace in the wet. However, when we changed to the ultrasoft, I was struggling to get the confidence from the car. It started to be a bit difficult and in Monte Carlo, when you don’t have the confidence, it pulls you back quite a lot. Overall, I think there are a lot of things we can learn as a team to try and find more consistency and understand the tires better, which was the main focus from today.”

It was of course disappointing to finish outside the points. I think we really need to look at our strategy and why we lost a good position after the track was starting to dry. It’s possible we stopped at the wrong time, but the conditions were tricky today and it wasn’t an easy race.

“Kimi (Raikkonen) pushed me into the barrier. I had to reverse and that was it. I lost my position and that was the end of my race. It was hard to keep going behind the Manor car. There was only one dry line and it was impossible to overtake. I did something like 60 laps behind the same car and tried everything I could. The good news is that the chassis worked well and we made a good setup. I was in front of Massa before the incident, so I think we could’ve scored points, which would’ve been amazing starting where we did.”

“Today was quite tough to be honest. Early on in the race, with the track staying quite wet, we decided to stay out on the extreme tyre and run longer. With other cars pitting earlier onto the Inters, we had track position and when we did stop we actually managed to jump some cars. So that strategy worked perfectly. We were able to keep the Haas behind until the chequered flag but with the penalties the race got away from us and we dropped behind. It’s disappointing, but going into the race 14th might have looked like a good result. It’s been a challenging weekend but also very exciting to be racing in Monaco for the first time and disappointments aside I have really enjoyed the experience.”

“A difficult race today. Obviously the first part was quite tricky for everyone with the wet conditions but actually when the race got underway I was able to keep pace; the first two stints were okay for me. Then, towards the end, there was a lot of traffic and under the blue flags I was struggling to keep temperature in the tyres, so I was losing lap time. Although it’s been a tough day, it has also been a real privilege to race in my first Monaco Grand Prix. Now we look forward to Canada, which is a track that should suit us better.”

“What a frustrating race! I don’t believe in luck but today we were very unlucky… We had what I think was an electrical issue at the start of the race, which meant I was stuck in 60kph for the first couple of laps. We tried to sort it out and all of a sudden the car felt like it was working well again, but by that point we had lost a lot of time and it was very difficult to try and un-lap myself. I tried to go for it, but then the incident with Magnussen happened, where none of us wanted to let each other by… This is racing and unfortunately sometimes things like this happen. It’s definitely a missed opportunity, as here in Monaco we had been looking strong all weekend, but all we can do now is to keep on working hard for the next races, starting with Canada in two weeks’ time.”

“It is a shame that neither of us finished the race. It is the worst scenario that can happen for us as a team. Marcus and I were on different strategies, so his second pit stop was earlier than mine. My tyres started to get up to temperature, and I was catching the cars in front. For me it was not the right timing to swap positions. Suddenly, in Rascasse I felt my car being hit. It is surely disappointing for everyone as the whole team works very hard. I apologise for what happened. We need to make sure that this will never happen again.”

“The traction was appalling after the safety car and I got caught out. I had wheelspin in fifth gear on the white line that crosses the track. There was nothing I could do – I was just a passenger and went straight away into the wall. It’s so difficult as we know that the white lines are slippery but they are everywhere. I’m disappointed as I love this track and it’s been good for me in the past. But I’m now looking forward to Canada and putting this weekend behind me. Monaco hasn’t been good to me this year so we need to move on to the next race and look for a better weekend.”

“We had a good start to the race and made a really good strategic call to change to the intermediate tyres just after the safety car. We were the only ones to do it so early and it was the right decision. We were in a good position as a lot of people were still to pit and we gained a lot of places. Unfortunately, Kvyat just lost his mind and crashed into me and that was effectively the end of my race. We did continue and made an early change to slicks as we had nothing to lose, but ultimately I hit the wall and damaged the front wing. We were several laps down at that point and the car had been in the wars so it was safer to retire. It’s a shame we didn’t have a good weekend as we were very optimistic for the race. Now we have to shift our focus to Canada and have a better weekend there. Montréal should be a stronger track for us and should play to the strengths of the updates for the car.”

”Today it was very difficult to get any grip in wet conditions, I was trying to drive as fast as I could but I was very slow. At one point, trying to downshift, I locked the rear a little bit, went straight and then I just couldn’t turn around at the hairpin. Unfortunately I touched the wall, took the front wing out and it got stuck underneath the car. After that I struggled to go forward and in the end I managed to get the car moving. When the team told me to park the car I was in the middle of the tunnel and couldn’t stop there, so I went through very slowly and then I parked the car. It has been a difficult weekend with a bad end result for me, now we keep working and improving, certainly we can do better next race.”

“A very disappointing end to the race. We had taken a bit of a gamble, so I was first to pit for slicks. It worked out, but it was not ideal as I was caught out by blue flags. I had to go off the line and let other drivers pass, which meant I struggeled to get the temperatures up in my tyres. When the tyres started to work, I caught Felipe, but got stuck behind him. I was told that Felipe received a call via the radio. Then I saw a gap and tried to overtake him, but we all saw what then happened. It is a difficult situation for us, and it is even more important to stick together as a team in these times. I apologise, and I am sure that this will not happen again in the future.”

“Disappointed in myself and disappointed for the team, because they worked very hard to get the car ready and I didn’t give them the result they deserved today. We were in a good way, we were in the points and to start from the pit lane and end in the points would have been very good, but I learned from this and hopefully we can come back stronger in Canada. "It was pretty tricky especially in the beginning of the race it was a very slippery track. It got better and better, the track was drying, and I think from then on we had great pace and I was overtaking cars, charging through the field and everything felt well. Then we put the softs on and I locked up. Unfortunately I went a bit off-line and of course then you arrive in the wet area and I was a passenger from there on. That’s racing in the end, it can go up and down very quickly but you shouldn’t back off because of this you should keep positive, keep pushing. I learn a lot from those moments as well and I’m already focusing on Canada now and leaving Monaco behind.”