Fahrerstimmen – Tag 3

Ich weiß nicht, was am Start passiert ist. Mein Probestart vor der Einführungsrunde war perfekt. Deshalb dachte ich mir: „Das wird ein Kinderspiel am Start“. Als es aber ernst wurde, funktionierte es nicht. Jetzt muss ich herausfinden, woran das gelegen hat. Dann hatte ich starkes Untersteuern in Kurve eins. Um mich herum waren überall Autos und es kam zu einer unglücklichen Berührung mit Nico. Danach machte ich mich auf die Jagd nach Sebastian. Er war auf der ersten Runde blitzschnell und wir hatten beide in der Folge eine gute Pace. Abgesehen von einem kleinen Verbremser in Kurve zehn machte ich das gesamte Rennen über keinen Fehler. Damit bin ich sehr zufrieden. Heute ging es allem voran darum, auf die Reifen zu achten. Das Team hat bei der Strategie genau richtig gelegen. Das Rennen hat mir richtig Spaß gemacht. Alles lief absolut glatt. Immer wenn Sebastian aufholte, hatte ich genug in der Hinterhand, um den Vorsprung zu halten. Ich war richtig im Rhythmus. Während der letzten 10-15 Runden dachte ich ständig an Muhammad Ali: Schwebe wie ein Schmetterling, stich wie eine Biene. Es fühlte sich tatsächlich so an, als ob ich schweben würde. Er war für mich und sicher auch jeden anderen eine riesige Inspiration. Dieser Sieg war für ihn. Ich habe hier 2007 meinen ersten Grand Prix gewonnen und dieser Erfolg heute fühlt sich genauso großartig an. Es ist ein Segen. Vielen Dank an alle, die heute hier waren. Wir kommen jedes Jahr aufs Neue hierher und erleben eine fantastische Woche.

“Today it was a great race, I enjoyed every single lap and it’s just a shame that the trophy is not as big as it could have been. There’s no reason to give the team any criticism for the strategy: when I pitted for the first time we thought it would be quicker, so I was happy to come in. We expected obviously the tires to last a little bit less, but they didn’t. The good news is the car is working, we had a normal Saturday, which allowed us to have a great race. I had a perfect start, I reacted well to the light going off, I did not look at the others and only focused on myself and was able to fly past and by turn 1 it was done. I was very happy to be in the lead and push properly and then probably in the last corner I pushed a bit too much. Of course I would have loved to hit more than 1 or 2 tenths per lap, maybe 3, maybe 7 tenths for lap, but I think it was a great race and you should not get overexcited with strategy. In my point of view, I know that we have the best people in terms of strategy. I know that this car is a step forward, we know also that there’s still potential, and we’re not yet where we want to be. I also think we put ourselves under enormous pressure because we want to win. As a team, we came here and did our best, this weekend we were very close and hopefully next week we’ll be there.”

I’m very happy with what we achieved as a team today. It’s a shame with what happened to Felipe, but this gives us a big motivation boost for the next few races. I think today shows that we are a strong team who can deliver good results. Our strategy was great and our pitstop was really good, yet again. It was definitely one of my best races. I’m really pleased with today and looking forward to the next race.

“We did what we could today and that was a great job. We wanted to finish on the podium in front of the Williams but soon realised we were suffering with a bit too much tyre degradation. I think a little bit of rain could have helped us today. At the beginning I saved my tyres and fuel as I knew I could not stay with the front two. When Daniel got close behind I then decided it was time to push. I am very satisfied with my performance but also with the new power unit, you could see it was hard for the Mercedes to try and pass on the long straight so we are making good progress. The last ten laps I really enjoyed, I would actually say they were the hardest ten laps of my life. I was in fourth for a very long time so didn’t want to give up that position. It was a very hard battle at the end of the race, his [Rosberg] pace was very strong but we managed to keep ahead and then the last lap was pretty spectacular. After Monaco it’s nice to leave this race with a big smile on my face. Now looking ahead to Baku it’s a new experience for everyone so we have to wait and see how the grip levels are but today was definitely positive for us.”

Das war ein richtig hartes Rennen. Lewis hatte einen schlechten Start, meiner war ordentlich und der von Sebastian super. Ich war neben Lewis und versuchte es außen herum. Ich musste es probieren oder akzeptieren, hinter ihm zu sein. In Barcelona hat das funktioniert, hier leider nicht. Es war ein hartes Manöver von ihm, aber das gehört zum Racing dazu. Nächstes Mal muss ich bessere Arbeit abliefern. Ich verlor viele Plätze, als ich durch den Notausgang fuhr, und das kostete mich meine Chancen in diesem Rennen. Ich gab danach alles, um mich zurückzukämpfen, und es bestand die Chance auf einen Podestplatz. Aber dann hatte ich einen Reifenschaden und musste noch einmal an die Box. Verdammt! Ich griff voll an, um die verlorenen Plätze wieder gut zu machen. Aber ich hatte alle Hände voll zu tun, auf das Auto zu achten. Es gab Warnmeldungen von den Bremsen und mein Benzin ging zur Neige. Der Kampf gegen Max war schön. Auch diesmal war es am Limit, aber gutes Racing. Ich gab alles, um an ihm vorbeizukommen, und drehte mich gegen Ende des Rennens. Auf der letzten Runde schleppte ich das Auto geradeso vor Kimi auf Platz fünf ins Ziel. Das ist ein enttäuschendes Ergebnis. Denn unser Auto war heute fantastisch. Aber so läuft es eben manchmal. Jetzt bleiben mir zwei Tage zuhause, um mich auf Baku vorzubereiten. Dort werde ich wieder angreifen.

“It hasn’t been an easy weekend, we tried to make the maximum out of that, but obviously we cannot be satisfied with the result. The behavior of the car was pretty ok in certain parts of the track, but in some others, with the cool conditions, I was struggling with the tires. When I was free to push it felt good, but then when I had to slow down for fuel saving the tires were losing temperature, they were cooling down and it was difficult to make them work again, and this went on for most of the race. Now I don’t know what to expect for the next weekend, I’ve only seen the layout of the Baku track in the simulator but I’m sure it will be a tricky circuit, it’s nice to go to a new place.”

“The start initially was okay, the Mercedes were really slow so there wasn’t really anywhere to go and then out of Turn 2 with Rosberg coming back on, I had to go on the inside, Max was on the outside and then I lost a position there. Then we were a bit quicker than Max on the first stint with the ultra softs and I said I could be quicker if I had clean air, but after my first pit stop I locked the softs and ruined that set of tyres. I came in again and had traffic to Kimi, we were able to stay with him but damaging the tyres too much to really make an impact and pass. I think we didn’t have the best race today, fortunately in seven days we’ll get another chance. We definitely need to make it a better Sunday in Baku. I’m always excited to go to a new track. It’s a street circuit as well so it should be fun.”

“I’m happy to score points, but at the same time I was hoping for a bit more from the race because I really believed we could challenge the top six. For some reason the car didn’t feel as good today as it did during practice and qualifying. Maybe it’s because the conditions were so cold and windy, which meant we lost the sweet spot and the car was not easy to drive. That’s something we need to look at in more detail and understand. At the start I didn’t get off the line very well, but I had a great first lap and recovered some positions. Then, the story of my race was simply tyre management. I think we made the right calls with the tyre strategy because even though we wanted to try and one stop it just wasn’t possible in the end.”

“A really good race for me today here in Montreal! If you had told me before the race that I would have finished in P9 after starting P20, I would’ve probably signed immediately! I’m really happy to have made it back into the points, I enjoyed it a lot out there. We chose the right moment for our first pit-stop, going for the undercut, and I then did five or six qualifying laps on the Soft tyre, which allowed me to overtake five or six cars and keep up with the Force India. Even if I hadn’t made yesterday’s mistake in qualifying, more than a P8 this weekend was impossible, so we can be happy and satisfied with our weekend. A result like today’s shows that we are strong and that we are constantly improving. Today we did the right strategy and good pit-stops, so I’d like to congratulate the whole team for this weekend, it’s been great!”

“It was a difficult race and looking back I don’t think we chose the optimum strategy. We tried to go down a different route compared to everyone else, but the cooler track conditions didn’t help: it was very difficult to get heat into the soft tyres during the first stint and that cost me a few positions at the start. I got stuck behind the two McLarens and that hurt my race. I lost a few seconds at the final stop when I briefly stalled the car and that dropped me behind Kvyat, but I managed to get the position back with an overtake going into turn one. In any case, to bring both cars home inside the points is a good result for the team, especially when the weekend doesn’t really go your way. We gave it our best and we have come home with points in the bag.”

“A tough race – we didn’t have the pace to be competitive today.” “I enquired about the possibility of fitting fresh tyres for the last few laps, but I guess it was a little too much of a risk: at that point we were 11th and stood to score a point or two at the end if something were to have happened ahead of us. “Still, I’d done more than 50 laps on those tyres – and the two-stoppers were a lot faster than me. I guess we were a bit unlucky – we really needed some rain or a Safety Car to put us back in the fight. “Ultimately, I think our strategy was the right one – it was the quickest way home. “Anyway, we’ll now work hard to try to improve the pace for the next race.”

“If I say the truth, it was quite a boring race today. We were trying to fight for that last point with Perez, but they were just that bit faster and we didn’t manage to get in front of him. We then switched to the Ultrasoft tyres for the last stint, but the set didn’t quite give us what we expected and they got destroyed while battling with the other cars around us. Unfortunately, I spent most of my race stuck behind a car and in traffic… Luckily the next race is just around the corner, so we can start thinking of that straight away and forget about today. But looking at the positives, it was a clean weekend for me, something which I needed. We were able to finish the race, as well as get important data for myself and the team, to learn as much as we can. We now need to start showing some performance and I hope we do this starting from Baku next week.”

“It wasn’t an easy race. I was struggling a lot to get the tires to work and then at the end of every stint it was difficult to keep the temperature in them, and once you start losing that the car starts to slide and it’s like driving on ice. This weekend we knew it was going to be very tough with the cool weather, but now we need to analyze how we can compensate and try to put more emphasis into the tires to make them work to give us an easier race. I didn’t enjoy it too much as I’m not feeling very well, but the weekend is now over and I’m looking forward to Baku.”

“We’re not far from the points. I was up to P11 or so, trying to fight hard and doing everything I could, and then the front wing went. That third pit stop definitely cost us everything we had been working for. We need to look more deeply into that issue to get it sorted. There are plenty of other areas where we can improve but, generally, the more we do, the more we understand the car and the better things get. Flying to Canada and not scoring any points is difficult. I’m sure the next race will be another step, and if we learn more, the better we’ll get.”

“For me it was a good race from the start to the finish. I think the first stint on ultrasoft tyres was not ideal, as I struggled a lot with the grip. Our initial plan was a one stop strategy, but we then had to revert to a two stopper. Once we got onto the soft tyres for the next two stints of the race, I had a good run and was able to pass Kevin (Magnussen) and Pascal (Wehrlein). Overall a good effort, as we also came close to Haas.”

“Firstly I need to say thanks to my crew who worked so hard to build a new chassis for this race after my crash yesterday. This aspect really shows the teamwork which exists in the team and I’m happy to be part of it as we will all keep pushing hard. On track we struggled and P16 is not where we wanted to be. It was a cold track out there and we just couldn’t get the performance we wanted. The race was pretty straightforward for me and sadly there weren’t the opportunities to move forward. We definitely want better next time out.”

“I got a very good start and managed to leapfrog Palmer and keep both Saubers behind me before the first pit stop, although we had picked up some damage to the floor when we arrived at the grid and I was losing lap time. By the time we got to the final stop I was struggling with the tyres and that allowed Ericsson to get past. I was still able to finish ahead of Nasr, which is positive, although it’s disappointing not to be able to hold off both. I’m looking forward to Baku when we will hopefully get the chance to show more of our improvement.”

“It was a disappointing race for me. My race start was ok, but then suddenly in Turn 3 I was hit from behind. It was very unfortunate and an unnecessary move. This compromised my race from there on. I tried my best to recover, and in the end I was able to put in decent lap times on the soft tyres. That’s how racing goes sometimes, but now I look forward to Baku. I am always up for new challenges.”

“The first part of the race went well for me. I was keeping up with my team-mate and also with Palmer and Magnussen ahead. At the first pit stop I expected to rejoin the race and be racing with Ericsson but we had a problem which slowed the stop and I came out behind Nasr instead. For most of the race I was catching Nasr all the time but the blue flags meant that I would catch up then have to drop back again. We tried to go long for the final stint and have a shorter run on the final set of Soft tyres but there was nothing more we could do. On the plus side it’s another two-car finish for us and I hope we can carry the positives into Baku next week.”

Of course I’m very disappointed not to finish the race because of a mechanical issue that we had. It’s a race where we’re supposed to score good points with both cars, but unfortunately we didn’t with mine. So we need to concentrate on the next race now as it’s a shame that it ended like this.

“I radioed in to say I had a terminal problem, and I looked in my rear-view mirror and saw a lot of smoke and sparks. I had no warning – the car just failed as I came out of the hairpin. The engine was still running, but I turned it off anyway. “It’s a shame, since I was saving a lot of fuel at the time, and I had DRS on every lap too, so I could save even more fuel. That could have made a massive difference later in the race. “It’s so often the way, though, isn’t it? You save a lot of fuel for later in the race, but it doesn’t last…”

“The new engine was working well performance-wise and we made a lot of progress on the set-up; I was feeling good with the car out there even though it was cold and slippery. I received some contact from Carlos Sainz on the first lap then I was stuck behind one of the Manors early on, but once I was in clean air my pace felt good. I’m happy with the car so I’m looking forward to Baku. Certainly a little bit of luck wouldn’t go amiss too.”