Fahrerstimmen – Tag 3

Ich weiß nicht, was hier das Geheimnis ist. Normalerweise ist es entscheidend, ein großartiges Team zu haben und alles zusammenzubekommen. Aber diese Strecke kommt einem aggressiven Fahrer glaube ich sehr entgegen. Das war heute eines der heißesten Rennen, an die ich mich erinnern kann. Unter diesen Bedingungen war es sehr schwierig, auf die Reifen zu achten. Umso glücklicher bin ich, dass es mir gelungen ist. Vielen Dank an alle im Team für ihre harte Arbeit – und natürlich an die Fans hier. Ich weiß nicht wieso, aber wenn ich nach Budapest komme, scheine ich stets viel Unterstützung zu genießen. Ich mag es hier sehr und das macht es zu einem super Wochenende. Ich wusste nicht, wie lange die Reifen halten würden. Deshalb musste ich mir die Lebensspanne der Reifen clever einteilen und angreifen, wenn es nötig war. Es war ganz schön knifflig, dabei die richtige Balance zu finden. Das Rennen lief richtig gut und ich dachte mir gerade: „Hm, bislang keine Fehler“. Dann verbremste ich mich in Kurve zwölf und kam weit nach draußen! In diesem Moment dachte ich mir nur: „Hey, bleibe konzentriert und mach weiter deine Arbeit!“ Zum Glück ist mir das gelungen. Ich habe noch nicht viel über die Gesamtwertung nachgedacht. Aber es ist definitiv gut, es hier geschafft zu haben. Ganz besonders, weil es nicht eines meiner stärksten Wochenenden war. Es war zum Beispiel nicht so stark wie Silverstone. Aber es waren einige unglaubliche Rennen. Jetzt muss ich diese Form für den Rest der Saison aufrechterhalten.

Ich habe den Sieg in der ersten Kurve verloren. Dort habe ich zwei Positionen verloren. Ich bin entsprechend enttäuscht, denn ich wollte das Rennen gewinnen und war auch zuversichtlich, dass wir eine große Gelegenheit dazu hatten. Ich erwischte nicht meinen besten Start und so war es gut, Daniel direkt in der ersten Kurve zu schnappen und mir Platz zwei zurückzuholen. Hinter Lewis war es auf dieser Strecke jedoch unmöglich, zu überholen. Ich hatte eine großartige Pace im Rennen. Das ist ein sehr gutes Zeichen. Aber leider konnte ich nicht mehr daraus machen. Es ist super, dass schon bald mein zweites Heimrennen ansteht. Jetzt freue ich mich auf Hockenheim und werde Vollgas geben, um dort meinen Sieg von 2014 zu wiederholen.

“I’m really pleased with a podium today, I don’t think we could have got a win. We tried at the start; we had a good run off the line and at the apex the Mercs were in my blind spot, so I thought I was in the lead, but on the exit I was done by Lewis (Hamilton) and then Nico (Rosberg) got me round the outside of Turn Two. I think even if we had got the lead, their pace was good so they could have even over-cut us if they stayed out an extra lap. Third was the best we could do and Seb (Vettel) got really close in the last three laps; my tyres were getting towards the end, so coming over the line in third was good. Three podiums in a row here is great, it’s a good place for me. I feel really good. Fridays and Saturdays have been really good for us from the start of the season but the last few Sundays, for whatever reason, I haven’t been that satisfied with, so it was important to put it together from Friday to Sunday this weekend and I believe I did that. And now we’ve got another in seven days, so that’s another chance to be happy again!”

”I was hoping for more today. I had a good start, maybe too good, because the run into Turn 1 is very long, so I had to get out of the tow a bit too early. It was bit of a shame because I was stuck in fifth position from then onwards. Then I knew everything would have to go through strategy and pitstops and so we overcut Verstappen. We were much stronger at the end of the race, maybe a couple of tenths, but unfortunately not quick enough to pass. If I had been able to, I would have done more, but I tried everything until the end, we were on a good strategy, we had more pace at the end but as I said this is one of the most difficult tracks for overtaking. With a better position yesterday, I think we could have finished P3 without any problem. We are not happy to finish fourth, because we have to win, we need to improve here and there, but I think the difference with Mercedes is not that big as it looks. They seem to be better managing their tires and that makes for a big gap over a number of laps.”

“The pace was there for a podium today. I felt like I had a good start and got close to Lewis into TurnOne but then ran out of track and couldn’t brake late. After the first stop it was very frustrating to be behind a Ferrari at the start on the fresher tyres. It was a shame because at the beginning we were quick and I tried to create a gap to the Ferraris which lead to me having to back off as I got too close to the car in front. This meant when I pitted I got out behind them both and that was pretty much my race done. Being behind meant I destroyed my tyres trying to find a pass so the opportunities went away as the race went on. Regarding my battle with Kimi I was simply protecting my position. I drove hard and just made sure I didn’t lock up or make a mistake.”

”Today my car was really good and behaving well, we had the speed, but obviously this is not the easiest place to overtake. Unfortunately, after yesterday’s qualifying, today we were not in a position that would allow us to get the result we deserved, and this is the most disappointing thing. Regarding the battle with Max, it’s not for me to decide but I think that his maneuvers are questionable. The first time he started to move on the right and I went left, but he moved back there too, so I had to try and get out of it because I was hitting him hard on the rear and I lost my front wing, which didn’t make it easier to attack again. Then later, every time I managed to make a move and I was committed to somewhere he decided to turn afterwards, and at that point I had nowhere to go. It’s not my job to determine if he was correct or not, but I have seen people being penalized for much less. Today we did our maximum, I’m disappointed because I couldn’t get past Verstappen and go catch the rest.”

“Well, P7 has been my position all weekend! It’s a pity we couldn’t improve this afternoon but still I think we were best of the rest today. Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari are out of reach at the moment for everyone – they’re on another level – so, in the other mini-championship we’re racing in, we were quite competitive and I feel we delivered the maximum we could today. “There wasn’t much action in the race though. For us, it was a little bit of a boring afternoon at some points – not the usual Hungaroring show – and the only retirement, unfortunately, was Jenson. “I’m happy about how the weekend went and hopefully we can keep this up progress. We’ve been more or less competitive here and at Silverstone, on two very different circuits, so I’m looking forward to next weekend at Hockenheim.”

“A solid race from us today here in Budapest, I’m satisfied with the result. I’m pretty pleased with the race, even if Fernando Alonso got past us at the start. We were able to keep up with McLaren’s pace, something that during the practice sessions on Friday and Saturday didn’t look like we’d be able to do… It was just impossible to overtake him! If you would have told me I’d finish P8 after the bad start to the weekend that we had, I wouldn’t have believed it! I think we can be very happy and pleased with ourselves – the team did a great job to turn things around and I’d like to thank them for this! We can now go to Germany feeling confident.”

The start of the race was really good. It was very important to get ahead of the Force India. After that we pretty much executed our plan. The supersoft tyre was holding on a lot better than we thought it would, so we ran a bit longer in the first stint. After that our pace on the softs more or less matched our predictions. I think we got the maximum points today from the starting position that we had. I’m sure in Hockenheim we can get more points and try to build a bigger gap from Force India.

“I am not overly happy with my afternoon because it was a pretty difficult race for us. I found myself in the wrong place at turn one and lost a position, which made things a bit harder for me. The main problem in the race was after our first pit stop, when we fell behind the Toro Rosso of Kvyat and the Williams of Massa, and I just couldn’t get by. It’s so hard to overtake here and as soon as you get close to the car in front, you lose so much downforce and you destroy your tyres. That was the story of my race. I lost a place to Palmer at the second pit stop – that was my mistake actually and I hold my hand up and apologise to the team. During the pit stop I let the clutch slip and that made the car move, so the boys couldn’t fit the tyres properly and it cost us a little time. The next race in Germany should be fairly similar to this one: we have the same tyre compounds and the track has lots of medium-speed corners. We have shown today that even with a difficult race we can bring home points, but we need to do a better job in the coming races to pick up more points.”

“A tough race today. We were planning to do a one-stop race, but the performance was not there on the medium tyres and the car was sliding around under me. So we decided to switch to the two-stop, the team called me in, but when I arrived in the pit lane the team was not expecting me. I think it was a simple miscommunication between the pit wall and the mechanics, which can happen sometimes. It’s frustrating because it cost me some time and the chance to be in the points. I’m pleased that Germany is coming up next week and the positive thing is that we have a strong car with good race pace.”

“I’m gutted as my first points in Formula 1 were there for the taking. The car was good and I was driving well within myself in P10. I turned in the same as normal at turn four - I wasn’t hanging everything out and I was looking after the tyres - but for some reason I lost the car in a massive snap. I need to look at everything with my engineers to see if there is anything we could have done to prevent it. I was running tenth, we had completed all our pit stops, we had good pace relative to those ahead and behind so it looks like we’ve made a real step forward this weekend. It was the best drive of my career today and just one small spin took away those points. I’m gutted today but I’ll be fighting to get in the same position or better in Hockenheim.”

“It was an interesting race with some great fights from the beginning. I managed a good start and spent the first two laps fighting for position and moving up the grid. After that I was pushing the limits in every stint, not really being able to save the tires fighting in front and behind me. Toward the end I started to run out of tires and I had a few issues with the brakes. It became challenging to finish the race. However, the team did a great job to keep everything under control and I want to thank them for their hard work this weekend. They worked well and performed some great pit stops. We need to continue in this direction, improving, and getting the best out of our car as we head to Germany.”

“It was just a bad afternoon. Nothing really worked. Our strategy didn’t work, the car didn’t work. I was trying to find a balance, but I just couldn’t get it. I’m sure there’s a lot to learn from the afternoon, but it’s a disappointing outcome. I was expecting us to be in better shape. I was expecting to be able to score points after yesterday’s qualifying session.”

“The car definitely felt better this weekend. I had a pretty decent stint on my first set of supersoft tyres; I was able to look after them well and do quite a few laps on that set. Unfortunately that was after a poor start where I lost a few positions. I’ve had really good practice starts all weekend so that was quite disappointing. From then on, we pushed to make up places but my second stint on supersoft didn’t go as well as I hoped and the last part of the race was spent behind Grosjean and Gutierrez. I certainly hope we can carry our improved pace into the rest of the season.”

“Unfortunately, I have to say this was one of the least enjoyable races I’ve experienced for quite a while… We had a very poor start – I had too much wheel spin and there was something wrong with the settings – and that sadly defined the rest of our race. We lost a few positions, went towards the back of the grid and from then on it was very hard to recover and move forward. In motorsport you have good days and bad days and this has been one of those negative ones. Luckily the next race is next week, so we can forget about this one quickly and hope for a better one in Germany.”

“A tough race for us. The beginning was ok, I gained one position after the first lap. But then after my first pit stop I got stuck in traffic, which slowed us down and cost us some time. Overall, I had decent pace during the race, especially on the soft tyres. We have to keep on working hard to become more competitive step by step.”

It was a terrible race, which started on the way to the grid with the problem with my steering wheel rack being too light on one side and too heavy on the other. We tried to fix the problem and we couldn’t, but at least we improved it because the initial lap was impossible. To do the whole race with the steering wheel heavy on one side and light on the other was really difficult. I tried to race until the end but this wasn’t the result we were aiming for. The next race at Hockenheim is a different track which will hopefully be much better for us, so I hope we can get back to normality and score points with both cars.

Pascal, blisteringly hot conditions today. How tough was that race for you? “It was a very difficult race today. It was clear very early on in the weekend that this was not ‘our’ track and I think that showed today. I got a really good start and climbed to 17th position, and then up to 16th, but we didn’t have the car to stay there or fight for more. I think it’s something positive that, even with all those factors, we still managed to keep a Sauber behind us, but still disappointing overall.” Two positives on the horizon though – your home race and the summer break? “Yes, next week will be very busy and exciting for me. With all of that going on I’ll put all thoughts of the break to one side for now, because I want to fight hard at the Hockenheimring and enjoy the experience of my first home race in F1. I really hope we will find that our car is better suited to that track, as it’s one I’ve driven many times and I really love racing there.”

“Starting the race from the pit lane was obviously a difficult beginning. After the race start I got stuck behind Rio (Haryanto). That was not ideal, as this track is in general difficult for overtaking. We tried to be a bit more aggressive on the tyre strategy. It was looking ok around the middle of the race, but a few laps before the chequered flag I had to pit again, as the tyres would not have lasted until the end of the race.”

Rio, a difficult race today? “Yes, once again we split the strategies between Pascal and me, to give us the best chance of a result. It didn’t work out for either of us. There was only one retirement today and our performance was the maximum from the car here.” Just the one stop for you today? “I was doing quite well at the start of the race and it seemed like we would be able to make a one-stop work. On the medium tyre the pace was obviously not that good, but the degradation was much less than on the softs and it’s always good to try something different to the other cars around us, just in case we can make it work.”

“It wasn’t a great afternoon for me. “We had a brake sensor problem early on, which meant the pedal went to the floor, and it’s never nice for a driver to get that feeling. The brakes just weren’t there, which was a big safety concern. The team told me to make a switch change on the steering wheel to make sure it wouldn’t happen again, and it duly resolved itself, but we got a penalty for the communication. We pitted so that they could give me the information I needed, but I guess we should have pitted earlier than we did. Having said that, it didn’t really matter as I was last anyway. “I completely understand that drivers shouldn’t be fed information that helps us drive our cars – we should be able to deal with that job ourselves, and in fact I love that challenge. But when it’s a safety concern, I don’t think you should get penalised for preventing an accident, as we did today. When you have a power unit that’s so complex, a driver can’t figure out everything for himself. It’s a regulation that shouldn’t be in place at this level of a sport which is so good in so many other ways, and I think commonsense should now prevail. “I also had a mechanical issue which meant I had massive understeer throughout the whole race; and then, in the end, we retired with an oil leak. I don’t know if it’s salvageable – I hope so – but we’re investigating.”