Fahrerstimmen – Tag 3

Ich hatte an diesem Wochenende eine richtig gute Pace. Das Auto fühlte sich vom Start bis ins Ziel sehr stark an – es war wie Tag und Nacht im Vergleich zum letzten Jahr. Ich hatte einen guten Start, aber der Weg bis zur ersten Kurve ist sehr weit. So waren alle in meinem Windschatten. Die Bremsscheibe am rechten Vorderrad war auf der Einführungsrunde verglast und ich konnte das nicht beheben. Ich dachte, dass es vielleicht okay wäre. Aber als ich bremste, blockierte sie, als sie heißer wurde. Deshalb pflügte ich durch das Gras. Ich hatte Glück, dass ich durchkam und auf der anderen Seite der Strecke weiterfahren konnte. Danach hatte ich einen schlimmen Bremsplatten, und zwar einen richtig fetten. Aufgrund der Vibrationen konnte ich kaum das Ende der Geraden erkennen. Ich wusste wirklich nicht, ob das meine Aufhängung durchhalten würde. Ich hatte echt Glück, dass ich meinen Reifen dabei nicht zerstört habe oder zu einem frühen Stopp hereinkommen musste. Zum Glück bekam ich es unter Kontrolle und konnte schon recht früh etwas Gas rausnehmen. Es ist schon verrückt, dass ich jetzt 51 Siege habe. Schade, dass diese Ergebnisse erst so spät in der Saison eintreten – vielleicht sogar zu spät. Ich könnte jetzt zurückblicken und sagen: Wenn Malaysia nicht gewesen wäre, würde ich mich jetzt in einer anderen Situation befinden. Aber so ist der Rennsport eben. Ich kann nur mein Bestes geben und hoffen, dass es so läuft wie an den vergangenen beiden Wochenenden. Die Geschichte zeigt, dass es nie zu spät ist. Deswegen greife ich weiter an und gebe alles, um Wochenenden wie dieses zu wiederholen. Ich hatte hier noch zuvor nie gewonnen und es ist ein großartiges Gefühl, vor dieser riesigen Menschenmenge zu stehen. Jetzt konzentriere ich mich aber voll auf Brasilien. Dort habe ich ebenfalls noch nie gewonnen. Wenn ich aber diese Performance in das nächste Rennwochenende mitnehmen kann, befinde ich mich in einer guten Position. Ich denke, solange ich das Gefühl habe, dass ich in den letzten Rennen mein Bestes gegeben habe, kann ich mit dem Saisonende zufrieden sein.

Die mexikanischen Fans waren erneut außergewöhnlich. Schon auf der Fahrerparade vor dem Rennen bekam ich Gänsehaut. Aber als die Menschen bei der Siegerehrung meinen Namen riefen, war das für mich der emotionalste Moment des Wochenendes. Vielen Dank an alle, die diese Veranstaltung möglich gemacht haben, und auch an jeden mexikanischen Fan, der heute hier an der Strecke war. Checo Perez und Esteban Gutiérrez können wirklich sehr stolz auf ihre Landsleute sein. Ich erlebte heute ein hartes Rennen. Ich kam am Start gut weg und dachte, dass ich Lewis die Führung abnehmen könnte, weil er sich stark verbremst hatte und durch das Gras fahren musste. Danach traf mich plötzlich Verstappen, der sich ebenfalls verbremst hatte, und drückte mich von der Strecke. Zum Glück wurde mein Auto dabei nicht beschädigt und es kostete mich keine Position. Lewis war heute ein wenig schneller, weshalb ich mein Ziel, hier erneut zu gewinnen, nicht erreicht habe. Aber Platz zwei ist auch nicht so schlecht. Jetzt freue ich mich darauf, nach zwei langen Wochen wieder nach Hause zu fliegen und mich ein wenig mit meiner Familie zu erholen, um dann in Brasilien gestärkt zurückzuschlagen und wieder nach dem Sieg zu greifen. Ich glaube, dass die Strecke in Interlagos unserem Auto besser liegt. Deshalb freue ich mich darauf, dorthin zu kommen, und zu erfahren, wie wir uns schlagen.

“Obviously I’m happy to get the points and I think that means third for me in the Drivers’ Championship so I’m quite proud of that this year. Sure it would have been nice to get up on the podium and enjoy it but none the less that was the situation today. It was a fun race. Even though I was quite frustrated after the race with the incident and all that, I still had a lot of fun with that battle. And being the hunter at the end is so much more fun than driving around by yourself. The race came alive and obviously it became a bit spicy but it was a cool day. Sure I want to race and having penalties after the race isn’t ideal, but I did feel today that it was called for. I committed to the move and he squeezed me. Racing should be tough and l don’t expect being waved through but we talked about the moving under braking and that’s on paper now. The only thing I’m disappointed of is not to be in the stadium in that moment but the podium is still up so I’ll go and have a few photos with the guys.”

“When I went off the track towards the end I think it was pretty similar to Lewis on lap one, corner one. He went off and I felt he gained an advantage, I didn’t even gain an advantage, I was ahead going into braking and when I came back on the track I was the same distance in front so I don’t understand the penalty. I think it was a small bit of justice that the stewards made the decision to penalise Seb. It was clearly a wrong move which has been punished according to the rules. As long as we can stick to the rules every week then we won’t have the frustration we felt after the race. I’m really happy for Daniel to get on the podium after a strong drive and it’s a great result for the team. It makes our second position in the Constructors’ Championship that little bit closer and I believe it confirms Daniel as P3 in the Drivers’ Championship. After a bit of stress we end the weekend with smiles all round. I could have done with a few more laps on the supersoft to get me closer to overtaking Nico, but at the end of the day we were always going to struggle to overtake here due to straight line speed. At the end of the day the Mexican fans have been amazing once again, the atmosphere and noise was great.”

“Today I think we did everything right, we had a very good pace. I think we could have even done better with a better position in Qualifying, but we can’t change yesterday. We were very positive going into the day today, we knew that the speed was there, so we had good confidence for the race. We made the tires last longer than anybody else. We were quicker, so we put Verstappen under pressure: for sure it was not easy to pass, but he did a mistake, cut the track and didn’t give the position back even if he was told to do so. About the fight with Daniel: I respect him a lot, it is never ideal when you touch. On my defense, I was fighting hard, and trying to give him some space, which I think I did.”

“My start was not too bad and we were running quite ok. After the first pit stop, though, I struggled to get any good grip with the Mediums, so we thought maybe we should try and see if we could go back on track with a new set of the same tires: but to be honest I had no better grip at the rear. It was the first time I was running with these tires, maybe it’s just how the tire is. Afterwards it’s easy to say that probably it was not the right thing to do, but I’m happy that we tried. It was not easy to pass Hulkenberg, it’s difficult when you get close and you have no grip. I don’t know if we touched, I just saw him spin.”

“Definitely not a bad effort today and the best result we could hope for in regular circumstances. I made a great start, but once the pit stops were out of the way, it turned out to be quite a lonely afternoon for me. This allowed me to manage my tyres and my pace. At the end, the battle with Kimi [Raikkonen] was always going to be difficult, because he had a massive tyre advantage over me: I was surprised we could keep him behind for so long. I tried to defend as hard as I could on the inside, but braking on a dirty line with 60-lap-old tyres is quite tricky! He turned in on me and there was no way I could stop the car, so I forced it into a spin to avoid a crash. In the end, it was a good weekend: qualifying was my highlight and we’ve come away with a solid result today. We leave Mexico having strengthened our fourth place in the constructors’ championship, so there is plenty to smile about tonight.”

As a team we did a good job today, with a strategy and tactics that worked as good as we could have hoped. We managed to make the one-stop strategy work, which was helped by perfect timing with the pitstops. Unfortunately Force India still have a bit more pace than us and that is why one of them was ahead of us today. Our battle with them is very close and we just need to make sure that we do an even better job next time in Brazil.

It was a really difficult race. I was really happy with the first lap because I made a lot of overtakes and got up to sixth. I stopped to put on the medium tyres and suffered on the first 15 laps with those, the same as in practice. Then, lap-by-lap I picked up the grip and fought for the whole race with Perez. It was really difficult to keep in front, but I pushed to the end and I’m so happy with the result. Even if we lost one point, we will keep fighting them, and that’s what we’re going to do until the last race of the season. I’m really looking forward to my next race at home, just being there and being with the Brazilian people will be amazing. I always try to fly the flag of my country as high as I can. I love my country and will never forget how special that weekend will be. I’m trying to enjoy all these amazing races recently, but I’m sure Brazil will be the best. To the Mexican fans – gracias. Thank you very much for all your support and I will never forget this weekend. It’s amazing to see how much you love Formula One and motorsport. You will always be inside my heart.

“Even though I scored a point today, it was a very frustrating race being stuck behind the Williams cars and unable to overtake. I tried everything I could, but it’s not easy because they had a straight-line speed advantage. There were a few occasions when I was very close to making the move stick on Felipe [Massa], but in the end it just wasn’t possible. I think maybe we could have tried something different with the strategy because we underestimated the effect of the medium tyre, which turned out to have much more life than we expected. So perhaps we could have pitted earlier and run longer on the medium. That’s something we need to analyse and understand if it would have made a difference to our result. Even with the tenth place today the fans were cheering for me. They are so loyal; always behind me and they have given me so much positive energy all week. Although I wanted to give them a better result, this has still been the most enjoyable race of the year.”

„Das war ein starkes Rennen heute. Unglücklicherweise hatte es mit einer Kollision gleich nach dem Start begonnen. Und ehrlich gesagt dachte ich, dass sei bereits das Ende des Rennens, nachdem ich einen Schlag spürte. Doch ich konnte zurück an die Box fahren und mir einen neuen Frontflügel holen. Dann zeigten die Daten, dass auch der Unterboden des Autos beschädigt worden ist. Wir machten aber ungeachtet dessen weiter, so konnte ich wieder meinen Rhythmus finden und auf ganz ordentliche Rundenzeiten kommen. Heute waren wir nahe an den Punkterängen dran, aber halt nicht nahe genug. Als Team dürfen wir viel Positives von diesem Rennwochenende mitnehmen. Erneut sind uns Schritte in die richtige Richtung gelungen. In Brasilien bietet sich die nächste Chance, um den Punktgewinn zu erzielen.“

“We did a one-stop strategy, but the problem for us – for everyone, I think – was that you just couldn’t overtake. We lost so much time in the first 30 laps of the stint on the Back-Up [tyres] in traffic behind other cars. I was stuck behind Kevin [Magnussen], then Fernando, then Carlos, and then [Jolyon] Palmer. It was really difficult to overtake but I eventually got past them all – our pace was really good then – and we did as well as we could have done. Even if we’d had clear air ahead of us I still don’t think we could have finished 10th though. “The actual pace was good during the race, as I say, and I had some fun out there overtaking, and enjoyed some good fights, but it’s just so difficult to pass here. You wouldn’t think so with such a long straight, but out of the last corner you just can’t stay close. When you do get past, you suddenly find the time, but in the process you’ve lost so much compared with the people who stopped on lap one. “We could have stopped on lap one ourselves, but, when you’re in 12th or 13th place, it’s not a great position, but it’s also not a bad enough position to say ‘let’s take a gamble’ when you’re potentially on the edge of the points. “All in all, it was a really unusual race, and it’s a pity because we could have finished a lot higher up had we gambled, but you don’t know that in advance. It was still a fun race for me and I definitely got the best out of the car today – and that’s all you can hope for.”

“I guess we could have done a little bit better today, but unfortunately on the first lap we seemed always to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. We also had a small incident, which put us in a difficult position as we were in traffic for the remainder of the race, as we sat behind Carlos [Sainz] for 40 laps or so. “We also had a small problem in our second pit-stop, which didn’t help. “We had one tyre that lasted a long, long time and another that lasted much less long, so Jenson and I went for different strategies, but, even so, neither of us finished in the points. “At the end of the day, when you have the pace everything is easier, so that’s what we need to focus on.”

“I think fourteenth is as good as we could have got from starting at the back, so I’m happy! I had some really good fights with the McLaren guys, which was good fun, and 70 laps on one set of tyres is probably some sort of record… It was a bit of a challenge but in the end we were still going okay; we were quick enough to keep our competitors behind. All in all, I’m pretty happy with today.”

„Mit dem Start auf Medium-Reifen war ich das einzige Auto im Startfeld mit einer aggressiven Strategie. In der ersten Runde ging das gut und ich konnte einige Positionen gutmachen – auch gegenüber Konkurrenten mit weichen Reifen. Die Safety-Car-Phase kam dann für mich etwas unglücklich, weil damit die Autos vor und hinter mir wieder enger zusammenrückten. Das war bezüglich meiner Strategie nicht gerade hilfreich, aber im Rennsport kann so etwas immer passieren. Ausserdem hatte ich einen beschädigten Frontflügel sowie „turning vane“, aufgrund dessen meine Rundenzeiten beeinträchtigt wurden. Von nun an drehen sich meine Gedanken um das nächste Rennen in Brasilien. Denn es ist immer wieder ein grossartiges Gefühl, zurück in die Heimat zu kommen und in Interlagos Rennen zu fahren.“

"It just wasn't our day today... What a tough afternoon! During the laps to the grid I already felt that there was something wrong with the gearbox while downshifting, as well as with the brakes that kept overheating from the first lap onwards – we didn't have the pace today and these issues didn't help. If to all this you also add a 5-second penalty for impeding Fernando during Lap 1... It just became a very difficult race from the very start and it meant we were never going to finish in the points unfortunately. It's a shame, because we had a very good day yesterday, but this is racing and finishes like last Sunday in Austin don't happen every day!"

“Last weekend a late stint on the super soft tyres worked really well for us but today it wasn’t the same story. We just didn’t seem to have the outright pace we needed on any of the tyres we used. It was a frustrating race for me. My first set of soft tyres dropped away as we expected but then we didn’t seem to be able to maintain the pace on the medium tyres so we changed strategy to the super softs, but by then we were too far behind. I’m hoping that we can have a much better race in Brazil.”

"I'm quite happy with my race today, even if we finished P18 – I enjoyed a few very nice battles, did a couple of overtakes and had some fun. If I say the truth, I'd say that our pace today was just too slow to fight for higher positions, unfortunately. Regarding the 5-second penalty I was given, I have to say that there's just no consistency with these penalties... I disagree with mine, even though I will review the race and maybe then I change my opinion. We now have two more races left and we will try and do our best, you never know what can happen."

“It was an incredible experience. We were pushing all the way, pushing all the limits we could with the car we had. I had to take care of the brakes as we were struggling with the cooling of them, so I had to brake a lot earlier than I would have liked to. This wasn’t ideal when trying to fight your way up the grid, but it’s the only thing we could do to finish the race. I wish we could have been able to deliver something better this weekend but, unfortunately, we were not able to this time. However, it was an amazing weekend – racing in my home country in front of all the Mexican people – and I really want to thank them because they’ve really made it a race to remember.”

“We tried to change a few parts to analyze what was going wrong, but we really haven’t found the problem yet. The car was just nowhere today. It was very difficult to handle and to drive. We didn’t get anything right. We’re experiencing inconsistency with lots of oversteer and understeer. I never knew what I was going to get out there. The car was pulling on the left under braking. It felt weird. It was just a very difficult day.”

Esteban, tough race for you, at the end of a challenging weekend. “Yes, Mexico won’t go down as one of my favourite races of the season so far, which is a shame, because it’s a great track and an amazing Formula 1 venue. Actually today was not as bad as the rest of the weekend by comparison, but we never really did overcome the problems we have experienced with the way my car was handling. In the end, I was just glad we made it to the finish.” 7 races down, 2 to go. How will you approach the remaining races of your debut season? “I hope the problems of the weekend were specific to this event. With a bit more investigation I’m sure we can understand them a little better and things will be back to normal for Brazil. This was a tense race for the team. There was nothing more I could have done today, especially as 20 other cars finished the race, so we need to make sure that in the next two races we’re in a more stable position and better placed to create or respond to opportunities.”

Pascal, clearly a heart-breaking end to your race today, after such a fantastic weekend, especially that qualifying performance. “I couldn’t believe it. It was heart-breaking, yes. We had a chance at a really strong race today and for that opportunity to be ripped away before we’d even begun was difficult to take. I got a great start, gained two places and I was up to 14th - then it was over.” Tell us what happened? “I was in front and when I turned in, Gutierrez hit me from behind. That’s it. The impact launched me into the air and that pushed me into Marcus Ericsson. My suspension was broken and my race was over. I was on the outside, leaving a lot of space and that is a left and right chicane. I don’t understand why you would risk so much there when it’s such a long race.” Small comfort, but it’s been an incredible weekend for you, with so many positives? “Yes, it’s not the end to the weekend we deserved, but there are only good things to say about practice, qualifying and the way the team has performed here. We need to keep working at this level because from where I ended up watching the race, it made for very uncomfortable viewing. We have to do everything possible to secure our championship position and ensure that our result in Austria counts.”