Fahrerstimmen – Tag 3

Das Team hat Geschichte geschrieben. Wenn ich jetzt bei Mercedes aufhören würde, würde ich mich immer an diesen Tag erinnern und daran, dass ich Teil des Ganzen gewesen bin - das ist richtig cool. Hinter uns liegt ein sehr hartes Jahr und jeder im Team hat hart gekämpft, härter als je zuvor und wir sind so geschlossen wie noch nie. Und das kann man nicht erwarten, wenn man in den Vorjahren so erfolgreich gewesen ist, dann schleicht sich leicht der Schlendrian ein. Aber die Jungs haben weiter die Messlatte gelegt. Das Rennen heute war hart, aber ich wollte meine Leistung abliefern und für das Team gewinnen. Das hat so starke Auswirkungen, jeder im Team kann jetzt mit dem Wissen in das letzte Rennen und die Winterpause gehen, dass sie den Weltmeister-Titel gewonnen haben - sie sind Legenden. Ich bin ihnen für ihre harte Arbeit unheimlich dankbar - hier an der Strecke, in den Werken, bei PETRONAS und allen unseren Partnern. Ich bin wahnsinnig stolz darauf, Teil dieses Teams zu sein. Tatsächlich bin ich sogar etwas nervös, zurück in die Fabriken zu reisen und dort den Aufschrei zu hören. Ich glaube, dass die Atmosphäre dort unglaublich sein wird. Ich hatte nicht damit gerechnet, dass Red Bull heute so gut sein würde. Ich dachte, dass sie eine ähnliche Pace zu uns haben würden, aber sie waren ein wenig schneller. Wir hatten im ersten Stint Schwierigkeiten mit den Reifen und sie sind besser damit umgegangen als wir. Im zweiten Stint bin ich auf den Medium-Reifen gefahren und hatte ein Problem mit dem Motor. Ich habe einfach nur versucht, das Auto über die Linie zu bringen. Max hat mich überholt, was wehgetan hat, aber dann hatte er ein Problem und plötzlich war ich wieder in Führung. Im Funk habe ich zu meinen Ingenieuren gesagt: „Ich möchte nicht aufgeben, sagt mir, was ich tun muss.“ Ich habe bis zum Schluss hart gepusht und bin alle Risiken eingegangen, um das Rennen mit einem Sieg zu beenden. Das war ein Highlight, aber ich möchte weiter auf dieser Welle reiten und auch das letzte Saisonrennen gewinnen.

“First of all I want to thank the Team. The car felt amazing all race, even with a damaged floor towards the end. The set-up, balance and strategy were perfect today. To be this competitive at a track we didn’t expect to be is really positive, and makes me look forward to Abu Dhabi. We have come away with a P2, which should have been a win. This shows we were performing really well, beyond expectations. It is a real shame we didn’t come away with the win due to the incident with Ocon. Of course a backmarker can un-lap himself but he took an unnecessary amount of risk, especially against the race leader. They gave him the penalty for causing a collision so I think that says enough. At the end of the day I am a passionate sportsman that wants to win, this situation is frustrating and shows emotion when competing at the highest level. It is now important to take the positives from the race and the rest of the weekend and carry on the momentum into Abu Dhabi.”

“It was a nice exciting race. We had good battles throughout and the car was working well during the whole race. The speed was there and we had no particular issues. The first set of tires was very good at the start and I was really happy, but then I destroyed them a little bit trying to pass the Mercedes. Once we changed the tires the car was absolutely fine; we kind of knew that once we pitted we could have gone past them. After that the behaviour of the car was still very good, but at that point we were a bit too late, as it had taken too long for us to get there. As for the strategy, we did what we thought was the best for us. We can always debate many things, but today we made the best of it. Obviously it is not the greatest of results, but I don’t think we could have got more; we did not make any mistakes and fought hard. As for the Constructors’ Championship we knew that it would have been difficult; we did our best, but unfortunately it was not enough. The best team won this year, that’s how it goes.”

“I’m happy with my race, I’m happy with all the Team’s efforts but still a bit disappointed to just miss out on the podium. I caught Kimi and could see the podium but unfortunately it just wasn’t quite enough. The strategy was spot on once again so we can’t fault ourselves at all. I had fun and some great battles, especially my pass on Bottas. I told the team on the radio I was going for it and I made it stick. The battle with Seb was cool, I think we maybe touched once or twice, but I’ve always respected him and the way he races. We’ve had some on-track battles before, at times it gets slightly heated, but I believe we know where each other’s limits are. It’s frustrating because every time we have a penalty we seem to have a fast car, if we started closer to the front I’m confident we could have had a really good result. It’s bitter sweet I guess, we did well but if we had started where I qualified we could have done better, you can’t ask for much starting start from 11th. Anyway, I have no regrets from the race, I did all I could and I know the team did, so it is what it is. With the pace we had today I really have some optimism going to Abu Dhabi. I feel like that’s a stronger track for us than this, so maybe we can go there and drink some fake champagne.”

Ich bin richtig glücklich und stolz darauf, Teil dieses Teams zu sein. Der Schlüssel war die harte Arbeit jedes einzelnen Teammitglieds, sowohl in unseren Werken in Brackley und Brixworth als auch hier an der Rennstrecke – sie alle haben diesen Titel absolut verdient! Normalerweise stehen nur ein paar wenige Personen im Rampenlicht, aber es gibt in unserem Team so viele Helden im Hintergrund– vielen Dank an Euch alle! Wir haben selbst unter starkem Druck alles im Griff behalten, unsere Fehler minimiert und großartige Arbeit bei der Weiterentwicklung des Autos geleistet. Herzlichen Glückwunsch an alle. Das Rennen war heute etwas schwierig. Am Start lief alles wie geplant und wir konnten zu Beginn in Führung gehen. Danach wurde es kniffliger. Im ersten Stint hatte ich mit überhitzenden Reifen zu kämpfen, im zweiten hatte ich Blasenbildung auf den Medium-Reifen. Deshalb mussten wir einen zweiten Stopp einlegen. Ich glaube, dass wir heute nicht ganz die Pace gehabt haben. Das Rennen war etwas härter als erwartet. Vor dem Start war ich ein wenig optimistischer, aber alles in allem ist es ein großartiger Tag für Mercedes.

“Obviously, this was not an easy race and I am not happy with sixth place. I tried to do my best, but the car was difficult to drive and I even struggled to drive on the straights. However, I am happy that Kimi got to the podium, because it is a good result for us, even if we didn’t win the Constructors’ Championship. Honestly, I don’t think it was an advantage for us to start on Soft tyres, because the Supersofts lasted longer than expected, but that’s how it was. The first part of my start was going well, but then the second was not that good, as I had nowhere to go with Lewis in front of me. I think we just didn’t have enough grip in the second part of the “esses”, Lewis and Valtteri worked together and I had no chance. Also, Lewis was a little bit quicker on the brakes to give Valtteri the outside line and then in lap 2 or 3 Max passed us as he was faster. There’s not much to say as this year Mercedes has been stronger than us and we can only congratulate them.”

“I am very happy with the race; finishing in 7th place is a positive result that we can be satisfied with. It was fun to drive on this track and adding more points to our tally to solidify our 8th position in the Constructors’ Championship is a positive feeling for the whole team. I look forward to seeing what we can do in Abu Dhabi.”

“I’m very happy, and very happy for the team. With the damage we had on the car following lap one, I’m impressed. We lacked about a second of downforce on the car. Being able to do those lap times, I think we did an amazing job on the setup. I’m very happy with that. I think without that, being best-of-the-rest would’ve easily been on our side. I’m happy we finished eighth and ninth. Even if we’re far from Renault in the points, double-points finishes in the two last races would be amazing going into the winter.”

“It was tough luck on the first lap. I made a good start and I got through turns one and two very well. Then I was pushed out on turn four and I lost a few positions there. I had to get those positions back and close the gap to Romain again. We stayed put from there. I’m happy for the team to get a double-points finish again. It’s good to bounce back from the tough luck we experienced yesterday when I didn’t really qualify where I should have. We did some damage limitation. I’m happy we leave with points.”

“I was really hoping we could get some rain this afternoon. Throughout the race I was looking at the clouds and they were getting darker, but in the end it stayed dry. I don’t think we had the race pace to score more points today. I had to fuel save quite early on and for much of the afternoon it was a pretty lonely race for me. We made our strategy work as best as we could and tenth place was as much as we could achieve. It’s a shame we couldn’t score more and capitalise on the Renaults not scoring, but hopefully we can end the season with a better result in Abu Dhabi.”

"That was a really good race for me, it's annoying you don't get to score points as a reward, but there weren't any retirements at the front to capitalise on. I started on the harder compound so it was a bit tricky for me during the first few laps, but still I had a strong start and made some good overtakes. To make our race work, I knew I would have to keep the tyres alive as long as possible on the first stint, I had great feedback from the pit wall and the strategy worked well. I felt this was one of the best performances of my F1 career but without the reward of points. The team will work hard over the next weeks to understand why we had such good race pace in Mexico, but struggled two weeks later here in Brazil."

“We knew coming to Brazil would be a tough weekend and ultimately we weren’t quick enough for points today. We were able to gain three positions after another strong start and had some good, clean battles with Nico and other cars. When the race settled we kept pushing but we just didn’t have the pace so couldn’t make sufficient progress. I wanted more today, so let’s work for that in Abu Dhabi.”

"I had some good battles today, but it was a tough race. I had a good start and got to P8, but after that we clearly were suffering compared to our direct competitors. I tried to fight as much as I could but we clearly didn't have the pace for points today. We knew Brazil would be difficult, but after the performance we showed in Mexico we were a bit more optimistic, so in the end we're a bit disappointed with the way the race unfolded. Now there's one race left of the season so hopefully we can finish on a high!"

“It’s disappointing not to score when we had good pace. I had made some good overtakes throughout the race, but it all came to nothing after the contact with Max [Verstappen]. He came out of the pits, I stayed behind him for nearly two laps but I was much faster than him and the team advised me to unlap myself. I went on the outside at turn one – the same move I made on Fernando [Alonso] and on many others before, but Max didn’t give me any space. Once I was beside him I couldn’t just disappear, so we collided. But it was my corner and I had the right to the space. I was saddened by his behaviour after the race: he was very aggressive and the guys from the FIA had to intervene. That’s not the way to handle these things.”

“Today was a good race from my side. I’m really happy with how everything went, even though the result today wasn't really what we were hoping for. “It was a strong race from my side, and I felt like I maximised everything today. I had a few good overtakes and some nice fights with Fernando, and we overtook the Williams as well, so I think we did the most we could today. “We played the strategy well. We did a good job to go a little bit longer in the first stint to make the tyres last longer than the others, came out on fresh tyres and had a good couple of battles, and from there on we did a good race. It might not look on the timing board today that it was a great race, but overall, I’m quite happy with what we did. Today, looking at where the pace has been all weekend, that was the best we could have done.”

Straight away from the beginning, it was a very difficult race. We were missing the pace of the cars around us. It was tricky during the first laps, I felt like I was dancing on ice, not just to fight but even to keep the car on track. I was trying to protect the positions and it ruined the rhythm, so it took a while to settle down. We never really had the pace to recover so all race it was about survival. It was very difficult to manage and keep everything under control for such a long stint, so very disappointed after a tricky race.

“It was tough today. We gambled a little bit on the strategy, stopping very early to overtake some cars in front, but it didn’t work out for us. As it turned out, the Medium tyres blistered and we weren’t competitive in the second part of the race. “Also, my pit-stop was not clean and smooth, and we lost some time there. “Overall, we’ve been too slow all weekend. We just didn’t have the pace to be in the top 10 so today, no matter what strategy we had done or whatever we had tried today, I think points were unreachable.”

It was a long, hard race. I had a good start and then I was just getting out of the way for blue flags and managing tyres, but ultimately that wasn't good enough as we were too slow. That is the nature of the track also, as it is very tight and there are not many corners, so it is tough to get out of the way. It was far from the most exciting race. The bottom line is we were not quick enough, and I am not sure we could have done anything with our strategy.

“A disappointing end to such a great weekend. I had contact with another car just after the start, and after that, the car was difficult to drive. The balance was different to the rest of the weekend and the damage became worse and worse. We had to retire from the race – a shame, especially after such a fantastic qualifying, but we will come back stronger at the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi.”

“It was a shame to retire from the race, but the difficult call was made to stop due to excessive engine temperatures. These aren’t healthy for the Power Unit, so it wasn’t worth the risk carrying on. It’s disappointing as I was on a reverse strategy and that would have meant fresher tyres at the end of the race. Other than that, it was fun racing Carlos out there on a couple of occasions. It was close, but we left each other enough room and it was all fair and square. We’ll reset for the finale in Abu Dhabi and we’ll be giving it our all.”