Fahrerstimmen – Tag 3

“There are no words to describe the emotions I felt during the race, after the race, or on the podium. It felt ten times stronger than anything I have ever experienced in my whole career. It was very special. When I arrive at a race weekend, I usually don’t think about winning, I just try to do the best job possible and tell myself that the results will come. But to be honest, seeing all of the support from our tifosi here in Monza this weekend, the only thing I could think of was winning and that’s what we did, so I am very happy. The race was exciting. The first stint was quite controlled, but the second stint was a bit less strong on my side, because I had to focus on the car behind me a lot as the gap was closing. It was very difficult and I had a lot of pressure on me. I’d like to thank the whole team for all their hard work. Nothing would be possible without them. It was a shame for Seb, who definitely had the potential to be on the podium with me. For the next few races, we have to keep our focus, our motivation, and hopefully the results will follow.”

Ich habe alles gegeben, um nah genug an Charles heranzukommen und ihn in den letzten Runden anzugreifen. Aber Ferrari war an diesem Wochenende sehr schnell auf den Geraden. Dadurch war es schwierig, nah genug an ihn heranzukommen. Ich habe mein Bestes gegeben, aber jedes Mal, wenn ich nah dran war, blockierten meine Vorderräder. Während es enttäuschend ist, heute nicht gewonnen zu haben, war unsere Performance dennoch vielversprechend. Wir hatten hier vor dem Wochenende eines der schwierigsten Rennen der Saison für uns erwartet. Aber stattdessen konnten wir Ferrari herausfordern - das ist schön zu sehen. So gesehen war es ein gutes Rennen und ich glaube, dass wir Italien mit einem positiven Gefühl verlassen können. Auf dem Papier sollten die anstehenden Rennen unseren Stärken etwas mehr entgegenkommen. Deshalb freue ich mich in den kommenden Wochen auf einen guten Fight mit Ferrari und Red Bull.

Herzlichen Glückwunsch an Charles. Er hat eine großartige Leistung gezeigt, ganz besonders angesichts des Drucks, den Valtteri und ich auf ihn ausgeübt haben. Ferrari war auf den Geraden sehr schnell, weshalb es uns schwergefallen ist, nah an ihnen dran zu bleiben. Heute hat es leider einfach nicht sollen sein. Es ist immer enttäuschend, wenn man so nah hinter einem anderen Auto herfährt, aber nicht vorbeikommt. Schlussendlich verlassen wir Italien mit weiteren Punkten in der Konstrukteurs-Weltmeisterschaft und darauf kommt es am Ende an. Ich gehe nicht davon aus, dass das nächste Rennen für uns einfach wird. Stattdessen gehen wir in der kommenden Woche zurück in die Fabrik und durchlaufen dort den gleichen Prozess wie immer. Wir werden nach Wegen suchen, um unser Auto sowie unsere Abläufe am Rennwochenende zu verbessern. Hoffentlich können wir dann in Singapur eine bessere Leistung abliefern. Mir gefällt dieser Dreikampf zwischen Ferrari, Red Bull und uns sehr. Entsprechend möchte ich diesen gerne fortsetzen.

“We deserved that today. It matches my best ever result here in Monza and to do it with Renault is great. I saw the battles happening at the front and I thought there could be a big opportunity to score strong points. I’m really happy for myself and also for the team. To get the team’s best result since returning to Formula 1 in fourth and fifth at a power circuit really complements Renault and their hard work. The race pace was really good and it’s a nice reward for the team. The result is long overdue this year; I’m very satisfied now!”

“I’m very pleased after that result. It feels nice to have a finish like this and hopefully it will bring some momentum for the remaining seven races. The team deserve it as it’s been a tough year for us with some difficult results and moments. It’s a nice reward for everyone involved for the hard work. For me, it was a straightforward race. I made a strong start with two overtakes and managed to hold good track position. From there it was about maintaining that, making no mistakes and keeping calm. I had some pressure at the end but I managed to fend that off. It was largely quiet and controlled and a very good team result with Daniel just ahead!”

“There were positives for me even though the race didn’t go as planned. It isn’t the easiest track for us and we had quite an unlucky weekend in the qualifying. I didn’t have a great start and had to fight my way back though the field. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the pace on the straights to overtake so I had to do my manoeuvres on the corners. That resulted in a lot of side by side action and at one point I just lost a bit too much grip going that wide so it started to get messy. I had a few offs and took a five second penalty. However, my race pace is getting better with the car and I feel I have made a good step up from Spa so personally speaking I am happy. Hopefully Singapore will be better for me as there will be more downforce and more corners. I think there is a lot more to come and I’m feeling more competitive.”

“Another good result and we scored some important points today. It was a great recovery from what has been a difficult weekend in the lead up to the race, especially with the problems in qualifying. I think everything worked out for us in the end thanks to a strong strategy from the team and some good timing with the Virtual Safety Car. It was a tough race, especially the last 15 to 20 laps with Verstappen so close and putting me under pressure. We just had to push as much as we could. We’ve taken some good steps forward with the car recently and I’m optimistic going forward with more parts coming for Singapore. Hopefully, that will put us back into contention to keep scoring regular points from now until the end of the year.”

“I got front wing damage under breaking into Turn 1 as everyone slowed up and I clipped Sergio’s rear tyre. We then pitted for a new front wing and the race was still on as I had really good pace in clean air. I managed to pass quite a few cars but we got unlucky with the virtual safety car as it came out the lap after I pitted and three or four cars which I had already overtaken were back in front of me. I passed them all again but it was pretty painful on my tyres and then at the end I got stuck behind Perez for the second time in the race. I just couldn’t get past him as he was so quick on the straights. We have made some steps forward with the pace of the power unit but we will of course keep working hard to improve even further. With what happened at Turn 1 coming through to eighth isn’t too bad and these things are always more likely to happen when you start at the back. The last two races were always going to be difficult for us and now I’m looking forward to having a more normal race weekend and starting closer to the front.”

“It was a positive day for Italy today. I want to dedicate the two points to all the Tifosi here. I am so happy with the result, and I am also happy to see Ferrari do something very special for our country with their win. It’s a great feeling to score points as the only Italian driver in my home race. Starting on softs and changing to mediums turned out to be the best strategy, but I had to do my best to keep the McLaren of Norris behind. It was a difficult race, but a lot of our work has been rewarded, especially after Spa. We have to keep working and fighting like this. I am pleased for everyone in the team and for all my fans.”

“A decent race and a point is alright considering where I started, but you always want a little bit more. We got a bit unlucky: we boxed, we had the undercut on Perez, but then the Virtual Safety Car came out and he got a bit lucky to stay ahead and went on to finish in P7. “I’m not suggesting we definitely would’ve finished there, because I think they still had better pace than us, but we could’ve finished better without the VSC. In the end, I didn’t think we had all the pace but we hung on, managed to finish the race and got a point – which was a good thing after last weekend in Belgium.”

“Starting from P17 we knew we had a tough race ahead of us. It was quite an eventful day, we had a really good start and ended the first laps in 13th position. Things were looking pretty good until Stroll went off the track and re-joined just as I was passing, so I had to avoid him by going into the gravel and lost two positions and a lot of time. It cost us at the end of the race, as we finished only three seconds from P9. It wasn’t ideal, but I think we showed some good performance all weekend and we had the pace to finish in the points starting from the back of the grid. I’m looking forward to a clean weekend in Singapore without any penalties to be able to extract the most I can there.”

“That’s a tough one to take. We should have scored good points today. It all went wrong when Vettel came back on the track very aggressively and hit me. I’m quite upset with him for what happened. I tried to avoid him by going to the left but he just kept moving forward and eventually we made contact: I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I did everything I could to avoid him and I was even cautious with the yellow flag. I lifted off and he just came back on at Ascari and there was really nothing I could do, even at the speed I was going. He clipped me, I spun and then I was pointing the wrong way. When I was coming back onto the circuit myself, I got penalised for no fault of my own. It’s just a disaster really. I couldn’t see Pierre: I was just trying to get off the racing line and away from the dangerous position Vettel forced me into. We were looking pretty strong in seventh, with a decent gap to eighth, pulling away from the McLaren, and keeping the Renaults in sight. It was looking like a pretty smooth race from there, but it just goes to show how quickly things can turn around. There’s a lot of racing left this year and more improvements to come. This one is going to sting for a day or two. I think there were a lot of points up for grabs, but that’s racing.”

“It’s been a good day for Charles, so congratulations and well done to everybody. Obviously my day did not go well. On lap 6 I lost the rear, which was my mistake, which is why I am not happy with my day. I got a good start, but then I had nowhere to go and so I lost the position, before getting it back again and catching up to the cars ahead of me. Then came the spin on lap 6 and the race was obviously ruined for me. Then I struggled to rejoin the track as I was on the grass and I couldn’t see Lance. I still love what I do, but of course when you don’t do well, knowing what you are capable of, then you can’t be happy.”

Our pace was surprising, especially considering Monza is one of the three worst circuits of the year for us with our straight-line speed. We definitely have some positives to take away, it shows that we did a good job with the set-up, with the tyres, with everything else in our control. I think we can be quite pleased with the result.

“Well that was a sh** weekend. First my mistake in qualifying which unfortunately meant that we had to change gearbox. Then we decided to also change engine and start from the pitlane, but we had the wrong tyres on and with the penalty my race was more or less over. Looking forward to Singapore, as it can’t get worse.”

“It was very complicated today. I was hit from behind into turn one and it picked up the anti-stall. I had to pull the clutch, release the clutch, and by the time I had done all that I was driving through the polystyrene blocks and was dead last through the first corner. I tried to push to come back, then I had a spin at Ascari. I came into the pits and asked the team to remove a fair bit of aero balance, as the car was very much on the nose. We did it, but the car was still over balanced. We pitted again and removed one percent of aero balance, and the car was still over balanced. Definitely something went wrong with the car today. We need to analyze everything, the balance we had today was definitely not what we had during the rest of the weekend. A lot to do.”

It wasn’t easy, overall the weekend was up and down. Generally, the race started pretty well, but then I struggled with the front-left tyre in the corners. We had a few battles and I tried to defend as much as I could, but I struggled to stay in the tow of the other cars. I tried my best and that’s how it is.

“It’s a shame to end the day that way. We obviously need to analyse what we could’ve done better in the pit-stop as a whole team, but honestly, this year the pit-stops have been great; our guys have been doing an outstanding job on the pit-wall and in the pit-box, so nothing to be concerned about. Heads up high. “We’ve lost a potential P6, but we’ve gained a lot more this year with good strategies and good pit-stops. Let’s analyse and come back stronger.”

“It was shaping up to be an amazing race today, we were fighting Red Bull Racing at the time of my retirement, so good points were on the table for us. However, this is our sport unfortunately, and sometimes you can do a great job but something in the car gives up and you have to pull over. I was putting in the same lap times with those around me and was on fresher tyres, so I was confident I could finish well inside the top 10. It’s a big shame to miss out on valuable points, but we have been having quite a few strong Sundays lately, so we know we can fight for good results. Let’s think of Singapore now.”

“I had a hydraulic problem at the end, so we had to retire unfortunately. Until then, it had been going okay. I was fighting to keep people behind, which is normal for me these days. That said, we had been in a good position and a lot of other people were having problems. It was just bad luck to have our problem at the end. On the positive, we were in the top ten from beginning to end – of our race at least. It wasn’t a true picture but at least we were going for it. It looked like we could do something, but obviously I’m gutted we had to retire at the end.”