Fahrerstimmen – Tag 3

Zunächst möchte ich Lewis gratulieren: sechs WM-Titel sind eine beeindruckende Leistung! Er ist eine starke Saison gefahren und hat den Titel verdient. Alles in allem war er besser. Lewis ist ein harter Gegner, der nur sehr wenige Schwächen besitzt, beinahe keine Fehler begeht und sehr konstant fährt. Aber ich konnte guten Schwung mitnehmen und freue mich im nächsten Jahr erneut auf einen engen Kampf mit ihm. Es war ein richtig gutes Wochenende für das Team und mich. In den zurückliegenden Jahren hatte ich auf dieser Strecke zu kämpfen, deshalb war es großartig, heute als Erster über die Ziellinie zu fahren. Es war kein einfaches Rennen. Ich hatte einen starken Start und einen guten ersten Stint, aber wir mussten auf eine Zwei-Stopp-Strategie umstellen, um auf Max zu reagieren. Danach war ich etwas besorgt, dass Lewis mit einem Stopp vielleicht die bessere Strategie haben könnte. Es war ein richtiger Fight und hat viel Spaß gemacht. Ich musste hart pushen, aber meine Pace war stark und ich konnte Lewis am Ende einholen. Wir hatten einen guten Zweikampf auf der Strecke und ich konnte ihn überholen, um mir den Sieg zu schnappen. Es fühlt sich richtig gut an, das Rennen auf diese Weise zu gewinnen und für den Sieg zu kämpfen.

Ehrlich gesagt, sind meine Gefühle im Moment nur schwer zu beschreiben. Wolke sieben kommt nicht einmal annähernd heran, es ist sehr viel weiter oben angesiedelt. Es war das schwierigste Jahr, an das ich mich erinnern kann. Es war eine echte Herausforderung mit Höhen und Tiefen. Deshalb überwältigen mich gerade die Emotionen. Ich bin stolz und jedem Einzelnen im Team wirklich unheimlich dankbar - allen in unseren Fabriken sowie jedem in der gesamten Daimler-Familie und bei PETRONAS. Alle haben sehr hart dafür gearbeitet, dass wir dieses Ergebnis erreichen konnten. Es ist ein echtes Privileg und eine absolute Ehre, für dieses Team zu arbeiten. Rauszugehen und die Möglichkeit zu haben, Leistungen wie die heutige zu zeigen. Ich vermisse Niki sehr. Heute hätte er seine Kappe gezogen. Ich hätte das niemals ohne Niki geschafft. Im Geiste ist er ganz sicher bei uns. Direkt nach Rennende habe ich meine Eltern gesehen und das Grinsen auf dem Gesicht meines Vaters hat einfach alles gesagt. Meine Familie hat mich von Anfang an unterstützt, sie haben sehr hart dafür gearbeitet, dass ich heute hier sein kann. Ich bin froh, dass sie alle gemeinsam dabei sein konnten. Gestern war ein schwieriger Tag und ich wollte mich heute nur davon erholen und einen Doppelsieg für das Team abliefern. Valtteri hat fantastische Arbeit geleistet, herzlichen Glückwunsch auch an ihn.

“For us, it’s been a positive weekend and I’m very happy to finish third on a track like this. On the last few laps, the yellow flags hurt me and I couldn’t pass after the straight, otherwise I think we could have finished second. After the race I realised I was missing quite a big piece of my floor which is a shame as I think we could have been even more competitive otherwise. I had a good start and then I tried to follow Valtteri but it seemed like they had a bit more pace than us so to finish roughly five seconds behind him is a good achievement, especially considering our car damage. I think the two stop was the right way to go and I don’t think we could have done anything differently as it was the fastest strategy for us. I think we’ve taken a good step forward and we’re back in the fight. It’s still not going to be easy but we won’t give up. It is of course very impressive for Lewis to win his sixth title and you have to be very consistent to achieve that so he deserves it.”

“It was a really tough race, especially during the first stint where the front tyres did not feel right. It was difficult to find the grip and we have to look into how exactly that happened. The other two stints were a bit better, but not good enough. Our competitors were just too quick, so it was a rather lonely race for me today. It’s a shame for the team that we didn’t finish the race with both cars. Congratulations to Lewis for the title. He is a great champion and deserves it.”

“I’ve enjoyed my first weekend in America and I think we did the best job we could with P5. The start was strong but I’m a bit frustrated with Turn 1. I need to watch it back but it felt like I got squeezed and obviously had nowhere to go as three into one is a bit difficult! I don’t think it was anyone’s fault, it was just racing, but I had to run over the kerb which damaged my floor and front wing. From there we had to pit and I lost a lot of time so our race was pretty compromised, otherwise I think maybe we could have fought Leclerc for P4. In the end it was a strange race but it was fun and I enjoyed some good overtakes to get back to the front. Considering we had no safety cars and had floor damage, I think we did well to make our way back through the field.“

“We’ve had a lot of fun races this year and this one is certainly up there. The one-stop was the plan and it looked like others on the two-stop would get close at the end, which made things a bit nervy. We reached our target of beating both McLarens, so that’s really pleasing. It was a strong race and we showed good pace. I enjoyed the battle with Lando [Norris] as I passed him and he passed me back a couple of times at the start and then put some pressure on towards the end. We held on for sixth, so it’s solid points for the team with Nico in the top ten as well.”

“A good race for the team and me! I had a really good launch off the line and was up to P5 after the first few corners. We’re doing a good job in this respect and it’s a good strength of ours. The rest of the race was tough, especially the first stint on the Softs. I struggled a lot compared to Daniel [Ricciardo] in the later laps with the tyres, which we kind of expected. “We then did the Hard tyre stint and was close to getting Daniel after the stop. I tried to look after the tyres. He wasn’t pushing too much, so I was trying to push, and see if he made any mistake where I could get past him. But he didn't and was just controlling the pace. We decided to box for Mediums and go for the two-stop – which turned out to be really good. A fun race, at least in the third stint, with some overtaking. Massive thanks to everyone back at the factory and at the circuit for their hard work.”

“It was a good day’s work for the team. We managed to bring home a couple of points finishes and a good ten points in the bag, so congratulations to everyone. For me, personally, I feel we could’ve achieved more, but my race was compromised at the start after I got hit into Turn One. “Stopping for the Hard tyre and going for one stop meant I did a very long second stint. The pace was decent and we managed to secure an important P8. All in all a positive weekend and we move on to Brazil aiming for more.”

“I’m really happy to take two points today especially after losing some ground on lap one. It was a race of two, contrasting halves for us. The first part wasn’t great, we lost places at Turn 1 and Turn 2 on the opening lap with some cars coming back onto the track in front of me. That made things difficult, but then the second-half of the race was a lot of fun. We converted to a two-stop strategy, maybe a lap or two too late, which was my decision, but we then started catching others in front. We had good pace, some fun fights, so we can be pleased to score two points today.”

“We had a tremendous race today and we managed to recover well as a team. We used a very aggressive one-stop strategy and had good pace all afternoon. On the final lap, Kvyat crashed into me and damaged my front wing, but he was penalised and we took back the tenth place. One point means we move up to sixth place in the Constructors’ Championship, which is important with two races to go. It’s only a point today, but every point will count at the end of the season.”

„Von diesem Rennen können wir viel Positives mitnehmen, auch wenn Platz 11, außerhalb der Punkteränge, nach Ende eines ziemlich konkurrenzfähigen Rennens ärgerlich ist. Ich hatte einen richtig guten Start, und wir sahen viel besser aus, da wir zumindest vom Start bis ins Ziel mitkämpfen konnten. Darauf können wir aufbauen und bei der nächsten Rennen anknüpfen.“

“It was a tricky race, we were a little bit off the pace today compared to our direct competitors. We used the tyres a bit more than we usually do, so we need to analyse that. Even with those issues, I managed to finish P10 on track on the last lap. I think was a harsh but fair move, it was great racing like we want to see and what we have seen this season without other drivers being penalised. I’m very upset and disappointed about this penalty because I don’t think this is what our sport needs.”

“It was a long afternoon and for sure I’ve had better days. It’s a shame because the car felt good and we know we can fight for points, but unfortunately things didn’t go our way. I didn’t get the best start as I was squeezed and we picked up damage through Turn 1. The track was very bumpy on the outside of Turn 2 and I hit a bump, had a big snap of oversteer and fell down the field. Given our track position, the team tried to roll the dice and switched me to a two-stop strategy: we were showing good pace in the second stint, but we ran out of tyres towards the end of the race. It’s a shame, but sometimes you have days like these and we just have to come back fighting in Brazil.”

„An diesem Wochenende sahen wir als Team stärker aus. Entsprechend können wir optimistisch in die Zukunft blicken, auch wenn wir heute nicht punkten konnten. Wir hatten uns dazu entschieden, dass ich mit einer anderen Strategie als Kimi ins Rennen gehe. Letztlich klappte es für ihn besser. Ich startete auf Medium Reifen, hatte aber Grip-Probleme. Das besserte sich nach dem Wechsel auf Softs ein wenig, aber zu diesem Zeitpunkt war es bereits zu spät, um noch etwas bewegen zu können. Wir müssen weiterhin Druck machen. Wir machen Schritte nach vorn, und hoffentlich werden wir in Brasilien noch besser sein.“

“It was tricky today. We knew going into the race that it was always going to be a little bit complicated. Unfortunately we didn’t have any top speed, so at the beginning of the race I couldn’t really pass any of the guys. Plan A was mediums then softs, so we tried to stay long on the mediums. Unfortunately they just died when everyone pitted, everyone was passing me, I lost an awful lot of lap time there. Then we went onto the hards and they were actually pretty good. I was happy with the balance and my lap times. We were just too far at the back with no chance to fight.”

“It was a really good race as we were running in the top 10 for most of it and keeping pace with the McLarens. In the end I started to fight with Sergio and we made contact in Turn 13 which broke the front right suspension, so we had to retire the car. We were fighting, he went down the inside of Turn 13 then we touched with my front right tyre which bent the suspension. I don’t think it was anything big, but it was enough to put me out of the points and end our race. It’s disappointing to end this way after a strong weekend.”

This race was trickier than normal. I struggled with the tyres overheating before they dropped off, making the car difficult to drive. We decided to make a second stop and struggled with blue flags for the remainder of the race. Congratulations to Lewis Hamilton on his sixth Drivers’ World Championship.

“I had a brake issue at the end there. It was a tough day at the office. We weren’t fast enough today, just lacking grip and pace. We have some problems, that’s pretty clear, but I tried to do my best anyway. I got as high as ninth on those first laps – it was good fun, but then it was just so clear that we didn’t have the pace and we started to drop down the order. The race then ended with the brake failure.”

The pace was not there today, so we tried an alternative strategy by pitting early in the race. I struggled with the grip and the bumps were quite difficult with more fuel in the car. We had a hydraulic leak, so we had to retire the car. I am looking forward to Brazil, it’s a nice track and hopefully we will have a better result.

“I am very disappointed that I had to retire, because I was hoping for a good race. I had very poor grip on the first lap and had to let a lot of cars by. I struggled to get the car to work, especially in right hand corners, maybe something was already broken on the car. Then, after seven laps the suspension failed over the bump in turn 8. At that time, I hadn’t done anything different to the previous laps over the whole weekend. I think today we had the potential for a podium, so it’s a shame. Finally, I want to congratulate Lewis for his wonderful achievement.”