Fahrerstimmen – Tag 3

It feels incredible to be World Champion and I couldn’t have asked for a more insane last race of the year. It was a bit of a rollercoaster, from not really having a chance of winning until the last lap, everything came together, and we had to go for it. I kept saying to myself, I am just going to give it my all and I have until the last lap and that is what we did.
Of course, with that safety car restart in the last lap we had the fresher tyres but you still need to do the move – luckily it worked out. I want to say a big thank to Checo, because of his performance today, I won the Championship, he was driving his heart out for this Team. Today showed exactly what great teamwork is, he's an amazing teammate.
Mercedes won the Constructors’ and we won the Driver’s Championship so it really shows that throughout the whole year we pushed each other to the very end. Lewis is an amazing driver, there is no discussion about it. Of course, we had our moments throughout the season but I think you know that after everything we had an amazing fight this season and I think both teams gave it their all.

What a way to end my first year with Scuderia Ferrari! We knew it was going to be a tough race for the tyres but we used our experience of the entire year to extend the life of my Softs in the first stint and then to look after my Hards until the end of the race.
To sign off my first season with the Scuderia with a podium, a third place in the Constructors’ Championship and a fifth in the Drivers’ is a great way to head into the winter break. I want to thank all the tifosi and the entire team, including Charles, the management and every single member of the factory and race team for the welcome I’ve had this year. I felt at home at Ferrari from the very first day and that, along with their incredible effort all year long, has been key to improving race by race and finishing this first season strongly.
Finally I want to congratulate both Max and Lewis for their great season. I’m happy for Max, so a special congratulation for the Championship title. I’m already looking forward to next season! Forza Ferrari!

I’m so happy, what an incredible result to end the season with. I think overall this weekend the car has been really strong, I didn’t expect the race pace to be quite as good but in the end it has been a great day. It’s amazing to be finishing the season on such a high, it’s been a long journey getting back to this point, but I’ve really rebuilt my confidence and it’s great heading into the off-season with this incredible result. Huge congratulations to Max, it was such a tough battle throughout the season and I think he really deserved it today. I want to thank him also for giving this great result to Honda, as he’s given them the best way to celebrate their last year in F1.

I’m extremely happy to finish in P5 today, it’s the best way to end this year. It’s been an incredible season, the most successful for us as a team in 15 years, we’ve scored a lot of points and there have been many highlights. We’ve focused on ourselves every single race and I think we’ve performed well this season, so I’m really proud of everyone. I’m really pleased for Max, we grew up racing together, we knew he would have been World Champion one day and he did it today. It’s well deserved and I’m also happy for Honda, after all the years of hard work they’ve managed to get this Championship in their final year.

I thought from my side it was a decent race. I lost out a little bit at the start – I maybe just didn’t do the best job or place the car exactly where I should've done. After that, the race was going very well, I was keeping up with the Ferrari, the pace was pretty strong and then we had a slow puncture, which just took us out of the race and I lost a lot of points and a lot of positions because of that. Just more unlucky times! But the team did a good job today. I feel like I drove a solid race and it was just unfortunate again. There's nothing we could've done, but I think we should still be happy with the way we ended the season. We weren’t quite quick enough at times, but that’s not down to a lack of effort.
Thanks to the whole team for all their hard work. They’ve been amazing all season. We still have a couple of days of testing to go before the break, but soon it'll be time for a well-deserved break and a reset before next year.

It was a fun race out there tonight and to see the championship fight go down to the last lap was exciting. For our race, we started on the Hard tyres and we did well to benefit from the Safety Car this time. I enjoyed the fights we had with the Alpha Tauris and to score double points for the team is a good result for Alpine. We weren’t quite as competitive this weekend, but we executed another strong race, so it’s a credit to the team. We now need to reset for next year and make sure we have a good winter ahead of 2022. I would also like to say Congratulations to Max Verstappen for winning the title. It was only a matter of time that he won the trophy and whilst there was some fortune in the incidents today, I think he is a deserving champion.

Congratulations to Max [Verstappen] for winning the championship. It’s well deserved as this year he’s been great and hopefully one day we’ll be up there battling with him in the future: that’s our aim looking forward. In terms of today, I’d say it was a good race for us. We did well on the strategy we had going from Softs to Hards on a one-stop. We didn’t benefit from the virtual safety car and we lost two places there unfortunately. Sometimes it goes your way, sometimes it doesn’t, that’s the way it is! I’m very happy to end the season on a strong note and that’s a positive. Thanks to everyone at Alpine F1 Team at Enstone and Viry for their hard work all season. Let’s keep pushing!

It wasn’t a great race today. The first stint wasn’t bad. Then, we tried something different and put on Medium tyres during the Virtual Safety Car. It was a decision we made together, as a team, and it just didn’t work out as we wanted it to.
Congratulations to the team for finishing in third place in the Constructors’ championship. It was not easy after a tough season last year and a big thank you goes to everyone on our team, whether at the track or at our factory at home in Maranello, for all the hard work they did to make this possible. Carlos did a great job this season and congratulations to him for fifth in the Drivers’ standings.
Huge congratulations to Max for winning the title. We raced with each other as kids as far back as karting. I know how strong he has been from the very start. It was just a matter of time before he achieved this and he deserves it.
The 2021 season ended today and the 2022 season begins from tomorrow. We will start learning a lot for the coming season starting with the test we have planned this week. We believe the foundation we have is a solid one and we will keep working to be able to fight further in the front in the next World Championship.

I think we had some decent pace today, but we were unfortunately stuck behind the Alfa Romeo of [Antonio] Giovinazzi for too long and that cost us too much time. When we were in clear air, the pace was good, but there was only so much we could do. The Safety Car situation at the end may have been unprecedented and we were just unable to end the season with points and finished P11. I also want to say congratulations to both Lewis [Hamilton] and Max [Verstappen] because both deserved the World Championship this year.

We made a position on the first lap, which put us in the fight with the Alpines. I felt like I had a bit more pace than them, but it was honestly just really tricky to overtake. We tried to stick it out but with the Virtual Safety Car we lost positions. I think in clear air I would’ve had a bit more pace to show, but it was just tricky with track position. That’s what happens when you qualify a little too far back. Something I want to improve next year is the performance on Saturdays, and I think that’ll make the Sundays a bit easier.
Thanks to the team for their hard work this year. We’ve had some fantastic moments, Monza being the highlight, and I can’t wait to build on the progress we’ve made in 2021. Before that, I’m looking forward to heading home, recharging the batteries a bit and getting ready to come back fighting next year.

It was a tricky race today and we were not able to benefit from the late Safety Car because we were not waved through to overtake, which was frustrating and I did not understand. It was a late chance to make up some places and potentially aim for points after we made the decision to pit again. P13 is not how we wanted to end the season and my 100th Grand Prix, but we have learned a lot this year that will put us in good stead for 2022. It has been great to be a part of Aston Martin’s first year back in Formula One, and I am sure there is a bright future ahead.

We attempted a different strategy to most of the field which I think worked for us. We made the C3 last and that’s what we needed to do, and we were fighting with Latifi, so overall we can be happy with what we’ve achieved today. We have lots to work on and lots to look forward to next year.

First of all, I'm extremely happy for Max and for this Team because they have worked so hard throughout the year and for many years. Max really deserves this Championship with the level he has driven at. I'm very happy to contribute to his title as a teammate, he's been a tremendous teammate and a great guy, I couldn't be happier for him.
Lewis was in control of the race and Max was 10 seconds or so behind so I am extremely happy I could do something to help the outcome. I was on extremely old tyres so there was not much I could do but I managed to take a couple of seconds of out of Lewis, which was critical and had an impact on the race. You don't want to get involved in their Championship and their battle, they've worked so hard for to be in this moment, but this is my Team, I did that for my Team and for Max.
I think finishing second was possible for me today with the way the race ended up concluding, but I had to retire because my car was not looking great and it could have ended up creating another safety car. It's a shame in the end that we didn't get the Constructions title, but I'm extremely happy with the job we’ve done this season.

It’s a pity to end the season like this, the first DNF after a full season of finishing. We were having a good race, fighting a world champion like Vettel, but at least I could enjoy watching the final laps of this race. It’s been a great battle between Max and Lewis, both would have deserved the title. It’s been an emotional day overall, seeing Kimi retire and seeing all the things the team did for us today. He’s a great person, very fair and all of F1 will miss him. As for me, I hope this is just a ‘see you soon’: my full focus is now on Formula E, but I hope to be back next year. I’m happy with my journey, the way I progressed over the years, I gave everything I could.

We had a gearbox issue which ultimately ended our race and may have been caused by something flying into the airbox. We need to review whether that was the case but there's nothing we can do about that, so it's unfortunate to finish our season in that way. The important thing though is that we sealed P8 in the Constructors' Championship, which was much more than we could have hoped for this year and was our goal at the start of the weekend. I'm proud of what we've achieved as a team and I'm grateful to everyone at Grove for their hard work.

It’s been nice to see so many people showing their appreciation today, even if the race didn’t go as we hoped. We had an issue after the pit-stop, a technical problem that meant we finished earlier today. That’s racing, sometimes things fail, but today’s result doesn’t influence how I feel about my career. I’m happy to move on to a normal life, I am looking forward to it. Of course, I will miss a lot of the great people I met over the years; 20 years have gone quickly, I made lots of memories, some good, some bad, and these are going to stay with me forever.

It was a tough race out there today and we were struggling for pace throughout. Towards the end of the Grand Prix, I was racing with Mick Schumacher and was forced slightly wide, but fairly, at Turn Nine. My tyres got dirty from running off track and I subsequently made a small mistake and unfortunately crashed. This obviously wasn’t how I wanted to end our season, so it's disappointing.

Da Nikita Mazepin positiv auf den Corona-Virus getestet wurde, konnte er am Rennen nicht teil nehmen.

Nikita Mazepin was unable to participate in the season-ending race after returning a positive test for Covid-19. Mazepin is physically well but is isolating and adhering to the guidelines of the health authorities. Stewards accepted Uralkali Haas F1 Team’s request to withdraw the car from competition on force majeure grounds.