Fahrerstimmen – Tag 3

It was a tough and crazy race today. I had a lot of fun battling with Charles again, I really enjoyed it and it’s not easy to get past him, patience is always key, especially if you want to fight for the Championship. In the beginning it was pretty difficult to follow but I think once we swapped to the hard tyre we were able to push more and the pace was better. We played the long game on the tyres which seemed to pay off. Towards the end of the race it felt like we were doing lots of quali laps, which was intense but really cool. Ultimately, we were able to win and we can be very proud of that as a Team. It wasn’t easy out there, but I think we maximised all that we could today. It was really unlucky for Checo with the timing of the safety car but we have plenty of races ahead of us where we can make up for it.

Although I’m disappointed to lose the victory so late in the race, it feels good to be fighting for wins again.
Whenever I had a bit of margin to Max (Verstappen), I could manage the race well. But after the Virtual Safety Car, as soon as he got in the DRS range, it became difficult.
He was fast in the straights and I was fast in the corners. You have to play on your strengths as much as possible when it’s this tight. I regained my position twice but the third time it did not work out. I could have possibly had another opportunity if it weren’t for the yellow flag at the end of the race, but that’s part of the game. It was a really fun battle!
I hope it stays this close for the coming races. It’s exciting to watch and to drive like this. Development will be key and we have to push hard.

I had a very good launch at the start but I ran out of space on the right and Max got better traction on the inside line.
From then on, the race was quite straightforward, even though I would have expected to have been given back the position ahead of Checo (Perez), as I came out of pit lane ahead of him, while the Safety Car was still out. Having to wait for the restart to get back to third meant I could not try and fight for second place..
P3 is a good result and overall, this has been a fairly positive weekend, definitely better than one week ago in Bahrain. I feel we are going in the right direction with this car and I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before we are fighting a bit further up the order. We have a clearer picture of where and what we need to improve and we have a direction to follow. I can’t wait to go to Australia after two years without racing there.

I think sometimes when you don’t have the right luck you cannot win the race, especially on crazy tracks like this, it knocks you down. I think I dominated the first stint and I was comfortably in the lead and had the race under control but unfortunately that wasn’t enough. At first, it was a virtual safety car so I was going to lose a position and then under the safety car I lost out to Carlos too. It was the worst timing straight after my pit stop and made regaining P1 impossible after that. It was a bit of a shame I couldn’t get Carlos at the end to be on the podium but I didn’t get the chance. There are definitely a lot of positives to take from this weekend, yesterday putting it on pole and today having the race pace. So, we will keep pushing and working hard because today I really deserved the win but bad timing stopped that. I am really pleased for Max and the Team that we got a good result today, it could have been a one, two but unfortunately, we didn’t get it.

Es war ein starkes Rennen, was die Maximierung unseres Punktepotenzials angeht. Das Auto fühlte sich gut an, aber es fehlt uns einfach an Abtrieb, weil wir das Auto nicht tief genug abstimmen können. Wir haben den Wagen in ein gutes Arbeitsfenster gebracht, und ich habe so hart wie möglich gepusht. Es war wahrscheinlich das körperlich härteste Rennen, das ich bislang in der Formel 1 gefahren bin, 50 Runden am Limit auf einem schnellen Straßenkurs – jetzt wünsche ich mir das im Kampf um den Sieg. Jeder arbeitet so hart wie möglich, um die Lücke zu Red Bull und Ferrari zu schließen. Alle Teammitglieder in Brackley und Brixworth wollen mehr, und wir werden weiter Druck machen, bis wir diese Lücke geschlossen haben. Der erste Teil der Saison ist nicht so vollgepackt mit Rennen, der Kalender ist nicht zu dicht, also haben wir etwas Zeit, um Lösungen zu finden. Wir sind nicht hier, damit wir um Platz fünf kämpfen. Aber man muss das Positive sehen: Das Rennen war angenehm zu fahren und diese Strecke gehört wahrscheinlich zu den fünf besten des Jahres, sie ist unglaublich schnell und bietet fantastischen Grip.

It’s some good points scored again for us and I’m happy overall with my race. The fight with Fernando was enjoyable. It was hard, fair, wheel to wheel racing, which reminded me of the karting days. With these cars, you can really race and follow, which is good for the sport. It’s a shame we couldn’t put both cars into the points but we’re showing that we’re competitive and we must continue that. It was an exciting end to the race as well just beating Lando [Norris] to the line. It felt a bit like redemption for last year!

I think we can be satisfied with P7 and some decent points, that was the aim for today. We would have loved to have got P6, and maybe it was possible, but we’re still happy with P7. It’s a real shame about Daniel because we could have had two cars in the points today, which would have been a very satisfying day. It’s good to see that there was a bit more pace in the car today, and we can make progress. But we’re still not where we want to be, so we’ll keep pushing

I’m really happy with how today went and glad I’m coming away with points. We got really unlucky with the safety car, as we boxed around 30 seconds before it came out and so dropped down the field, which wasn’t ideal. We managed to make our way back up though to P8, so really pleased with that. From my side the last 15 laps were really difficult, I had some pain in my intestine and it was really difficult to race. I’m feeling good in the car though, I’m able to push the way I want to, but I think we need to just find some more downforce. We know the areas we need to improve so we just need to go away and find the solutions now.

The worst thing that could happen to us did happen as we started on the opposite strategy, on the hard tire. Almost everyone else was on mediums and the worst thing that could happen was a safety car on lap 16 or 17, and it happened on lap 16. To still get two points is very good and the car was phenomenal again, it’s such a joy to drive. We did get a little bit of luck back at the end with the VSC but had that been a safety car rather than a VSC, everyone would’ve been condensed and with new tires we would’ve scored big points again. The team has done a fantastic job and we bounced back from a difficult situation on Friday, so I’m happy.

Was die Balance angeht, fühlte sich das Auto gut an, aber es war einfach nicht schnell genug. Das Endergebnis ist nicht großartig, aber das Rennen verlief relativ gut. Zu Beginn hatte ich mit den Reifentemperaturen zu kämpfen, aber dann begann ich, auf die Autos mit den Medium-Reifen aufzuholen, es war ein wirklich guter Stint. Ich konnte mit George mithalten und fuhr ordentliche Rundenzeiten, wenn man bedenkt, wie alt die harten Reifen am Ende waren. Wir hatten Pech damit, wie sich die Situation mit dem VSC gegen Rennende entwickelte, aber ich habe alles gegeben. Der gestrige Tag hat das Wochenende so viel schwieriger gestaltet, und das nehme ich auf meine Kappe. Es ist ärgerlich, aber wir müssen weiter kämpfen, mehr können wir nicht machen. Ich weiß, dass ich ein großartiges Team habe, und wir werden den Kopf nicht hängen lassen.

I want to think this was a good experience in terms of getting more confidence with street circuits in Formula One. It was useful, but overall the race was definitely far from ideal: we had the anti-stall kicking in at turn one, even though I had a much better start than in Bahrain, so we will need to understand what happened. I had made a good recovery from P18 and we were looking strong to bring home some points again, but the drive-through put us far at the back and that was it. Let’s hope for a smoother race in Australia, the car feels good so we can be competitive again.

It was a demanding race, but I am happy with my performance considering my limited experience with the car. We put together a clean race, but unfortunately the events and opportunities did not really go our way. For example, the first Safety Car period was unhelpful because we were running a longer first stint on the Hard tyre – so that compromised our race. We gave it everything out there, but points were out of reach. I am happy to have helped the team by standing in again and I will remain on standby should I be needed again.

We did our best to try to hold on for a points finish after the late Virtual Safety Car period, but unfortunately two cars behind us were on a faster and fresher tyre compound, so there was not much we could do. It was a shame that we ended the final laps with some damage after a collision with Alex [Albon]. I felt I had left him space when he made his dive, but I have not watched the replays yet. There is still a long season ahead of us, so we will keep working hard to find more performance in the car for the coming races.

We were trying to fight our way into the points at the end and I went for the move with Lance. He made a strong defence and unfortunately, we made contact. We had to retire due to the puncture, but the points were almost there, and we had to go for it. We were lacking downforce and the balance with the car can be tricky but when it’s in the window it’s actually a decent car. At the end of the race we were pretty quick, it’s just about trying to make the car more consistent and predictable.

The end result was obviously not what I wanted, but this weekend was more promising and we performed better on this track. We’re still not where we want to be, but this was a small step in the right direction. Without the issue that ended my race we could’ve had both cars finishing in the points. It's positive to see Lando get some points for the team after a decent battle. We’ve still got a lot to improve but we’re in a better place than Bahrain. So, we’ll take that, keep working, and build from here.

We don’t know what happened yet but we’ll investigate the issue tonight. We did lose a chunk of points today, but it’s good to see the car performing well tonight and all weekend. I think we deserved sixth place today and we were having a good race, so it’s bad luck we couldn’t get to the end. The battle with Esteban on track was fair, we always respect one another out there. We had some close fights in Bahrain too and always try to do the best for the team. I was a little bit faster during the race and so I made the overtake and I had to watch out for Bottas as well. We could have scored double points tonight, but we are still fourth in the championship and we go again in Australia.

I’m feeling good – to be able to stand here, not even being sore, just shows the safety and security of these cars. I feel fit but car preservation is important if we want to be racing in Melbourne, but we have the pace and that’s all that matters. The goal is still Q3 and points, so we will just have to delay that until Australia now.

Unfortunately, I lost the rear going down to the final corner and that ended my race. I took the same line as I have across the weekend, so it was unexpected but obviously both disappointing and frustrating.”

It’s a pity to retire from what had been a really good race until that moment, especially as we were looking good for P6 at least. The engine temperatures kept rising, we need to investigate what caused that, but we had to pull the car out as we didn’t want to lose the engine. It’s how racing goes, we now need to make sure we solve whatever issue it was and move on. Looking at the positives, the car is really good. We made another step forward from the previous race, even in the starts. We were doing a good job and enjoying some close battles: now let’s make sure we get back to scoring in Australia.

It’s been a really frustrating weekend for me with reliability issues. Firstly, we missed Qualifying and then today I believe we had a driveline issue on the way to the grid. I think the track was suiting our car quite well, compared to Bahrain, so I think the pace today could’ve been quite good for us, especially if you see how Pierre has performed, getting through to Q3 and then his performance in the race. It’s such a shame, I think it’s going to be very tight in the midfield battle, so getting points at every round counts and we’ve missed out today. These things happen though and hopefully we’ll come back strong in Australia.