Fahrerstimmen – Tag 3

The weekend went pretty smoothly for me, and we can be happy with that. Overall the Ferraris were very quick and strong in the race. It was really exciting at the end; the last two laps were a lot of fun, I was flat out racing and I was giving it everything I had. The safety car towards the end of the race of course didn’t help, Carlos had fresher tyres so that made it difficult, I would have preferred to attack than defend, but luckily it worked out. Also, this year we seem to be quick on the straights so that helps a lot. The next race is Silverstone, I’m looking forward to going back to the more traditional tracks. We have to keep focused as a Team and find improvements wherever we can.

That was a solid race and an intense battle with Max (Verstappen) to the line. The pace was very good during the entire race, but unfortunately we lost the lead after the last Safety Car. From there, I gave it my all to pass the Red Bull, but to overtake here you need a bit more than two or three extra tenths.
Even though I’m disappointed at not getting the win, there are many positives to take from Canada. We were the fastest on track today and I felt much better in the car, being able to push constantly throughout the race. Now we need to build momentum and carry this feeling onto the next race. Next stop, Silverstone.

Es ist ehrlich gesagt überwältigend, diesen dritten Platz zu erreichen. Es war dieses Jahr bisher ein harter Kampf mit dem Auto für unser Team, aber wir bleiben wachsam, fokussiert und geben niemals auf. Darauf bin ich sehr stolz, und meine Crew inspiriert mich nach wie vor. Vielen Dank an alle hier in Montreal und in der Fabrik. Die Jungs an der Spitze sind im Moment ein bisschen zu schnell für uns, ich habe alles gegeben, aber wir kommen ihnen immer näher. Wir müssen einfach weiter pushen und immer weiter pushen und dann können wir hoffentlich irgendwann mit diesen Jungs mithalten. Dank des Safety Cars konnte ich sie am Ende gerade noch sehen! Ehrlich gesagt war unsere Pace ziemlich gut, vor allem in der zweiten Phase des Stints. Wir haben viel Arbeit geleistet, sowohl im Simulator als auch hier, um die richtige Abstimmung zu finden. Ehrlich gesagt, bin ich begeistert. Wie gesagt, das habe ich vor dem Wochenende so nicht erwartet. Das ist mein zweiter Podestplatz in diesem Jahr, und es war wirklich etwas Besonderes. Vor allem, weil ich hier meinen ersten Grand-Prix-Sieg errungen habe! Ich liebe Montreal, also ein großes Dankeschön an alle Kanadier!

Ich hatte volles Vertrauen, dass wir in der Lage sein würden, einen Weg an den beiden Haas und den beiden Alpine vorbei zu finden. Wir waren durchaus besorgt, dass Leclerc und Checo vorbeikommen könnten, und wir hatten das Glück, sie hinter uns zu halten. Letztendlich war unsere Rennpace näher an Ferrari und Red Bull dran als in der gesamten bisherigen Saison, aber wir hatten PerformanceProbleme und sie nicht. Im Nachhinein ist alles einfacher, und ich wäre wahrscheinlich lieber beim ersten VSC an die Box gekommen, aber ich glaube nicht, dass es etwas an meinem Endergebnis geändert hätte. Die Pace war im ersten Stint sehr stark, im zweiten Stint war sie stark, und im letzten Stint nach dem Restart, ich weiß nicht warum, aber da konnte ich meine Reifen einfach nicht zum Arbeiten bringen. Es war also ein bisschen schade, dass ich dadurch etwas zurückgefallen bin und nicht im Kampf vor mir dabei war. Trotzdem nehmen wir Platz vier und eine gute Punkteausbeute für das Team mit, und es ist toll für Mercedes, dass das Team wieder auf dem Podium gestanden hat.

I gave it my all. It never feels good to finish in P5, but considering where we started and the way that the race unfolded, it was the best result we could bring home today.
The first part of the race was quite frustrating, as we were stuck behind a DRS train, so it was all about practicing patience. After our pit stop, we came back out behind another DRS train and started fighting our way back up. This part was much more fun, because I had to be quite aggressive to make it work. It was just one of those races where you had to maximize the points and that’s exactly what we did today.
I’m looking forward to Silverstone now. It’s one of my favourite circuits on the calendar and hopefully we can score some big points there.

I’m very happy with the result today to score eight points. The team did a great job with the car and the strategy and it was all well managed overall. We leave Canada with some good points for the team and a big step up in the Constructors’ Championship. I’m glad I was able to help Fernando at the end there with DRS to keep Valtteri [Bottas] behind. There is still a lot to discuss and learn with regards to how the weekend unfolded, but the important thing is to keep this momentum going and keep delivering good performances in the next races.

Ich bin sehr glücklich, dass ich es in Q3 geschafft habe, vor allem, weil es das erste Mal war, dass ich ein komplett nasses Qualifying gefahren bin, nach Imola und FP3 heute erst das dritte Mal bei Regen. Von dem Moment an, als ich heute Morgen aufwachte und die Bedingungen sah, wusste ich, dass alles passieren kann. Wir waren in der Vergangenheit schon oft nahe an Q3 dran, aber ich hatte nicht erwartet, es hier in Montreal zu erreichen, das eine völlig neue Strecke für mich ist. Nichtsdestotrotz haben wir im bisherigen Saisonverlauf eine gute Pace gezeigt und gute Fortschritte gemacht, und das ist das Ergebnis. Es hat mir Spaß gemacht, unter diesen Bedingungen zu fahren, und das mit dem zusätzlichen Druck für uns Fahrer, denn jeder kleine Fehler kann sich auf unsere Leistung auswirken. Es war heute wirklich schwierig da draußen, die Strecke war rutschig und es war fast unmöglich, die anderen Fahrer vor uns zu sehen. Ich bin froh, dass ich alles geben konnte. Meine Runden in Q3 waren etwas chaotisch, aber ich bin froh, dass ich das volle Potenzial des Autos ausschöpfen konnte. Was die Renn-pace angeht, waren wir in der Vergangenheit bei trockenen Bedingungen immer recht stark, also werden wir morgen versuchen, unser Bestes zu geben und um eine Top-10-Platzierung zu kämpfen.

Es war ein ziemlich gutes Wochenende für mich und für das Team, und ich bin mit P8 wirklich zufrieden, denn das ist meine beste Platzierung in der F1 bisher. Heute haben wir auf der Strecke und mit der Strategie alles richtig gemacht: Wir steckten eine Weile hinter Lance fest, aber trotzdem hatten wir im Laufe des Wochenendes einen sauberen, schnellen Fortschritt. Wir haben alles herausgeholt, was wir konnten, und das Potenzial des Autos voll ausgeschöpft. Nach einer Reihe frustrierender Rennen ist ein Platz in den Top 10 eine schöne Belohnung. Ich habe nicht viel Erfahrung auf dieser Strecke, aber wir haben den Job gestern unter schwierigen Bedingungen erledigt, und heute hatten wir eine starke Pace: Ich wusste, dass wir in der Lage sein würden, um Punkte zu kämpfen, und das haben wir auch getan. Ich freue mich sehr für alle hier und im Werk. Wir haben dieses Ergebnis für die Arbeit und die Fortschritte der letzten Wochen wirklich verdient. Ich freue mich sehr darauf, in den nächsten Rennen so weiterzumachen.

I think this weekend we deserved better than ninth position, but it’s still good for both cars to score points in the end. We ultimately lost a big opportunity to fight for a potential podium as I felt like I had the pace to do so. We were hit with a badly timed VSC just before our first stop. I was on the main straight when it was deployed, and then missed a pit-stop opportunity before it ended. We then had an engine problem from lap 20, which we were trying to manage. We didn’t retire the car and used the DRS to defend, as we were losing a lot of time on the straights. It’s disappointing especially after yesterday’s performance, but we’ll head to Silverstone, try to get on top of our reliability issues and score more points.

We had a great strategy for this race and I am super-pleased to have been able to score a point. We did a great job deciding to go long on the first set of tyres to make a one-stop race work, managing to keep a string of cars behind me. The overtake on Daniel [Ricciardo] was a nice bonus – we were on fresher tyres so it was a pretty easy move. Things are certainly a lot more challenging this year, but I am pleased to have had a successful race today. Finally, a big thank you to all the fans for giving me such a fantastic reception all weekend – it has been incredible to race at home after such a long time away.

Unfortunately, not the best Sunday for us. We simply didn’t have the pace, and then had to manage a few other things as well. That was tough, it just put us too far out of contention. So, otherwise, we’ve got to have a look, see where we can go better, and then just clean a few things up.

It just was not our day. We made an early stop to find some clear air, but then the Virtual Safety Cars came along at the wrong time. That really compromised my race. At the end, I was on very old rubber and I tried to hang on, but it did not work out. Lance was on fresher tyres, and the team asked me to let him past to attack Daniel, which I was happy to do. The result was frustrating – we had shown good pace this weekend and could have had a better result, but sometimes things do not go your way. Today felt like one of those days. Well done to the team for all their hard work and to Lance for scoring a point today.

Going into this weekend, we knew this track was going to be difficult and despite our good qualifying, in the first 3-4 laps I could tell it was going to be a struggle. I think P13 was all we could have achieved today so at face value; I am quite happy with it. Going into the next stint of races, hopefully, we can make these upgrades and continue to improve on this.

Starting the race out of position we thought we’d go for a different strategy, so we pitted a bit earlier, but it didn’t really make much of a difference. We were struggling a lot with grip, sliding around a lot in these conditions, and we just didn’t have the pace to fight in the top 10. We will have to analyse everything, but objectively we were just too slow in the race. Likewise, we didn’t get lucky with the Virtual Safety Car, but at the end of the day it wouldn’t have changed our end result that much. We need to use the gap now to work out what we could’ve done better, so we can arrive in Silverstone as best prepared as possible.

We were unlucky today in many places, and also just didn’t have the pace to race and overtake the people we wanted to race against. It was very difficult to overtake in general and that hurt our pace. We simply couldn’t get into the positions we wanted to be in. I think the pace wasn’t too bad, still not good enough, but not too bad, just the fact we couldn't overtake, hurt us badly today. We’ve got work to do. There were mistakes from my side, mistakes from the team’s behalf and we’ll just need to step back, refresh, go again and do a much better job in the next one.

The overall experience of the weekend has been pretty special. It’s great to finally have my first home race and the support I felt from my family, friends and all the fans in the grandstands was amazing. “In terms of on track, we were lacking a lot of pace and we need to try to understand why in both high and low fuel. We have two weeks now to try and do a bit of analysis before heading to Silverstone. Regardless of the result, this weekend has been one to remember.

We were forced to pit with the damage we had but it was nothing. The car was perfect to drive, there was no effect on the car. This is normal, you’ve got to be able to finish the race with some scratches on your car. We could’ve got back in, but we were forced to pit and then there was a virtual safety car and then everyone else pitted. It’s frustrating – it’s now four races or something where we haven’t scored points, so we want to get into the points again.

We had a PU issue which is obviously very unfortunate as I think we were having a good race up until that point – the feeling of the car was great and the pace was not too bad either. We can take away that the pace yesterday and even today was strong, so it’s all to play for in Silverstone. I feel like we built the cake but we just didn’t get to put the frosting on it.

We think it was a gearbox issue and I got stuck in gear unfortunately. Things were looking good, I had a good start, I was on the hard tyre and making progress. I had finally got Daniel, in the McLaren out of the DRS zone and it should have been a race where I could have worked my way through the field, so it’s a big shame. I felt I had plenty of potential in my race to make up a lot of places and recover good points. We need to keep on top of the reliability because a zero, when you are fighting for the Championship, is very painful and costly. You go into new regulations and there is always going to be new problems to face. Today hurts a lot, it has been a weekend to forget for me, so I want to forget about today and move onto Silverstone.

I’ve already been to the garage to the apologise to all the team, I just pushed too much on pit exit and unfortunately I went into the wall. The pace was good today, and we’d made a strong recovery up until that point, even if it was hard to overtake, so I’m disappointed with that ending.