Fahrerstimmen – Tag 3

I am so happy to get this victory for me and my Team, it means a lot to me. I haven’t been on the podium the last couple of races but I was always working under the radar and making big noises behind the scenes, so I am super proud of the performance today. Mentally it was tough and you had to stay alert for the whole race. It was super tricky in the conditions out there today and people underestimate how difficult it is to drive in those, going through the final sector was so hard. There was a bit of miscommunication with the safety car I think, he was going really fast in places where I couldn’t keep up with him and then slowing where I could go fast. We were driving on slicks in the wet trying to keep the temperature and that is difficult. When they told me I was under investigation I just pushed like qualifying for 15 laps to get as big a gap as possible to Charles.

Our pace was really good today so it’s a shame to finish second. We had some wheel spin at the start and didn’t get away as well as Checo (Perez). That put us on the back foot. I pushed to put pressure on Checo but my front tyres got a bit too warm and he started pulling away.
As I’ve already said, I want to use these last races to improve our execution of races and I think that we made a step in the right direction today.

It was quite a strange race for me to be honest. I had a good start and managed to get Lewis, but for some reason I struggled with pace in the first stint with the Intermediates and only towards the end of race did I manage to recover it. But by then it was already too late. We need to look into it because I’ve been quick all weekend and today I lost all feeling with the car.
On a positive note, we managed to do a race without mistakes in these tricky conditions, which was not easy today, bringing home a solid result with both cars on the podium. We’ll go at it again in Japan next week.

It feels so good to pick up sixth place tonight, which is my best result of the season. It was also a good day for Seb, so we have come away with a big bunch of points. That is great for everybody in the team who is working so hard. It was a tricky race: the track surface was very slippery for the whole race, and it was not easy to stay out of trouble. It took a very long time to dry, just as it did yesterday. It was just a case of waiting for the areas with the new asphalt to dry out before the switch to slicks, which we timed really well. We have moved up in the teams’ championship, which is important and a nice boost as we enter the final part of the season.

First of all, well done to Checo today, he put in a great performance. From my side it was a frustrating weekend. The race didn’t start off well, I had an anti-stall so I lost a lot of positions at the start. From there onwards, I got myself back into a reasonable position after switching to slicks, but when I wanted to go for the move on Lando I braked and I hit a big bump and bottomed out and locked up. I boxed for new tyres as I had a massive flat spot so I had to start all over again from the back. It’s tough to pass people on this track, especially when we’ve all got our tyres up to temperature, so I was stuck for a while. It was good to get a few points but that’s not what we are here for, time to focus on to Japan.

I think we can be happy with a strong result for the team and scoring important points. It was not easy with some very difficult track conditions. The asphalt took a long time to dry and timing the switch to dry tyres was critical. Maybe we went a lap too early, but overall I am happy with the result. I had a very strong start to the race and the first lap was great fun. I was not very patient and I pushed really hard, and gained a few places. After that, I concentrated on looking after my Intermediate tyres because we knew that the track would take a long time to dry and they needed to last. I had a big battle with Lewis [Hamilton] and Max [Verstappen] in the closing laps. I was defending for many laps and it was a shame that Max got ahead of us on the final lap.

Wir sind ordentlich ins Wochenende gestartet, aber am Ende war es einfach unglücklich, denn egal wie sehr ich mich anstrengte, es war einfach nicht möglich, zu überholen. Heute ging es darum, wer zuerst auf die Slicks wechseln kann, und es wäre ein Kopf-an-Kopf-Rennen mit Carlos geworden, worauf ich hingearbeitet habe. Diese Möglichkeit war jedoch dahin, nachdem ich mich in Kurve 7 verbremst hatte. In so einem Moment rutscht dir das Herz ein wenig in die Hose, aber man steht wieder auf und versucht es. Ich möchte mich beim Team entschuldigen, es ist schade, dass wir heute nicht mehr Punkte geholt haben. Aber wir machen weiter, lernen daraus und werden uns davon erholen. Wir haben viel von diesem Wochenende zu verarbeiten und ich freue mich auf Suzuka.

I’m very disappointed today, that’s not the result we should’ve had. We were having an excellent race, behind Lando and ahead of the two Aston Martins, but we took a massive risk boxing early and lost some positions. I don’t fully understand why we made this decision, so we’ll need to review everything and learn from this mistake. For sure we left a lot of points on the table today, so it hurts quite a bit, particularly in our Championship battle fight as there was a big opportunity there today to move forward and we didn’t grab it.

Considering where we started today, we probably got as much as we could. Of course, it’s always frustrating when you finish just one position away from the points, but at least we avoided any mistakes and kept it on track. Towards the end, the soft tyres were starting to drop and I couldn’t close in on Gasly, but I think it was a good call to try going with them in the second stint today: I don’t think any other compound would have given us a better result. We can still take a few positives from the weekend: we showed good pace on Friday, and we have some upgrades coming to Japan; our car has proved to be working a bit better in dry conditions, so let’s hope for favourable weather in Suzuka to kick back right away.

I had very slight damage but it was nothing. I got the black and orange flag which to me seems unnecessary as the part wasn’t about to fall off, there were no safety concerns as it has tethers to the car – it wasn’t even moving. We finished P12 when we had an extra pit stop that I didn’t need, so it’s frustrating. It was a positive Saturday yesterday, and we’ve seen the car has some pace, so that’s at least encouraging. Hopefully we can keep it up moving forward.

The contact with George (Russell) and consequently getting a puncture probably ruined our race. To finish P13 I think we can say in one way that we’re happy that we finished, as not a lot of people did. Being the only rookie coming to the race to finish also is an achievement, so we can tick that box. We had the pace, we had the pace for points and unfortunately we just got unlucky. Nonetheless, we’re going to Suzuka with a good feeling.

Wir sind ordentlich ins Wochenende gestartet, aber am Ende war es einfach unglücklich, denn egal wie sehr ich mich anstrengte, es war einfach nicht möglich, zu überholen. Heute ging es darum, wer zuerst auf die Slicks wechseln kann, und es wäre ein Kopf-an-Kopf-Rennen mit Carlos geworden, worauf ich hingearbeitet habe. Diese Möglichkeit war jedoch dahin, nachdem ich mich in Kurve 7 verbremst hatte. In so einem Moment rutscht dir das Herz ein wenig in die Hose, aber man steht wieder auf und versucht es. Ich möchte mich beim Team entschuldigen, es ist schade, dass wir heute nicht mehr Punkte geholt haben. Aber wir machen weiter, lernen daraus und werden uns davon erholen. Wir haben viel von diesem Wochenende zu verarbeiten und ich freue mich auf Suzuka.

It’s a bit frustrating and was difficult out there tonight. It’s confusing with nothing different from the previous lap, however, I just locked up on the front left with the wet making it difficult to predict the brakes. Whilst there wasn’t an issue and ultimately it comes down to driver error, the brakes are very tricky in the wet and it’s hard to get them in the right window. We knew coming into Singapore we likely wouldn’t be fighting for points, so whilst it’s difficult, we can look to Japan and come back fighting.

It’s been a frustrating day for the team. On my side, a power unit issue ended our race early and I know the team is currently investigating the exact cause of the failure. It is, of course, very disappointing to leave Singapore with a double retirement but the positive we can take away is that our car has been performing well all weekend and we know we have good pace. We race again next week in Suzuka, my favourite track on the calendar, so right now we will dust ourselves down and come back stronger in Japan.

It’s a pity to retire early from today’s race and it means we’ve missed out on some decent points in the championship. I think we can look at the positives and we can be very proud of our performance this weekend again. We were fighting for the top five and six positions on Saturday and similar in today’s race. It was a very tricky race in difficult conditions, and it was hard to see the dry line appearing on the track. We have another race coming next weekend, so at least we can shift focus immediately to Japan and getting back into the points there.

It’s disappointing to finish a race with such a crash, there was not much I could do. I was side-by-side with Latifi in turn four, and he decided to fully close the space and put me into the wall. The damage to the suspension was terminal, he got a penalty for this incident but it’s not going to change much for me. It was not what we wanted, and it’s especially annoying as I think we had a decent pace. We just move on from today and shift our focus to Suzuka: it’s a new chance for us to do well and I am looking forward to racing on that track.

From the previous corner I had looked in the mirrors to see where Zhou Guanyu was. I didn’t see he was there, so I took my normal approach for the racing line on the following corner. I don’t know if he was in a blind spot of the car where the mirror can’t pick up. Unfortunately, he was there and in hindsight, I needed to leave more room, but I can only go off what I can see in the mirrors. The aim was to see the chequered flag and learn from the experience with it being my first race here, however, the incident caused suspension damage which forced us to retire the car.

The conditions were really tricky out there today, it was difficult judging the move from Inters to slicks but we went early, which meant it was super hard to drive, but we were starting to gain time, so things were looking positive. Unfortunately, I made a mistake, I completely misjudged the braking point, carrying too much speed into the corner, and went into the wall, so I’m frustrated with myself. I need to go away and reflect on this weekend and then prepare for my home race next week, where I’m looking forward to driving an F1 car around Suzuka for the first time.