Fahrerstimmen – Tag 3

This is crazy! To win here in Japan is really special, I feel really proud that we could do it here. When I crossed the line, I didn’t know that I was World Champion, there was a lot of confusion but I thought it was quite funny. The first Championship was very emotional and this time it feels very different, it feels even more beautiful because of the season we’ve had. The teamwork has been unreal, we kept on pushing, kept on believing and kept on improving the car. As a Team we’ve made very few mistakes, you can’t be perfect but for most of the races we were close to it. Working together with Honda has been incredible and of course a lot of my thanks goes out to the Team here at track, back at the factory and everyone that’s been contributing with the Red Bull Powertrains division. Everyone has been working flat out and has a huge amount of motivation. Checo has been an incredible teammate and now the full focus is on the Constructors Championship. Let’s see what we can do in Austin.

I am very proud of what Max has done this season; he has stepped up as a driver. I was fighting with him in the beginning but then halfway through the year he moved into another gear, the way he drove in some races was unbelievable. It is a massive day for the Team, to do this in Japan in front on Honda and with a one-two is incredible. Hopefully soon we are able to secure the Constructors Championship for our Team, that will be massive. I am massively looking forward to the rest of the year. It was a great battle with Charles today, it was nice that we got to race because at one point we though we wouldn’t get to. It was a fantastic fight and we were pushing him hard towards the end, it was so difficult to overtake without DRS but I kept the pressure on, he made the mistake and he got the penalty to give me P2.

I gave it my all, but it was a difficult race for us today. We were strong in warming up the tyres in the first few laps, but then it all faded away. Especially at the end, I struggled with front tyre degradation and it was really difficult to keep Checo (Perez) behind me.
I congratulate Max (Verstappen) and Red Bull for an incredible season, they’ve done an excellent job and deserve the title.
We will use the last four races to work on our race execution, tyre management and becoming a stronger team all-round so that we can mount an even better challenge next year. We’ve already been making steps in the right direction in the past two races and we will keep on pushing this way until the end.

To finish fourth is a fantastic result for us, especially in these conditions. It was a difficult start with the rain and poor visibility, so we had to be fully focused to get through the early stages. I’m glad we managed to race and reward the fans who have been so good in their support all weekend. Racing Lewis [Hamilton] is always a pleasure and I was having to drive while looking in my mirrors the whole time. Congratulations to Max for winning the world championship. He deserves it after dominating and driving brilliantly at every race. We leave Japan with a great haul of points, claiming back fourth in the Constructors’ Championship.

Nachdem das Rennen endlich richtig begonnen hatte, hatte ich einen Riesenspaß da draußen. Die Bedingungen waren sehr hart, es war schwer zu sehen, und genau so sollte Motorsport sein: eine echte Herausforderung für uns alle. Ich wünschte, wir hätten länger fahren und mehr Runden für die Fans absolvieren können, die so geduldig gewartet haben, aber die Zeit lief uns davon und das Licht wurde langsam schwächer. Was mein Rennen angeht, so habe ich alles versucht, was ich gegen Esteban tun konnte, aber wie wir gestern gesehen haben, waren wir auf den Geraden einfach zu langsam. Sobald ich aus dem Windschatten herauszog, konnte er sich von mir absetzen, und ich kam einfach nicht an ihm vorbei, obwohl wir einen großen Pace-Vorteil hatten. Ich habe jede Linie ausprobiert und war so nah dran, aber er ist sehr gut gefahren und hat keine Fehler gemacht, also war das das Maximum, was wir heute erreichen konnten. Jetzt müssen wir die Lehren aus diesen beiden Rennen ziehen, damit wir in den letzten vier Rennen möglichst viele Punkte holen können. Abschließend möchte ich Max gratulieren - er hat genau den Job gemacht, den er machen musste, um seinen zweiten Titel zu gewinnen. Wir wissen, wo unsere Probleme mit diesem Auto liegen, und ich glaube, dass wir das Team haben, um in der nächsten Saison stärker zurückzukommen.

Obviously, it was a shame that we only got half a race – but at least the people in the grandstands got to see some racing. We were waiting in the dry for the restart, but I imagine it must have been rather unpleasant to sit outside in the wet for a couple of hours. I got a very good start – but then I collided with another car at the first corner. I really could not see anything – I am not sure, maybe I aquaplaned or I made a mistake – but I lost all the positions I had gained and ended up last. When the race restarted, we made a good decision to box immediately for Inters. It was a great stop, then I pushed like crazy and managed to undercut most of the field. It has been a dream weekend – for us to score eight points is a mega result. I feel sad to have driven my last race here, but it has been a wonderful weekend, and to all the fantastic Suzuka fans I can only say, ‘Thank you’.

It was a fun but very chaotic race today and I’m glad we managed to put on a show in the end for the fans. We scored some good points and I think we could have scored even more. It was a difficult race to manage with the wet conditions, safety cars and the red flag. There were also couple of incidents which I’m sure will be reviewed to improve for the future. Finally, congratulations to Max [Verstappen] on winning the Championship. Overall, it’s very well deserved and hopefully next year he has more competition!

Wir müssen uns ansehen, was wir heute hätten besser machen können. Ich denke, dass wir ein stärkeres Auto hatten, als es das Ergebnis widerspiegelt, und dass wir heute P6 hätten erreichen können. Ich glaube, dass mich das Anstellen in der Boxengasse beim Doppel-Stopp Positionen gekostet hat. Das hat zu einem frustrierenden Nachmittag geführt, also müssen wir uns das genau anschauen und sehen, was die anderen Optionen gewesen wären. Danach konnte ich einige gute Überholmanöver zeigen - aber wir mussten versuchen, das wieder aufzuholen, was wir verloren hatten. Es war insgesamt ein merkwürdiger Nachmittag: Die Bedingungen zu Beginn waren unmöglich, nicht was den Grip angeht, sondern die Sicht und die Menge an Gischt, die diese Generation von Autos erzeugt. Zudem müssen wir die richtigen Lehren aus dem Zwischenfall mit dem Bergungsfahrzeug auf der Strecke ziehen, während wir hinter dem Safety Car fuhren. Alles in allem waren es zwei schwierige Rennen für uns, und wir haben nicht die Punkte geholt, die wir hätten holen sollen. Jetzt müssen wir uns neu formieren, uns auf die letzten vier Rennen konzentrieren und versuchen, alles aus dem Auto herauszuholen, das wir zur Verfügung haben. Und natürlich gratuliere ich Max zum Gewinn seines zweiten WM-Titels. Der Ausgang war schon seit einiger Zeit klar, aber er und Red Bull haben in diesem Jahr einen außergewöhnlichen Job gemacht.

The beginning was quite tricky with the red flag and the delays. We made the right decision to pit straight away for the Inters which was critical in jumping the cars ahead of us. “I really struggled at the end with the front tyres but I’m extremely happy to hold on and get my first points of the season.
Overall, I’m really happy for the team and it’s a nice morale boost.

Firstly, I'm glad we got a race today. The Japanese fans have been amazing here all weekend, and they waited in the rain for ages, so I'm glad we could give them that. Of course as drivers we always want to race. The race itself was a tricky one. I lost a lot of positions in the first start which was unfortunate, but then made up for it with the pit-stop, and it was good to come away with a point. Finally, congratulations to Max on winning a second World Championship.

I’m happy we got to race today. It was looking very unlikely so, as a driver, of course, to have that opportunity and have a bit of fun, I enjoyed that, and more so for the fans, especially sitting out in this weather. The end result was just really a case of when we fit the Inters, which was tricky. It’s not like a normal situation where it’s ready and you just go. There are a few things to consider. I think the cars that went in, like Vettel certainly capitalised, so that’s where we lost out today. Otherwise, I don’t think our pace was too bad but it was also just a case of managing the tyres. We have some things to improve but ultimately, I’m just glad we made a race for the fans today.
Congratulations to Max on winning a well-earned second Drivers’ Championship.

Before we got going, I had noticed a strip of drier asphalt and decided to go for it at the start. It worked out really well – it was a really fun first lap. There was not much grip on those early laps and very little visibility; it was a tough call for Race Control, but it was clear that the race had to be stopped when Carlos [Sainz] crashed. I do not think the visibility was much better when we restarted, but it did get better towards the end. All in all, it was an eventful race, the fans were incredible with the weather, and now we look ahead to Austin and Mexico City.

t’s been a difficult afternoon. I obviously wanted to finish in the points, so it’s a real shame that I wasn’t able to make it today. I think that I did the best I could today and extracted the most from the car, but the pace just wasn’t there. The whole weekend here has been so exciting still, I’ve really enjoyed my first experience of driving an F1 car round my home track and I want to say a huge thank you to all the fans that have come out to support both myself and the team, especially in these rainy conditions today. Also, big congrats to Max for winning the World Championship – it’s great that the Japanese fans have been able to witness that here today!

There’s not a whole lot to say – it was another day with the weather being like this, which is always an opportunity so of course it’s disappointing not to get anything out of it.

The conditions were very difficult today, in particular at the beginning of the race. The first couple of laps were quite risky, mostly because visibility wasn’t great from my position, it was a bit sketchy. We seemed to have good pace, especially as the track dried out a bit, but unfortunately it was difficult to overtake today: I think most of the drivers struggled with that, which was a shame as I ended up stuck behind Magnussen for pretty much all of the race. We can still find some positives from this weekend: we were super close to getting into Q3 yesterday, so that’s good. It’s a small improvement, and we must aim for it for the final races of the season. Hopefully, we can build on that, and have a good qualifying in Austin in a few weeks, where we will also be bringing some additional upgrades on the car.

I have positives to take from the weekend, even though we didn’t score. It was nice to see that we can still be so close and have good pace; furthermore, it being my first time in Suzuka, I learned a lot over the weekend. Overall, it was a typical Sunday with weather changes and very low visibility. At the start, I suffered a spin at the hairpin, meaning I had to come back from the bottom. At the restart, there were only two ways to go: you either pitted on lap one to go on inters, or you tried to stay out hoping for more rain. I was quite far behind and there was a lot of spray coming my way from the cars in front, so I felt like the best option was to stay out on the wets. We did that, and when we saw the inters were clearly faster, I knew the gamble was lost: still, we gave it a try, and I got to gain my first-ever fastest lap for that. We can be quietly confident for the future: the upgrades we introduced this weekend are looking positive, but we still need some more time to properly understand them.

Our car is very strong, especially on inters, but unfortunately we put them on a bit too late. The fact that we were running P3 at some point, and even did our first leading meters in P1 is something positive. Points were up for grabs and we didn’t manage to get them today, but definitely the speed was there.

We wanted to try something different today, however it’s very difficult to overtake on this track and we tried our best, but at the end it didn’t really work out for us. It’s a shame as it’s a special race weekend for us and Honda, but at the same time it’s great that Max has been able to win the Championship. He has been incredible, winning consistently, and has always been performing at his best and has got everything to be World Champion, so a massive congrats to him, to Red Bull and to Honda. It’s extra special to win the title here in Suzuka, so I’m really happy for them.

I actually had a very good start and was really pleased with it but then with the visibility being so poor, I couldn’t see the car next to me; I couldn’t even see the track. I had a light touch with Kevin [Magnussen] but where we hit it touched the radiator, we lost water pressure and it was leaking, so we had to stop the car. It was extremely dangerous out there and so bad in terms of visibility, in fact, it’s the worst I’ve ever experienced in my career so far.
“We are driving over 200kph in that weather and, whatever you are seeing on external or onboard cameras, it’s a hundred times worse from the cockpit.

A tricky and disappointing Sunday. By the time the race started the call between Intermediates and Wet tyres was very close, but to be honest with either tyre the visibility would have been zero, which was the biggest limitation. I tried to get out of Perez’s spray and found myself in a big puddle, had aquaplaning and couldn’t do anything to hold the car.
At that moment my only concern was not being hit. I was in a dangerous position in the middle of the track and I knew the other drivers couldn’t see me. Luckily for everyone, nothing worse happened today. We’ll reset and go back at it in the USA. Congrats to Max Verstappen and Red Bull for the Championship title.