Fahrerstimmen – Tag 3

It was tough to hear the news ahead of qualifying, the result today doesn’t really matter. What does matter is reflecting on Dietrich and what he did for us as a Team, the whole of Formula One and the wider Red Bull family. Dietrich was always super kind and caring to me. I will forever remember the last visit I had with him a month ago or so, at the time it was very special but it’s defintiely more special now. He believed in me from such a young age and many other younger drivers and gave incredible opportunities to so many people. Without him I would not be sitting here today. So, it’s an incredibly tough day.

Ich bin niedergeschmettert. Es war ein tolles Gefühl, in Führung zu liegen, aber das Auto war heute schwierig. Wir sind mit Upgrades hierhergekommen und haben die Lücke ein wenig geschlossen. Es war so knapp, und ich habe alles versucht, um vorne zu bleiben, aber Red Bull war einfach ein bisschen zu schnell. Wir haben in diesem Jahr als Team sehr hart gearbeitet, und es gibt viel Positives, das wir aus diesem Rennen mitnehmen können – unsere Boxenstopps und die Strategie waren großartig. Ich bin auch mit meiner Leistung zufrieden, die bestätigt hat, dass ich ein konkurrenzfähiges Auto nach Hause bringen kann, wenn wir es haben. Wir werden also weiter pushen und versuchen, in den nächsten drei Rennen unser Bestes zu geben - irgendwann wird es uns gelingen.

It was a fun race and I really enjoyed the battles with Max (Verstappen) and Checo (Perez) on track today.
I had a solid start and after that, the first few laps were all about practicing patience. Things looked quite good and we even got lucky with the timing of the Safety Car, but unfortunately we had a little too much tyre degradation for the rest of the race and couldn’t fight for higher positions.
It was great to be back in the US and see how much popularity our sport has gained here over the past years.

This is a sad day for the whole Red Bull family, it makes you realise there are much more important things in life. Dietrich’s influence on sport and the way he supported athletes globally truly made a difference to the world. He gave me an opportunity that no one else ever gave me and I will always be grateful to him. It was a very sad moment when we heard the news because we know we are about to become champions and he won’t be here to see us do it. The whole Team are going to be racing for him and his family tomorrow and I really hope we can bring the result he would want from us. We couldn’t find the maximum today with just three sets of tyres but it was a weekend where we knew we had the penalty so we have put the focus on tomorrow and the race, hopefully that pays off. It will be tricky to get up there on this track but we will be trying our best because it would really mean a lot this weekend.

Es war ein schwieriger Nachmittag für mich. Es war sehr unglücklich, wie sich die Dinge am Start entwickelt haben, denn ich möchte nicht in einer Position sein, in der ich dazu beitrage, dass ein anderer Fahrer aufgeben muss. So weit wie heute lagen wir wahrscheinlich noch nie in dieser Saison vor dem Mittelfeld und gleichzeitig waren wir so nah an der Spitze dran wie seit langem nicht mehr. So gesehen war es also ein guter Schritt nach vorn an diesem Wochenende. Das Team in der Fabrik macht einen großartigen Job, indem es das Auto weiter verbessert und versucht, es etwas leichter zu machen und zu verstehen, woran wir für das nächste Jahr arbeiten müssen. Darauf liegt aktuell unser Hauptfokus. Natürlich möchte ich wieder auf das Podium fahren, denn das letzte Mal ist gefühlt eine Ewigkeit her. Wir hatten eine so gute Formkurve, aber die letzten paar Rennen liefen nicht gut, was meine persönliche Leistung angeht. Es ist immer noch unser Ziel, ernsthaft um Siege zu kämpfen. Selbst wenn wir kein Rennen gewinnen, wollen wir in einer Position sein, in der wir die Chance haben, um den Sieg zu fahren.

A good race! Races like these are more enjoyable compared to just being on your own, even though it’s a lot tougher. It was very enjoyable, especially the race with Fernando. I had a tricky start, getting caught behind an incident ahead. We also picked up damage halfway through the race, so I'm very happy to have finished P6 today. We came away with the best result possible and picked up some decent points.

It was a fantastic race for everybody today. We were lucky with the first Safety Car and we were very fast after that on the Medium tyres. At the restart I tried to overtake Lance [Stroll], he move towards me and we touched wheels. I thought that I would retire the car after the incident, and it was pretty scary. But the car is made of strong stuff and we were able to carry on after changing the front wing. I’m very proud of our efforts today as a team. It’s incredible that we were able to make the tyres last on the final stint and despite losing out to Lando [Norris] on the last few laps, we still come away from this race with some good points.

In the end it was a good recovery drive to score four points today. I really enjoyed the last few laps, especially the final-lap fight with Kevin [Magnussen]. When I crossed the finish line, the adrenaline was really pumping. Without the slow stop, I think we had sixth place easily in the bag so we should focus on the positives of our competitive car pace today. We were strong all race; the start was great and I was up in fifth place early on. It was also nice to lead the race for a while because it has been a while since I was in that position.

I’m super happy. For us as a team, it’s very important to get these points at our home race in the US – and it’s very big on the weekend that we announce a great title sponsor with MoneyGram – it couldn’t come at a better time. Of course, I’m gutted to lose a position to Sebastian. I have to say it was some driving from him, that’s when you realize why he’s a four-time World Champion. The strategy that we pulled off was purely by guidance with the team. As such a small team to put on a fight like this, it’s great.

It was a really hard, but fun, race today and I’m happy to be back in the Top 10 again after a long gap. I’m glad that I could finish in the points this weekend and to honour the memory of Mr Mateschitz. The pace on the Mediums was really good, which we didn’t quite expect, and I was able to get some good overtakes in. We struggled a bit more on the Hards, which was a shame, so we need to go away and understand why this compound doesn’t work that well for us. Overall though, I’m pleased to be scoring points again and hope we can carry this on until the end of the season.

We were very close to finishing in the points after starting from the Pit Lane. We can be pleased to recover from the back to eleventh place with the car showing good pace. I think more was possible – some points would have been fantastic – so we’ll review what we could have done to achieve that next time. We’ll debrief, learn, and move forward to come back stronger as a team. Mexico is next weekend, so that’s a chance for us to go again and score points.. The battle for fourth place is close, and every top ten finish will be valuable for us. Congratulations also to Red Bull Racing for their very much deserved Constructors’ title.

We really fought today and gave it everything we had. I had a tricky start with a flat spot into Turn 1, nursing the fronts for the first 10 laps with huge vibrations, so we had to pit early but then we were offset. It was a shame, but I don’t think we had the pace for points today, but we were very close.
It was tricky out there and we tried our best and were aggressive on strategy but with the tyre degradation, I was hoping to try repeat something like in Spa and hold them off but the tyres took another step of degradation and once this happened, I tried to fight but just couldn’t hold them off anymore. Points might have been too much to ask for but we gave ourselves a good opportunity.

We knew today was always going to be difficult, starting from the back: we tried to make something happen, but, towards the end, holding off drivers who were mounting newer tyres compared to ours became almost impossible. We tried to stay out hoping for something to happen that would favour us, but eventually it didn’t quite work out. Overall, it’s been quite a tricky day for the team, but at least we go again next week in Mexico: as a positive, we showed good performances on track. For sure the upgrades we brought here helped a lot, we’ve been so much stronger especially in one-lap pace, and we saw both cars had the pace to get into Q3.

I was happy with the car in the race, the pace was strong from the start, and I had a lot of fun driving out there today. It is a shame we had the penalties but for sure I wasn’t trying to be smart or gain any advantage. There are referees that decide, It is unfortunate, but there are still plenty of positives to take from today. I was involved in many awesome battles and overtakes, which showed the car can be competitive, with points being possible. I am looking forward to the next few races, to see what we can do.

I think we were on for good points today for sure, but it seems like we picked up a big piece which damaged the car quite a lot and then we couldn’t extract the maximum out of it anymore because of that damage. We got it in the second stint and the car didn’t feel the same anymore, and I couldn’t keep the pace of before which was very promising. It’s a shame as it feels like bad luck follows us.

I hoped today was going to be better. I really thought after yesterday we had a bit more to show but it was really tough today. I could tell from early on in the race that it was going to be tricky. We unfortunately just didn’t have the grip. I couldn’t really push the car like I could see the others around me doing, so it was just a struggle. We’ll keep our chin up and try to find a way. Obviously, days like this are pretty painful to try to deal with and understand as we put a lot of effort in but didn’t get rewarded. We’ll keep going.

I made a mistake at the beginning of the race with the spin getting caught out with the balance in the high-speed corners. I didn’t manage to do any high fuel race running beforehand so I was exploring as I was going along. We got back into the race with the Safety Car but in the end, I was fighting cars that were much quicker behind me to hold them off which was detrimental to my race but beneficial to help the team. The penalty I received was justified and I have no issues with it. It wasn’t intentional as I tried to brake as late as I could, but I committed to my braking point, locked up and couldn’t get the car to turn.

Not much to say today. I got hit by the Mercedes going into turn 1 while battling with Max (Verstappen), I managed to come back to the pits but the car was too badly damaged to continue.
I feel the pace would have been there and it would have been an interesting race, but I prefer to look ahead and start focusing on Mexico. It’s not easy to catch a break this season, but we’ll keep going at it until the end.

We had a good start to the race; everything was feeling great with the car and we were sitting in third for a little while. Unfortunately, we had contact with Fernando [Alonso] which was a shame. There was a big difference in speed and I was defending. I gave him plenty of room on the left of the track, so it was not as if I squeezed him against the wall. He could have moved earlier or moved more to the left. Thankfully, it was not a big impact with the wall, I did not hit anything hard, and I am OK after the contact.

We were looking really strong for points, so it’s disappointing to finish my race early. At the start, I was going into Turn Nine on the opening lap and saw Perez diving in at the very end: it was very close, and I had to go wide losing momentum and a couple of places, but luckily we just touched. I passed Albon, settled into a rhythm, but when I was trying to close the gap to Gasly to get into DRS rangeI made a mistake in Turn 19 and lost the rear end. I later found out that, at the same time, there was quite a big gust of wind, so a combination of that and pushing too hard put an end to my race. It was very unfortunate, as our pace was promising, and a points finish could’ve definitely been possible today. I’m looking forward to turning the tide next week in Mexico and bringing home some points.