Fahrerstimmen – Tag 3

It was a tough one. I tried to go for it at the start, but I just ran out of grip. It put us a little bit on the back foot and I had to pass quite a few cars. You could clearly see the DRS was very powerful so, even when you took the lead, the car behind could still have an opportunity to come back at you which created quite a lot of good racing. Definitely a lot of fun.

I didn’t leave anything on the table today and the team executed the race perfectly, so I am satisfied with our performance. Unfortunately, we had just pitted 5 laps before the Safety Car and I struggled to get our used Hards back up to temperature at the restart. That’s where Max (Verstappen) and Checo (Perez) gained an advantage on fresh tyres and unfortunately, that cost us the win.
That said, it was an exciting race with really good battles and a lot of adrenaline. I’m glad that the weekend came together well and that the inaugural Grand Prix in Las Vegas was exciting for drivers and fans. I look forward to coming back next year!

It was really difficult with the damage initially on the front wing. One by one things were going well, we had really strong pace on that first stint but I couldn’t pull away from Charles as my straight line speed was a little bit down. It was quite difficult with the gusts of wind, but luckily we kept it on track. I wasn’t expecting Charles at the end. Las Vegas did deliver.

What a night in Las Vegas to be outside of the points to finishing in fourth place! I would like to say a massive congratulations to the team for this great result and amazing recovery. It was a chaotic start and we managed to keep it clean and gain eight positions on lap one. After that, we had to be patient, execute a clean race and managing the tyres was really the key. I made some good overtakes along the way and to finish fourth at this amazing venue is really a great result, especially considering how I was left feeling after Qualifying. There is one more race to go in Abu Dhabi next week and we will aim to carry this momentum into the season finale.

That was a fun race! I gained 10 positions in the first corner with a lot of other drivers going wide, moving up from P19 to P9, so it immediately felt like it was all to play for. From that point, we were on the front foot and attacking throughout the race with a quick car. We made some good strategy calls, pitting under both Safety Cars, and then I was able to pass a few cars into Turn One to secure P5. It was a great track to race at and I’m pleased we were able to put on a good show for the fans.

It's been a good weekend for the team even though it was a tough race for me. We struggled with engine temperatures because we were racing in the middle of the pack and it was difficult to make up positions quickly.
However, we nailed the strategy switching to a two-stop and the second part of the race was better, making up a few places to finish P6. It was a case of damage limitation after the penalty and scoring very important points for the Constructors’ championship. I can't wait to race in Abu Dhabi next week. The fight for second is still on and we'll do everything we can to take it!

It was a really challenging race. I started on the Hard tyre, which was tricky in the beginning. I had a big hit from Sainz into turn one and was then trying not to hit other cars ahead of me. I fell back several places. After that, I was focused on making my way back through the pack and I was feeling great. The tyres were feeling good, and the pace was strong. I went up the inside of Piastri and I am not sure exactly what happened. I felt a big hit from behind, but I think it was a racing incident. I didn’t have a puncture immediately and as I passed the pit entry, I felt the rear moving. I had to do a whole slow lap on it.

I was grateful that I was able to still come back from re-joining in last to score some points. There are strengths in our car but sometimes it’s hard to extract all the performance from it. That is what happened in Qualifying yesterday but I am pleased we were able to show our pace in the race. I am also grateful that the race was exciting. I wasn’t expecting the track to be so great but there was lots of racing and overtaking opportunities. For all those who were so negative about the weekend, I think Las Vegas proved them wrong.

Today was on me; I simply didn’t see Verstappen. He was totally in the blind spot, and we made contact; it was completely my fault. We knew they were much quicker than us and I was happy to concede the position. I knew our fight wasn’t with Verstappen and tyre management was more important. It was a real shame as we were on course for a podium. It changed the dynamic of the race too with the Safety Car. It feels like we’ve thrown another one away today and I am really disappointed right now. It is the story of our season.

There are positives we can take into Abu Dhabi. We were in the fight for second on the road today, but we will have to put in a strong showing in the final race to claim P2 in the Constructors’ Championship.

I am happy to come away from this race weekend with some points. Especially since I was facing the wrong way after the incident at Turn One at the race start. We made the most of the Safety Car and then gained some places back. Overall, I thought the racing was fun tonight and there were some great battles on track. There was quite a lot of graining and low levels of grip, but as a sport we will take a lot of learnings for racing in Las Vegas next year. We head to Abu Dhabi and will give it our all in the battle for fourth position in the Constructors’ Championship.

P10 and fastest lap, it felt like we kinda deserved a bit more from that race. The pace was good. In the end, it didn’t make too much difference. We were caught out by starting on the Hard in that kind of position when the Safety Car came out. We’ll take the positives, a lot better than yesterday and the pace in the car is still pretty good.

It’s a disappointing outcome on my side of the garage to go from fourth on the grid to outside of the points in eleventh place. There are many things for us to review as that is not what we set out to achieve today. It was a good start under tricky conditions, the first stint was fairly well managed and we were comfortably in that top four mix. As soon as we put the Hard tyre on, we just seemed to struggle, the tyres grained and the whole second stint was a challenge just to get to the end. It was a frustrating night and it’s a pity for us. That said, it’s been a very good weekend for the team with fourth place in Qualifying and then Esteban’s fourth place in the Race. We will do our analysis and come back next weekend for the season finale in Abu Dhabi ready to end the season as best as we can.

I suffered quite badly from graining today; it was difficult for us and the Safety Car didn’t help with most getting a pitstop with little consequence. It’s one of those races that we’ll need to review after as I thought we were managing quite well but after the Safety Car in the middle of the race, I was racing everyone on old tyres. I could just about manage my own race, but I had to push a bit more and it creates this cycle which is difficult to manage. There are some positives to take from this weekend, so it’s not all bad but obviously a bit frustrating to walk away without points. We’ll continue this fight for P7 to the very end.

I feel like we had the degradation and pace to score points, but we didn’t so I need to review it and see how we could’ve done better. It feels like we had good degradation for once and pace in the race, even at the end of the stints. There was lots of track evolution throughout the race, which was fine and part of the challenge. I’ve enjoyed it.

It was a long day on a very low-grip track. FP2 started later than originally scheduled, but these things happen sometimes. We had a fairly smooth session and learnt a lot of things throughout it. As it's a new track, especially a street circuit, it took more time to feel comfortable, so you always need to take a bit more margin as mistakes can be more costly. After some changes to the long run, it looks stronger, and after we refine some limitations tonight, I don't think we'll be far off the pace for qualifying tomorrow, so I’m sure if we put it all together, we can aim to make it to Q3.

The race was quite fun for me tonight, with some good battles and good moves, even though in the end we didn’t get any points. I had to take evasive action at the start, so I couldn’t really take advantage of the chaos ahead of me, and we chose to pit when the Safety Car came in. That meant having to do 30 laps on medium tyres: the strategy worked well and allowed me to make up a few places and get into a battle with Lewis [Hamilton] and Fernando [Alonso] but, with no further chances to pit, I was exposed in the final ten laps: when the tyres were over, my laptimes started dropping off and I ended up 15th. That’s how we ended there: starting where we did, however, in 17th, we didn’t have a lot of chances to score points, but at least we had some fun battling. Now, let’s focus on Abu Dhabi: it is the final race of the season, and we’re determined to have a good weekend.

Honestly, I don’t think there’s a lot we did wrong today. As a team we came around 5th & 6th after the first lap which was the goal. I felt like we managed that first stint relatively well but as expected the quicker cars started to come through towards the end of it. We went with our strategy and boxed for the Hard tyre with the plan to take us to the end. I don’t think we were in a bad position until that second Safety Car came out and it killed any chance we had. We didn’t really have any option to come in and fit a new set. Others did which put them at an advantage, but we tried to hold on until the end. As a weekend, we maximised our plan and executed well it was just a bit of bad fortune today.

I started in a very strong position but, unfortunately, my race was pretty much ruined at the first corner. After the contact with Fernando [Alonso], I got hit on the rear end, damaging my diffuser and compromising any chance to progress and recover the positions I had lost. It was a long race after that, with lack of pace and of grip as well. Obviously, it was really disappointing, especially as we were confident we could have had a good result today, and never got the chance to show our true performance. As a positive from the weekend, our one-lap pace definitely improved, which allowed us to get into Q3 yesterday. None of our direct competitors brought back points, which leaves things still open as we head to Abu Dhabi for the final race of the season: we’ll be giving it all to make it back into the top ten and try to finish the season well.

It’s a shame for the fans that FP1 wasn't restarted, but safety comes first. It took some time for FP2 to start, but in the end, we got to drive for 90 minutes and were able to collect valuable data. The track surface is quite slippery, but I enjoy the track layout itself, especially the kerbs because they’re drivable and you can be quite aggressive, which is fun. Our performance doesn’t seem great so far, but we gathered a lot of data today, so I’m sure we can make some positive steps forward. We have an idea of some limitations and have already tried ways to improve them, particularly in the long run, and it definitely feels better already. We'll work together and do our best to extract the maximum performance from our package.

Something happened and I lost power, so we’ll look into it. I thought race pace wasn’t too bad actually, I had a good start but with the accident in Turn 1 I had to go wide around the outside and lost a lot of places, so then was behind already. After that, I felt pretty comfortable in the car, and I felt we had more pace but there was always traffic and for graining protection you couldn’t push as much as you wanted, so that was limiting. All in all, I would say it was one of the better races though.

An unfortunate end to our Las Vegas GP weekend. I just bottomed out on the restart, lost the rear and hit the wall. Not the way we wanted the weekend to end, especially considering the pace looked promising on Oscar’s side. Big thanks go to the medical staff for checking me over, and to the team for the work they’ll now put in on the car. One week to reset and go again for the season finale in Abu Dhabi.