Fahrerstimmen – Tag 3

It’s an incredible feeling to win in Monaco. It’s such a special weekend and one I’ll remember for a long time. Today was one of those days where everything just clicked; I had a lot of confidence in the car, felt strong throughout, and to bring the win home in a place like this makes it even more meaningful.

From a race perspective, there were definitely some key moments to manage. The starts are still an area we’re working on, but I’ve made good progress. My first one was solid, and although the second was a bit more challenging with the tyres, it’s positive to see improvement.

The red flag added a bit of stress, especially knowing the restart could change everything, but we handled it well. In the final laps, I really enjoyed myself out there, even though I still had to carefully manage the tyres. This track demands a lot of focus, you have to find the right balance between pushing and not making mistakes, and once you settle into that rhythm, everything starts to come together.

At the same time, I know there’s still a lot to learn and improve. I just want to keep pushing, keep building on this momentum, and most importantly, keep enjoying the journey. That’s what makes moments like this so rewarding.

It’s great to be back on the podium in Monaco and to finish in P2 for the second race in a row and to be able to share it with Kimi (Antonelli) for his first win here. This race is always one of the toughest of the season and today’s conditions made it even more challenging, so finishing in second is a really encouraging result and just shows the momentum we are building as a team. We are continuing to make solid progress and I’m grateful for the work everyone is putting in, both here at the track and back in Maranello. There’s still a step to make before we can consistently fight for victories, but I know we will keep pushing hard to get there.

It’s been an outstanding result and weekend considering how it started in FP1! The race was difficult and I had to dig very deep. We got off to a clean start and were managing our race, and then within the first 10 to 15 laps I started having big drivability issues. If there’s one track you don’t want that, it’s here, so that was incredibly challenging having to cover 60 laps. There was then uncertainty about what was going to happen with the red flag and you need to get your head back again in focus. Even towards the end, I was still lacking power on the restart. It really was the longest race of my life but now it’s finished we got the podium. Whatever happens with the stewards, it’s now completely out of my control. I celebrated and had my podium and I will always have that. My moment with the lads. Huge thank you to the Team, I trust these guys. Whatever happens, the emotions on the podium have already happened and I am proud of the Team.

When you make up three spots in Monaco, that\'s always a good day. Whilst I didn\'t do the overtaking myself, we did a good job of taking advantage of things playing out ahead of us and being smart with the strategy. Getting those 12 points was important. However, our pace wasn\'t very strong today, and we need to work out why we have struggled so much this weekend. Looking ahead to Barcelona and further on into the season, we have a lot of work to do to close the gap to the front-runners. Thanks to the team for their work, let\'s see what we can do next weekend.

I\'m very, very happy with today. It\'s a great result for the team ending in P5 and P6, particularly given where we started at the beginning of the weekend. Races can feel pretty unpredictable at the moment, with cars being forced to retire, so it\'s important that we capitalise on those moments when they happen. I honestly enjoyed the race so much and the team worked incredibly hard to deliver a quick car today, so I\'m super grateful to be ending the weekend on a high.

I’m incredibly happy with today’s result. It was beyond anything I could have imagined after yesterday, so a massive thank you to everyone here at the track, the team in Faenza and Milton Keynes. They’ve done a phenomenal job, and for us to come away with a double points finish is a huge achievement. The first stint felt really long, I spent most of it in traffic and was focused on managing the tyres as best as I could. We were able to capitalise on the red flag, which turned out to be a massive opportunity, and in the end the restart was probably the most important part of the race for us. From there, I was just concentrating on making no mistakes and bringing the car home over the final few laps. All focus is on Barcelona now, which is a track I’ve always really enjoyed and I’m looking forward to it.

I am absolutely heartbroken by the outcome of today\'s race. I have so many emotions right now, not only after such a challenging weekend where you are on the limit so often and pushing so much, but also to have a lifelong dream of a Monaco podium taken away from me for reasons which I just cannot comprehend. I know I was under the pit lane speed limit and activated it much before the line. We also have margin for these occurrences to not go over, so I just hope they can review it properly and give us back the result all of us at the team deserve. It\'s certainly unusual that so many drivers and teams were caught out by it today so something clearly is not right. I knew the situation when we stopped for the red flag and I just tried to push as hard as I could to maximise the end result, knowing the penalty was going to be applied. In terms of the race, it was busy and hard fought. We managed to overtake Lando [Norris] at Turn 1 and then had to defend hard from him for most of the race. At the second restart I passed Isack [Hadjar] on the outside, so definitely a race I am proud with and one where the team did a very good job. I know the team has lodged a Right of Review, so hopefully we will seek the right outcome. I will take a few days to relax at home and then switch focus to Barcelona where I will definitely stay motivated for another good result to keep up our points-scoring run.

Tough afternoon overall but it\'s good to get a few points. We were quick at the beginning of the race, and then from Lap 15 onwards we were managing a deployment issue that we couldn\'t fix, unfortunately. We were playing some team games trying to build a gap for both Carlos and me, but it made us vulnerable with track position. I was trying to defend against Lindblad but couldn\'t hold him off as I was losing time down the straights managing our issue. It was a messy race with the red flag and restarts, but ultimately, I think this has been my cleanest race weekend this year and I felt more in the rhythm and in tune with the car. We\'ll debrief, reset, spend some time in the sim, and go again in Barcelona next weekend.

We got everything right, we made the right calls, and the strategy was great. We managed to keep out of trouble with the last corner as well, which was tricky. It was very tough, but I did it for this team. After 20 laps, I thought I couldn’t finish the race, but then we got to the end in P9. It’s very well deserved, I’m super happy, it shows you should never give up. On a track where it’s very difficult to overtake, you never know what’s going to happen.

I took a lot of risk on lap one and at the restart, and just tried to consolidate whatever position we were in. It was so difficult out there today, but we went aggressive with the strategy, stopping on lap three, and we were thinking to go until the end of the race with just one stop. The red flag restart helped, and we made sure to take the opportunities that were available to us. So I think we managed the race quite well and it was a nice reward for everybody in the team to score our first point of the year.

My race was effectively compromised before it really began. I had an issue as I was preparing for my practice starts and the car shut off: the crew did a great job to get it going again, but I had to start from the pitlane, and around Monaco that makes life very difficult. Once you are caught in traffic, opportunities are extremely limited and I spent most of the race unable to make progress. That was disappointing, and it added to the frustration from yesterday’s qualifying. The positive is that we showed good pace and a good package over the weekend. I think the team did a great job overall this weekend and would have deserved a lot more for it: to have both cars reach the finish is positive, and the crew did an excellent job overnight to repair the damage from qualifying and get my car ready to race. There are lessons to take away, but I am encouraged by what we achieved as a team and by the progress we continue to make.

Firstly, congratulations to Kimi. He did an amazing job today and over the weekend and is a well-deserving winner. On my side, the race was very difficult. I had managed to get to P4 but the penalty for speeding in the pitlane is difficult to understand. I was under the limit but then that was compounded by us not serving the penalty at my second stop; that ultimately cost me a lot and left me with zero points again.

It’s tough to take but I’m not going to give up. Across the last two races, I’ve effectively lost around 40 points. It’s incredibly frustrating but the rest of the season can still look very different. We saw that last year and, in many seasons previous. It’s unfortunate how things have played out so far but I’m aiming to bounce back in Barcelona. I believe in myself and I know what I’m capable of.

It\'s a disappointing way to end the weekend. For a while it looked like we made our way into the points, but the penalty put an end to that. After the restart, with only a handful of laps remaining, it was always going to get quite intense. I had to react to avoid the car ahead and moved to the inside, but once I was there, I was at full lock and there wasn\'t really anywhere else for me to go. Carlos was on the outside and we made contact. It\'s frustrating because the pace we showed earlier in the weekend was encouraging, but unfortunately, we weren\'t able to convert that into a result.

It was not the best result today and I\'m not satisfied with how the weekend has gone as a whole. Coming off the back of some good results and a good feeling in the car in recent races, things really didn\'t click here and we will work hard with the team between races to understand more why that was. I was struggling with the balance and confidence under braking with locking and we never really recovered. We knew it would be tough starting further back and there are limited options in Monaco to make much forward progress. We boxed in the middle of the race and lost some place to those who pitted earlier and used the undercut. The safety car and red flag meant we lost all track position and the race was effectively neutralised. We knew we were carrying a penalty for speeding in the pit lane, like a number of other cars. After the standing restart, it was all very messy and I was pushed wide by one of the Aston Martins and broke my front wing. We were all avoiding one of the Williams who was going slow on the racing line after the hairpin and I touched Carlos [Sainz], so sorry for him. Overall, it was a long and frustrating race, and weekend as a whole, and we have to work hard to come back stronger in Barcelona in a few days\' time.

An amazing thing for the team. It was such a very tricky race out there with the vibrations – at some points we thought about retiring the car as it was so hard – but we didn’t give up, we kept pushing, kept our head down and the race presented us with another opportunity to go for it. I had a poor restart but a tremendous first lap and overtook a lot of cars and in the end we finished P10 on the road. It was a shame with the penalty as we didn’t get any benefit from the restart, but that’s how it is – it doesn’t detract from the result today.

We had managed the race well and I had very good pace in general until the red flag and restart. It’s difficult to digest getting hit in that corner on a restart to be honest, but there is nothing I could do unfortunately. It’s frustrating to end the weekend like that and to throw away points, especially after the team have worked so hard to develop the car and move us forward into point scoring positions more consistently. Yeah, it’s frustrating, but we’ll try to look at the positives and go again in Barcelona.

Finishing my home race like this is disappointing. I had an issue with my rear brakes in the last corner and hit the wall. The positive to take from this weekend is that we have a solution in place and will adjust the configuration of my brakes.

We’ve been dealing with these drivability issues all season, and it was the same again this weekend. The acceleration and deceleration just isn’t consistent, and it changes from one corner to the next. At most circuits you’ve got some run-off to work with, so you can manage it, but around here the walls are really close and any issue can put you into the barrier. That was also a big reason why I was getting picked up for track limits. We’ll take a closer look after the race, and the team will keep pushing for improvements ahead of Barcelona next week.

It wasn’t our weekend and, unfortunately, it’s another DNF for the team. We faced issues from Friday that had the team working until 4:00AM into Saturday to get the car back on track, only to encounter another problem in the race. It’s tough and frustrating for everyone because we’re putting in a huge effort to improve, but at the moment reliability is getting the better of us. We’ll keep our heads up and stay positive. We know the areas we need to address, and reliability is top of the list. The team deserves credit for their commitment, and we’ll keep working hard for them. I’m hopeful we can return to form in Barcelona, give ourselves something to be excited about, and show what we can do next time out.

We don’t know what happened today but we think the issue was due to an engine problem. During the formation lap I could feel that something was off and the pre-start was terrible. There was no consistency and then, at the start, the engine just dropped out. I dropped the clutch and it went dead and had no power. When I got a bit more power back, unfortunately it was messed up so I had to bring it back slowly. It was such a shame for us as everything was going really well up to that point. We felt great in the car all weekend and to come out with no points and to finish the race like this when you do everything so well as a Team is of course disappointing.

It’s been a challenging weekend in general, even though the car showed great pace in qualifying, it’s a lot of what could’ve been. After a qualifying like yesterday, it’s tough to do anything around here, and that was proven right, it was a horrible day out there. I got damage and needed to pit on lap 1, so we needed a miracle after that, and I didn’t get it, but I’m glad we scored points with Esteban. I’m excited to reset for Barcelona next week.

We knew going into the race that the brake temperatures could be an issue. Even with a lot of management from the first lap, we couldn\'t keep the temperatures under control, so we had to retire the car. It’s been a challenging weekend at a unique circuit but we’re still seeing positive glimpses. It’s another event we can learn from with the aim of improving and preventing these kinds of issues going ahead.