Fahrerstimmen – Tag 3

This feels amazing. I’ve achieved one of my dreams – because winning here is what I dreamt of as a kid, so I’m proud of myself and the team for being able to get the win here. It\'s a long race but it was good fun because we could push for quite a lot of it. The end of the race was a little challenging with Charles close behind and Max ahead, but I felt under control, able to push when I needed to and chill when I didn’t... I\'m very happy, the team are very happy, and we carry good momentum with us into the final race of the triple header.

It\'s a shame we couldn\'t take the win today, but we gave it everything. At end of the day, we lost the victory yesterday and Lando (Norris) just did a better job and he deserves this win.On the upside, P2 exceeds the expectations we had going into this weekend so overall it\'s a good finish.As Ferrari, we are lucky to have great support all around the world, but being from here and seeing all the Monegasque people behind me really warms my heart. I realised my childhood dream last year by winning here, unfortunately it didn\'t work out today but I hope we will be on the top step again next year.

I’m happy with that overall. More points on the board and another trip to the podium in Monaco. Well done to Lando on the win. It’s been a tricky weekend for me – I got close yesterday but not quite close enough, so there are a few things to work on for next year – but if this is a tricky weekend then it’s really not going too badly at all!

It wasn’t the most exciting race for me today. At the end we stayed out waiting as I had a huge gap behind me, so was free to do what we wanted with our final pit stop. We had nothing to lose; the tyres were quite old and we couldn’t push so much but we had a big gap behind. We just kept at it to see if we got lucky with the safety car or a red flag. We did everything right and there wasn’t much more we could have done to change the result. Overall, the two stop format didn’t change much for me, it is a lottery about what is going to happen in the race as it is impossible to overtake here. You don’t push the car to the limit as you can’t pass the car, so we didn’t learn too much from the car today. It was not the most exciting race and I felt pretty neutral. This is not our track, it’s as simple as that and it is just not made for our car. In Barcelona we should be able to race more, so we will see what happens in the final race of the triple header.

I knew starting in P7 was going to be a challenge today, but it\'s good to see our progress overall. Once I found some clear air, I was able to make up a bit of ground, although we lost quite a bit of time in traffic and the balance wasn’t quite where we wanted it.Still, we came away with a podium for Charles, as well as some solid points for the team and it’s encouraging we’re heading in the right direction. We made a step forward in qualifying, which was a key focus, so a big thanks to everyone for the hard work in getting the car into a more competitive place across the whole weekend. We’ll keep pushing and look to build on this in Barcelona.

It was a perfect Sunday for us. I’m really happy, and honestly, there was nothing more I could have done today in the race, so I consider it kind of a small victory. We had a plan and we executed it perfectly. I’m really proud of what we achieved today as a team, with Liam also bringing home a P8 and helping me out there. It was a big team effort, and a double-points finish is a nice reward for all of us. I found it quite interesting having to do two stops; there was much more to think about before the race, and we made it work today with our strategy. Since last week in Imola, we picked up some pace and made a step forward, something that we were able to carry on to Monaco. I’m confident and I’m looking forward to going back racing in Barcelona in a few days.

I think it’s been a great weekend all around from qualifying to the race – we put everything together when it mattered. It’s six points for the team which is a big thing, so it’s very satisfying. We made a lot of progress, all the way up to qualifying, and we need to take that into account and really investigate how we can get more consistency going forward. Barcelona is a very different circuit, with a lot more downforce bias, and more engine bias – so we’ll see what we can get there next weekend.

It was a great result for the team, and it’s always nice to come away with points, which isn’t the easiest around Monaco. Having both cars finish in the points was exactly what we needed. Everything came together nicely this weekend, and we executed the race perfectly. The strategy made sense for us today, with both cars qualifying well and showing strong pace throughout the weekend. The two-stop format didn’t make a huge difference for us, it can create more opportunities but today’s race played out fairly straight forwardly. The pace has been there for a few races now, so it was good to show it this weekend. Looking ahead to Barcelona, we’ll aim to keep the momentum going. It’s a very different kind of track, and we will need to get on top of the regulation changes, we will need to adapt as quickly as possible.

Today isn’t how either Carlos or I want to go racing; it’s not pretty but, in the end, it was a tactical game, and we had to make it work. The Racing Bulls did it first, and we knew if they started it, we had to match it. Realistically we lost the race on Saturday, and you pay the price here; you start where you finish and that was it. The weekend was a bit disappointing as it feels like we didn’t maximise what we could have, but we’ve still come away with three good points for the team and we’ll just keep chipping away at it.

Today is not how we want to go racing and I think the way us and other teams were able to hold up the pace and build gaps shouldn’t be what the Monaco Grand Prix is all about. We worked well as a team, but I understand the frustrations of the cars around us as we were victims ourselves. Looking at the positives, it’s another double points finish at a weekend that we struggled more than expected in Qualifying. We now head to Barcelona for the final round of the triple-header, so I’m really looking forward to racing in front of my home crowd and hope to share with them a good weekend!

It really felt like we were playing chess today on track with this new mandatory two stop regulation. The strategy was for Kimi and I to help each other out and gain positions throughout the race. Unfortunately, Williams and Racing Bulls opted for the same strategy, and it left us without any real options. We still tried to play the long game, hoping for a Safety Car or red flag, but nothing fell our way.

With this regulation, it was easy for teams to work together, inverting cars and giving free stops possibilities. Driving four seconds off the pace and not being overtaken is easy here in Monaco so the calculation to do that is easy to make. On the bright side, I really enjoyed my last 10 laps. Monaco is one of the best circuits in the world and I had the chance to push to the limit and enjoy the most of it in those closing stages.

Congratulations first of all to Esteban, I’m really happy the team scored some points today, it’s a really nice feeling after a difficult weekend on my side of the garage. I think we did the maximum we could today as there were no points on the table with the way that the race panned out. The car was fantastic though, especially on Saturday, it was a good strategy today but with a 10-place grid penalty there were no points on offer today.

Starting from eighteenth place today, it was a hard ask to enter the points especially in a race with such little action. I would say finishing in thirteenth was the maximum we could really do with all the traffic and different tactics from other teams on track. With Pierre’s incident, we switched to do an earlier stop. From there, it was just a tough race to round off a difficult weekend here in Monaco. We struggled with low-speed balance and we just could not make the car work as we wanted here. We will continue our hard work ahead of the next Grand Prix in Spain at a more conventional track.”

Monaco has always been known for exciting qualifying and free practice sessions, but the races often end up being quite uneventful because overtaking is so difficult. Today wasn\'t any different, despite the sport trying something new with the tyre regulations; it didn’t really work out, and the team games that emerged made the race slow, with everyone running four or five seconds off their real pace, no tyre degradation, and overtaking impossible. My race was already in a difficult position after lap one, due to my incident with Kimi. It’s a shame because I made a solid move around the outside at the hairpin, gaining the position fairly, but then he tried a slightly optimistic move at Turn 8. He went a bit wide, and to avoid a collision with him, I ended up crashing into the wall, destroying my front wing and ultimately compromising my race. It’s frustrating because I felt that, without the incident, we could have been in a position to try playing the team game as well and maybe make some gains. Looking forward, we’ll continue working hard on the car and its set-up and, hopefully, it will help us improve our qualifying and race positions. Being consistently in Q2 or occasionally fighting for Q3 would allow us to be closer to the fight for the points.

It\'s Monaco, so when you have a tough Saturday, you know Sunday will always be a challenge. It was always going to be tricky starting from the back of the grid and it was not an exciting race with very few opportunities that could help us gain more positions today. We now turn the page and focus on Barcelona in a week\'s time.

I had a good start, gaining a position on the opening lap, but the rest of the race didn\'t unfold as we had hoped. Unfortunately, I frequently found myself caught in traffic, largely due to teams in front of us obviously executing strategic plays. Lapping three to five seconds per lap off the pace to open up pit windows for their teammates slowed me down massively and did not lead to an enjoyable race. Obviously, team plays are part of the sport, but from a racing standpoint, it was not what everyone was hoping for. Realistically, starting in the top 10 is probably the only way to avoid this, and while our own strategy and the pitstops were well executed, there was little we could do to achieve a better result.

It has been a frustrating weekend for me overall but there was nothing I could do much differently today, it’s down to me to be qualifying better. For sure I didn’t help myself yesterday and I didn’t help my Team. If you Qualify that far behind, you can’t expect much to happen in your race here and you have created that situation. Not much happened in my race apart from Pierre crashing into me. I was stuck in a lot of traffic and it felt like the longest race ever. Monaco is not fun when you are just sitting or driving by yourself, you can’t create your rhythm when you are stuck behind people. I don’t feel like Monaco was too affected by the limitations to my car from Imola, the pace was alright and it felt good in FP3 and in Qualifying during Q1, I just wasn’t able to put it together overall. Hopefully next weekend I can put it all together and I need to do better overall.

I am disappointed with today’s result but that was ultimately not a surprise having qualified P15 yesterday. It was not the most exciting race we’ve ever done, and the strategy didn’t work out in our favour.

I tried to be aggressive in the beginning of the race, to gain as many positions as possible. I made a move on Bortoleto before the tunnel; I had the pace and went for it and was able to move up one place. After that, we tried to play the long game but other midfield teams like Racing Bulls and Williams were running their own race and we found ourselves in a train, way off the pace, with no possibilities to overtake.

Despite the disappointing result, Monaco has been another good learning weekend for me. I struggled a lot on the C6 tyre compound, just like in Imola, and struggled to get the single laps in. I am happy to head to Barcelona now where we will be on the harder tyre compounds that I know well.

I had a problem with the engine since lap 15 so we were down on power. I thought we might be able to hold on because overtaking is very difficult here, but unfortunately that wasn\'t the case. We lost another great opportunity to score some good points today. I am happy with my performance this weekend and we move on to the next race for another opportunity to go again.

It is never good to end a race so early. Obviously, a very frustrating outcome for the team in the end, although, having seen how the race panned out, opportunities were very limited from starting far back on the grid. On the incident, I did not expect Yuki [Tsunoda] to move so much under braking. He made a mistake before the tunnel and then he started to brake on the left side of the track and then moved to the right so I was basically cornered with nowhere to go. We had pitted on the first lap and maybe that would have brought some opportunities later in the race. It appears most cars finished where they started other than retirements and penalties. We have to move forwards to Spain and aim to improve our level of performance.