Fahrerstimmen – Tag 3

The start was very important to me. I wanted to get a good first stint and it meant I was able to look after my tyres well and extend it compared to the others. The car felt really good today and the balance was right with the increase in temperature. We had the struggle over one lap all weekend in qualifying, but I think that means it was the right call for the race. If I had a choice between the two, I would pick my race performance every time but we will always make changes and keep trying to improve the car. I think people forget a little bit that to win 12 races in a row is extremely hard but I hope it doesn’t stop there. We have to keep going and I will always try to challenge myself. I had a lot of fun out there today and I was just smiling in the car, it was one of those days where everything just goes perfect. Well, almost perfect, I think I will ask McLaren to pay for a new trophy for me! We need to review the footage, like VAR, to see who really broke it because I heard Lando is blaming me.

Tough race. Not an easy one, especially with Pérez catching, but he didn’t have the pace to catch up in the end so I’m happy. I had to fight for a little bit in the beginning after Turn One but another podium for us, for McLaren, it’s an amazing result.
I think we’re very happy with the progress we’ve made, to go from where we were four, five races ago, to be fighting for poles, and fighting for podiums, we’ll take it for now, and work hard to continue improving throughout the season. We’ve shown great teamwork; everyone back in the factory did an amazing job and we’ll now look to take these recent performances to Belgium.

Today was a good one and it was great to get to the podium. We raced initially on the hard compound, which was quite tricky, especially on lap one, but it ended up going well for a long time and we got some good pace before going on the Mediums. The race today was not only very demanding physically, but also mentally, I had to focus on looking after the tyres. It was really hot and I ended up actually losing 3kg in weight. It was a good result and now I just need to find consistency. When the pressure is on you and you are able to deliver, it makes you feel proud of what you are doing so we just need to keep going forward and keep pushing. I am focusing on myself and making sure I deliver to the maximum. It is great to be given driver of the day but sadly that doesn’t get you any points! Finally, the record of 12 wins in a row is quite incredible. I am really proud of The Team: they have made history and it is quite something to have been a part of that.

My initial getaway wasn’t the worst I’ve ever had but it wasn’t as good as the others. I ran wide and also got done by the McLarens. After that, I didn’t have the pace to keep up with those ahead. The balance of the car didn’t feel great in the first stint, and I had a lot of understeer, to snap oversteer, and problems with through-corner balance. As the stints progressed, the car started to become more driveable, and the final stint was much better. The pace we had at the end was very strong and if we had had that throughout, we would have had a much better day.

Nevertheless, I’m going to take the positives from this weekend. It was an amazing effort from the Team to take pole position. We still have a lot of work to do to beat Red Bull in a Grand Prix, but we will keep pushing.

P5. Some positives to take from that race. I think the big takeaway for me was working on tyre management. I struggled quite a lot in the second and third stint following some floor damage. So, yeah, a lot to learn from that one but to still end up with P5, with the challenges I had, is a very good result.
Obviously, a great day for the team again, everyone at track and back at the factory. We have made decent steps forward in the last few races. The conditions this weekend have been a good test for us. To still be up there is a big confidence boost and we can look to take that momentum to Spa next week.

P6 was beyond our expectations for today. It was definitely a good recovery. We thought we would be P11 in a typical race and P7 if we maximised everything. I’m happy with how it went. The car was really quick, and this place is one of my favourite circuits. As a Team, we usually go well here so I had a feeling we would be quick.

Of course it is disappointing as we didn’t deliver yesterday. I think we could have been right up there and if we had two cars up front, the dynamic changes completely. Nevertheless, we’ve extended the gap over P3 in the Constructors’ Championship so we will take it. There are a lot of positives to come out of this weekend and we have learned a lot. We will go again at Spa next week.

I was quite happy with my pace in the first stint, as we were managing things really well and keeping up with the cars ahead. Then we lost time on our first pit stop, which put us on the back foot and I had to push to recover some positions. The penalty we got after the second stop was another thing that made things more difficult, so all in all, it wasn’t a great day.
I’m looking forward to Spa and hope that we can finish the first half of the season on a high there.

We had a good start, making up five places on the first lap, and a very good first stint with the Softs, managing to stretch the tyre life. Unfortunately, with the Hard compound and longer stints to do, we struggled with rear degradation and didn’t have the pace of the front runners, which is our main weakness at the moment.
We were expecting more at this track and we need to look into our main areas of improvement.

I think three points for us was the maximum we could achieve [as a team] today. We had a bit of a lonely race with no threats behind, but we were unable to make significant ground up on our competitors ahead of us. It was a hot and demanding race as well and we all had to manage the tyres throughout. There have been a lot of surprises in the last few race weekends, but we need to try our best to get back to fighting at the front of the pack. We will analyse everything and look to bounce back at Spa next week.

I think P10 was the best we could have done today. I had a good first lap and I was happy with the move around the outside of [Valtteri] Bottas, but after that the pace just wasn’t up there. As a team, I think we have some work to do to try and understand what we can be doing better. The car is quick, but there’s more pace to unlock and that has to be our priority as the season continues. We’ll take these learnings into Spa next week where, as always, we’ll be pushing hard.

P11 is quite a surprising result, it was quite a defensive race which we like to do. We got track position and we were okay; we came into this circuit knowing it wouldn’t suit us and we qualified where the pace of the car was. Clean air is so important around here; even though I pitted early, once I had clean air, I had a lot of laps to bed the tyre in slowly so once I came out and undercut the other cars, I had some grip left and could manage them behind me. We’ve highlighted the areas our car struggles with by coming here, so when the car doesn’t feel great, it’s still raceable. To finish P11 and almost make Q2 yesterday, it’s a very good sign, so if we can fix these issues, then we’ll be in a good place across various circuits.

We had a good chance to turn a strong qualifying into points but, unfortunately, our race got compromised on lap one, just after the start. Zhou, who was in front of me, had some issues with the brake system strategy, so I had to move around him, losing some momentum. On top of that, all the cars starting on soft tyres passed us quickly. Overall, our pace was not quite as good as yesterday, and it didn’t really allow us to climb back through the field. There’s a positive we will take with us onto Belgium, we unlocked something more from our package on Saturday, so definitely the potential was there and we will aim to build on that. Of course, Spa will be a completely different track, but we will be working hard this week to find the right configuration to further progress and fight back right away.

The whole weekend has been good and to come back, really feel all the things I’ve missed in the last twelve months, I can’t ask for more on the first weekend, and it gives me confidence. I got hit in turn 1, and dropped to the tail of the pack. After that, we got stuck in traffic, but once we got some clear air, I could settle into a rhythm and from then on, I was happy. Our pace wasn’t bad, maybe we could’ve been in the points today, I don’t know, but our strategy was good, we were just a bit unlucky. On the other hand, the contact at the start could’ve ended my race, so I’m grateful the car was still ok, and I was able to do 70 laps to learn as much as possible. I’ll learn from the mistakes I made to get better and better, and I made little mental notes, which I will share with the team. Overall though, there are a lot of things to be happy about.

Not good enough in the race, which wasn’t news really, we kind of knew and expected this. To be fair though, I think we looked better today than we have in the past few races on Sunday, so I’m not too disappointed - given this is one of the toughest of the season in terms of non-stop corners, and there isn’t much rest for the tires or the driver. We weren’t too far behind drivers that were in the points, so maybe it was actually a bit better than what I was expecting going into today.

We chose to start the race on the soft compound tyre today to gain as many positions as possible early in the race. The start was good, and I managed to make up quite a few places, so I’m happy with my performance. I had pace and was managing my tyres well today, especially on the soft compound, but unfortunately, it didn’t quite work out, so together with the team we’ll look at it. It’s a shame because the pace was there. Overall, I’m frustrated with myself because I didn’t put it all together and extract the maximum out of my performance every day. It’s been a week of learning and what I learnt today I will use in the future to maximise our performance.

The elation from yesterday’s result turned on its head, and there is no denying today has been very disappointing. We are yet to gather all the information about what exactly went on at the start: I was on full throttle, and then all of a sudden, something went wrong and I had to do the entire procedure again just in order to do a proper start. We will be investigating this right away, to avoid repetitions in the future. Having said that, our race was pretty much over after this moment: we were at the back of the grid, with not many chances to climb back. As a positive to take away from this weekend, it felt good to execute such a solid qualifying performance yesterday, with both cars in Q3, as a confirmation that the upgrades we brought in Silverstone are moving us in the right direction, and there is further potential to unlock. Hopefully, moving forward, we’ll be more competitive throughout the whole weekend. We’ll carry this momentum onto Spa, aiming to quickly bounce back and build up on the momentum we had on Saturday.

I’m not feeling very good about the results, it’s a disappointing day for us. I had no pace on the hard tire, we had two long stints on the hards – probably should’ve been on a three stop. We always try and learn something from each race – we’re going to try and do something different for Belgium. It’s important at this point to be patient and wait for some upgrades. We have to keep our heads cool and move onto the next one.

Honestly, I was pretty happy with how the race was going. I think we got a little bit unlucky with strategy; we had a slow first pitstop which cost us quite a lot, but all in all the pace was pretty good considering it’s a track which should have been quite bad for us. For Alex to be knocking on the door of points should give us a nice appetite for Spa, where we should be really strong.

There is not much to say from today. It’s a very frustrating end to the weekend being involved in a racing incident with a few cars at Turn 1 on the first lap. There was not much we could do and the result was both cars had to retire with significant damage. Fortunately, I’m OK. Right now our focus is on regrouping and coming back stronger as we have another race next weekend in Belgium. We must move on quickly with the aim of heading into the summer break on a good note.

It’s extremely frustrating for the entire team to have a double retirement, especially in such circumstances so early into the race. I was the unfortunate victim of a crash between a handful of cars and I just had nowhere to go and no chance of avoiding the incident. It’s disappointing after making a good start off the line where I gained a couple of positions. As a team, we have to move on quickly and we have an immediate opportunity in Spa next weekend to make sure we enter the summer break with points.