FIA post-Sprint press conference – Sao Paulo

DRIVERS
1 – Lando NORRIS (McLaren), 2 – Oscar PIASTRI (McLaren), 3 – Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing)
TRACK INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Naomi Schiff)
Q: Max, that’s the third place for you today. Are you satisfied with that result? It seemed like you had a really great battle out there with Charles, and once he got out of that DRS train, you were able to pounce and catch the McLarens.
Max VERSTAPPEN: Yeah, it was quite a tricky race, but I think the pace was very good because we could always follow within the DRS, and yeah, I’m quite pleased with that. Of course, it took a bit too long with Charles, but when everyone is in a DRS train it’s very hard to attack. So I had to wait for some mistakes, and luckily they came, and I could use that to my advantage. And yeah, it was promising. It was good. Of course, this is race pace. Tomorrow it might rain as well, so there’s a lot of unknowns, but today was good.
Q: Yesterday, you weren’t so happy with the pace of the car, but today it showed that there was quite a lot of pace to deliver. So is that a little bit better for going into qualifying later today?
MV: I hope so. I mean, I still expect them to be really quick over one lap, but I hope we can limit the damage a bit with, of course, the five place grid penalty I have.
Q: Thank you, Max. Oscar, congratulations. You really did control that race from the start. I know you obviously didn’t win the race today, but how did it feel out there?
Oscar PIASTRI: Yeah, it was a bit tricky, to be honest. Very bumpy, as we know. And, yeah, the racing line was incredibly narrow. If you missed it by a tyre width, you’re in all sorts of trouble. So, no, a great day from the team and a lot of points. So, I think we learned a lot for the race tomorrow as well. And yeah, happy.
Q: We know you were managing your pace to stay in touch with Lando, but it seemed like you had quite a lot of pace within you. So are you optimistic for later today and tomorrow?
OP: Yeah, I think optimistic. I think the pace looked OK, but the Ferrari was very quick at the start and Max was very quick at the end. So, yeah, let’s see. I think we’ve got a few things we want to try and improve a bit for qualifying this afternoon for the race tomorrow, but I think we’re in decent shape.
Q: Thank you. Lando, congratulations. You won today’s Sprint race. Obviously, a well-executed race by McLaren today.
Lando NORRIS: Yeah, not proud about it, but we worked well as a team together, so I thank Oscar. No, but we’ve done a great job as a team. Today was the result that we wanted. Oscar deserved it. But, yeah, we’re doing what we have to do. So I thank him and the team, and we had great pace. So looking forward to qualifying and the race tomorrow.
Q: I know you guys managed that race, as I’m sure you had discussions before the race about how exactly you were going to plan it. But out there, you did say at one point you were going to overtake. So did you feel you had the pace in you to overtake Oscar out there purely on pace?
LN: It’s tough. It was kind of like yo-yoing a little bit, I’d catch up and then I’d drop back and catch up. It’s just the dirty air here costs you a lot of lap time. I felt a bit quicker, but I couldn’t pass at the time. But I felt good. I think we were clearly quicker than the guys behind. It’s just difficult in a Sprint race like this to know how much to manage and push and that kind of thing, but we executed it well.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Lando, well done. Your first Sprint victory and an important eight points for the championship. Was the car where you wanted it today?
LN: Yes, tricky to know. I think the longest run I’ve done this weekend is like five laps, so a few unknowns through the race, but I think it felt good. The wind changed quite a bit from today to yesterday, so that changed things around a bit. Difficult, but I think we were still strong as a team and the car was good.
Q: Now, you had close company from behind for much of the race. Was this a stressful one for you?
LN: Yeah, it wasn’t a straightforward one. I think our pace was good, but it’s always hard to know when you’re actually in the front in a race like today. For Oscar, it’s hard to judge how much you push and use that kind of free air and clean air versus how much the tyres might start to degrade by the end of the race. And you want to keep the tyres alive. So a difficult position to be in, for sure. We knew it was going to be a difficult race to manage the tyres and keep everything in a good window. But I think we did that. So, yeah, I would have preferred having a much bigger gap behind, but that’s the way it was.
Q: Would your life have been easier if Oscar had let you through earlier in the race?
LN: I don’t know. I can’t. I don’t know. How am I meant to know?
Q: Well, look, tell us a little bit about tyre wear. How difficult was it to get 24 laps out of the Medium?
LN: Not too bad. I think I definitely started to struggle a bit towards the end with the balance. and playing around with the steering wheel a bit to kind of change the balance around a little bit and try and avoid any mistakes. Yeah, and then just make sure at the end of the race my tyres are good and I could keep Oscar within the DRS because Max was not far behind. So, yeah, we helped each other out and Oscar obviously helped me a lot today, so I thank him for that.
Q: So, Lando, it was a McLaren front row. It’s now a McLaren 1-2. Just how much confidence do you have going into the remainder of the weekend?
LN: It’s meant to rain, so I have no idea what’s going to happen there. I mean, if it stays dry, I’m confident. I think our pace is strong. I didn’t feel like I maximised yesterday at all. So yeah, today’s another opportunity. But I think we’re in a good position. The car’s performing well. But if it rains, it’s anybody’s chance.
Q: Well done today. Good luck for the rest of the weekend. Oscar, let’s come to you now. Can you just sum up that race from your point of view?
OP: Yeah, a bit of a tricky one. Like Lando said, it’s always a bit hard to know how much to push, how much to save in that kind of position, especially on a new surface like this, that’s not really had much racing. So a bit of a tricky one, but it hung on better than I thought. So, yeah, the car was feeling pretty good and, yeah, pretty happy.
Q: Tell us about the team orders. What was agreed pre-race? And did you execute as the team asked you to do?
OP: Yeah, we spoke about it before the race and when we were going to swap. The gap never really got big enough to do it at a convenient time, but that was always the plan at some stage. I think we pulled it off as well as we could. We got a bit close with Max under the VSC, but still the most points for the team, which is, of course, what we wanted.
Q: Oscar, how hard is it for you as a racing driver to give up a victory?
OP: I mean, it’s not as fun as winning. But, you know, I think, you know, I know the position that we’re in. You know, we’ve been talking about this for months now. And, you know, this is really the first time that we’ve had to enforce it. So, yes, I would have preferred to have won. But, again, it’s a Sprint. It’s the same points for the team. And, you know, being realistic, I don’t have much to fight for in the Driver’s standing. So we knew this is something that could and probably would happen at some point. But yeah, I was fine with it.
Q: Thank you, Oscar. Max, let’s come to you now. You look very fast out there. Were you pleased with the pace of your car?
MV: Yeah, I think we had good pace, just I got stuck in a DRS train, so I had to wait for my moment to have a go at Charles. He had a few moments in the race, and then he made a mistake in Turn 1. So then I had a good run out of Turn 3, and I could get him. But yeah, unfortunately, a bit too late. But there was also not much else that I could do, because when everyone is just in a DRS train, you can’t attack and that was it. But the pace was good. It seemed like we could at least be in that fight, which hasn’t really been the case the last few races, so I think that’s promising.
Q: As you say, it was a little bit too late. Do you think if you’d passed Charles earlier, you had the pace to really challenge the McLarens today?
MV: Yeah, of course, but I was stuck in the DRS train, so you cannot pass.
Q: Can you just talk us through the restart after the VSC? It got very tight with Oscar.
MV: Yeah, it got tight. We were just getting close to each other, then we had to brake.
Q: And one final thing. You’re going to be going to the Stewards for a VSC infringement. Do you have any idea what that might be about?
MV: Well, I must have been close with Oscar.
Q: Just the restart?
MV: Yep.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Filip Cleeren Motorsport.com) Lando, it sounds like it was always a plan to swap positions. So how surprised were you that the call came so late? Because it’s not just being put under pressure, but also the Safety Car could have made it really tricky at the end.
LN: Yeah, I mean, we spoke through many different scenarios. Like Oscar said, it was tough to do that much earlier because the guys behind were pretty close. I think there was one lap, but it’s hard to suddenly kind of plan that and execute it well. So I think we did the best job we could. We want both cars up there. And of course, the Safety Car put us under a little bit of threat, and we were lucky we didn’t have to do it after. But there’s always those risks in the beginning of the race, middle of the race, end of the race. It’s not a straightforward thing ever. So we planned for it, and we executed it well.
Q: (Pedro Domingos De Cunha – Band.com.br) Max, your first race here with Red Bull was 2016. It was a rainy race, and you did everything spectacular, even a save from the wall. Do you think that tomorrow, with the rain, your chances of winning are higher?
MV: It’s difficult to tell. Also, in the rain, anything can happen. It’s always quite chaotic. So yeah, we just have to wait and see, of course, what happens tomorrow.
Q: But Max, would you prefer a wet or a dry race?
MV: Dry or wet, it’s fine.
Q: (Jon Javier – Agencia EFE) Max, what would you think of the possibility of having Franco Colapinto as a team-mate, given all the reports that were published recently?
MV: I don’t know. It’s a bit difficult for me to answer. I’m busy with other things to improve. He’s doing a great job at the moment in Formula 1, so that’s great to see. I understand, of course, that it’s very attractive for a lot of teams to have him, so it’s up to the team also to see what they want to do.
Q: (Maria Clara Castro – Car Magazine Brazil) A question to both McLaren drivers. I was just wondering, what can we take from today’s race in terms of teamwork that can be useful for tomorrow’s Grand Prix?
OP: I don’t know. I mean, it could be completely different tomorrow. It’s very, very rare. you have exactly the same scenario. I think we’ve spoken for months now about working together and doing what’s right for the team. And that includes both of us as drivers in the team. Yeah, I mean, we’ll see what scenario we have in qualifying, where we qualify, and then we’ll see what situation we’re in in the race. But it’s not… We’ve probably spent months planning a million scenarios now, but until you actually get into the race and see what you have, it’s very tough to do. But I think, you know, we’ve showed multiple times in both directions that we’ll help each other out when we need to.
LN: Oscar said it well enough.
Q: (Filip Cleeren – Motorsport.com) For all three, if you want. There was a lot of comments yesterday about the new surface and how bumpy it was, how bad was it today, and what was the track evolution? And especially when it rains on a new surface like this, how slippery do you think it’s going to be?
LN: Yeah, normally the rain is not great in these conditions just because it’s still a very fresh surface. There’s a lot of oil and a lot of things that make it slippery. So I’m not expecting it to be easy whatsoever, but it provides good grip on a day like today. It felt actually quite quick today. You have that. The bumps, I mean they’ve not gone overnight, so less than ideal. I don’t know how the tracks are made exactly but in how the cars are forced to be made nowadays every driver on the grid has complained. The cars we had a few years ago, you could get away with more of these things and you almost noticed it a lot less. The cars are made to be low. That is the regulation. The teams have to make them like that. And therefore, other things have to change around it. And one of those things is the tracks, because how it was yesterday, especially, made things pretty difficult for everyone. And it doesn’t just put us under more physical discomfort. I’m not saying pain, but I’m just saying less than ideal bumps and stuff, for your head and your whole body. And also the car. The car has to withstand a lot of bumps and hits and things like that. And it’s made to withstand a good amount, but almost as much as yesterday, not really. So the FIA know, and they’re not happy with it either. So I know that they want to improve things for the future, and they work with us to try and do that.
OP: Yeah, it’s not good. I hope we do something for the next time we come here, but the grip level is actually quite decent, just the consistency of the surface is very poor. It’s probably the worst of the year. Yeah, Austin, I’m not sure, but it’s not far off. So yeah, I think something does need to be done for next year.
MV: Yeah, nothing to add.
Q: (Bruna Parreira – Globo.com) Congratulations, Oscar, for your win. My question is for both of McLaren drivers. Sorry, I would like to ask, how is my colliding approach to managing the short and the long-term objectives now that the championship is coming to an end with four races to go?
OP: I don’t know what I won, but thank you. I mean, I think we just demonstrated what the short and long-term objectives are. I mean, the long-term objective is to win everything we can. So I think that’s quite clear. And in the short term, you know, there’s two championships at stake and I’m really only involved in one. So that’s where I sit with it.
LN: Yeah, Oscar said it well. We’ve helped each other over the last two years for different things. I think it’s one of our strengths is we work very well as a team. I don’t think there’s probably any other team on the grid that work as well. So I’m proud about all of that. But yeah, like Oscar said, we’re fighting for a Constructors’ and we’re fighting for a Drivers’. And we want to help the whole team achieve both of these goals. Obviously, from a driver’s point of view, it puts us in a slightly different position. I’m not proud to win a race like I did today, so I’m almost happy you congratulated Oscar on the win. It’s not how I want to… Yeah, I’m not proud of it, basically. So, you know, I’ll work hard to go and do a better job in quali later and put myself in a better position for the race. We want to avoid it as much as we can but at the same time, you know, we sign up for this. We have to work together as a team. We get told what to do. We have a boss. And, yeah, we do the best we can to help each other out.