1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)
2 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes)
3 – Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing)
TRACK INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by David Coulthard)
Q: Lewis, congratulations, another dominant display. You were enjoying that.
Lewis HAMILTON: I loved it. I was actually very, very happy. I think the
whole weekend's been very strong from the team, it's a great 1-2 from
Mercedes, it a true showing of the great strength in depth we have as a
team. This track is the best track in the world. I don’t know why they don’t
make tracks like this anymore but every second of the run it was just great
fun. I was able to look after my tyres the way I wanted and just managed the
pace. It’s really weird – obviously I have been racing a long, long time,
but the happiness I have inside is as high as always. It’s a great feeling.
Q: Well just looking at your tyres, you don’t seem to be too bad on
blistering, so you were just able to manage, but we did hear that you had
some engine issues earlier in the grand prix, so it wasn’t all plain
sailing?
LH: Yeah, I asked the team but they said it was OK. But really, these guys
here you see at the track, the guys back at the factory, these guys work so
hard to create this… this beast, and I’m so proud and grateful to have the
chance to do what I do with it. I’ve been racing a long, long time now but,
as I said, it feels like one of the first.
Q: If you win in America in two weeks’ time and Sebastian is not second, you
will win your fifth world title.
LH: Honestly, I’ll take it one step at a time. Each week you have a positive
weekend and you go to another grand prix and you’re not sure how you’re
going to fare and how you’re going to perform, because there are still gaps
in between, but I think we have gone from strength to strength this year as
a team, so I really hope that we can… Austin is usually a good track for us,
so I can’t wait to unleash this beast there.
Q: Congratulations, Lewis, great drive. Valtteri, you were absolutely
setting the pace in Russia but it looked like you struggled a little bit
more on this circuit and you had some real tyre management to do at the end
against Max.
Valtteri BOTTAS: Well, yeah. Initially during the race, everything felt
good, I knew what I had to do and I was really just executing the plan. The
pace felt good. But at the end of the second stint I had some blistering,
which made it a bit more tricky, but anyway, for me the job was to get to
the finish line in P2.
Q: We heard from Lewis that he had some engine management issues early in
the grand prix. Did you have anything like that or was it just the tyre
blistering that was your main concern?
VB: Not really, no. No issues. We managed to save the engine to save the
engine a bit because the pace was so good. But no issues otherwise.
Q: Max, you’re pretty consistent here in Japan: third straight podium. It
was very close with Valtteri at the end, but you locked up into the hairpin
on the last lap. So did the opportunity slip away?
Max VERSTAPPEN: Yeah, we didn’t really have a chance, but in general I think
to nurse the car home with the damage I had on the floor, we did a great
job. The strategy initially was a bit tricky, with the supersoft tyres, but
then once we got the soft tyres on it was actually working really well, and
you could see that near the end we had the pace, even with the damage, so
I’m happy about that.
Q: You had two incidents with the Ferrari drivers. First of all with Kimi,
and you got a five-second penalty for that, which we heard on the radio you
weren’t happy about, and then a failed attempt from Sebastian to overtake
you down into Spoon. Take us through those two?
MV: Yes, I braked a little bit too late into the chicane, so I did
everything I could to get back onto the track and I think I did it in a safe
way, because I was not crazy-fast onto the track, but Kimi chose the wrong
line in the chicane. He could have also just waited for me to come back on
the track. We touched a little bit, but I think it’s really ridiculous those
five seconds. But anyway, we managed to survive that and then even before
the pit stop, the touch with Sebastian – in that corner you can’t overtake.
I even gave him space, but he understeered into my car. It’s a shame, but
still happy to be on the podium.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Lewis, you talked a bit about coming back
stronger for the second half of the season and that you imagined having this
run-in but you’ve been dominant, especially compared to Sebastian. You’ve
not made mistakes, he’s been making mistakes. Are you surprised at how he’s
faded from the title picture?
LH: Well, what I meant is that you have to set your sights high and so
naturally, as you come into the season, you set the goal high, set the
target high. When we got to mid-season we got that win going into the break
and then again, really pushing to make sure that we come back even stronger
so again, set the bar high. That’s what we were hoping to achieve, it’s not
always the case, it’s really not always the case that you achieve your
target but I think we have through really great hard work from everyone. In
terms of Sebastian’s performance… Of course, I didn’t expect… Up until the
mid-part of the season they were very strong and then we obviously got to
Monza and then after that they were still quite strong from Monza, Singapore
and then at Singapore was when it really started to tail off. I definitely
hadn’t anticipated that they would tail off as they have. Not only have they
lost a lot of performance, lost performance… just performances have not been
coming in the same as they had before, as strong as they were before. I
don’t really have an answer for that and it’s not something I’m really
focused on. I’m sure Sebastian could tell you why. We’ve just been focusing
on trying to do the best job we can and maximise the potential of our own
ability, that’s all we can do.
Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Valtteri, how much are you hoping that
Lewis will win the championship already in Austin to get more normal
circumstances for the last three races to challenge him?
VB: You know of course I’m still able to challenge him. It just depends on
the situation like the race in Russia so I’m still trying everything I can
to keep upbeat for every race and trying to challenge. I felt yesterday in
the qualifying it was really getting better and better for me and it was
pretty close in the end between us. Today, after the start, I knew what was
going to be the case. We had to bring one-two home and that was it. There
are not that many races left and at some point I would guess he’s going to
get the title hopefully and then we will see.
Q: (Andre Venema – Formula 1 Magazine NL) Max, speaking of penalties, do you
think Vettel deserved a penalty as well, for what he did to you?
MV: Well, I’m not the one who makes the rules. I think otherwise a lot of
penalties would have been avoided anyway in Formula One. I think it’s a
similar scenario to what I had in China with him. Of course, we didn’t spin
off the track but he drove into the side of my car. I think we could have
been a bit more careful.
Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) At the moment, we have a lot of situations
where you’re having to either avoid or manage blistering. I just wondered…
on that phenomenon, is that more of a problem this year? How bad is it and
how much are you having to manage it over the course of this season?
LH: Honestly, I think Pirelli have done a really good job this year. The
cars are faster than ever before, we have more downforce than ever before so
there’s more force going through the tyres. And so every time they improve
the tyres, we improve the car and we pretty much have a similar issue of
blistering, but they do have the lower gauged tyre which we used earlier in
the year on which we didn’t see any blistering. I’m not really sure why they
didn’t continue using that for the year but I’m sure that’s probably
something they will engage in next year. We have definitely not been able to
go flat out all the time and we are having to manage temperatures in order
to make a one stop race work - the loss in the pit lane is so big you want
to always try and make sure you do a one stop. But I don’t particularly have
a problem with it. I think it takes skill and management to keep the pace up
and lose as little as possible whilst still keeping the tyre alive. Would we
prefer to have no blistering? For sure, if we could keep pushing the whole
way and not having rear overheating, that would definitely enable us to
follow for longer and race for longer but that’s something that they are
constantly trying to battle, I’m sure.
VB: I think we had to do a lot of management at pretty much every race this
season and especially at the last few there have been issues with the
blistering. Once we are getting to a certain temperature, we know it’s going
to happen at some point, so then we’re just not pushing to go over those
temperatures and trying to manage. At some places, like today, when it’s
hot, in this high energy track, laterally, it’s pretty difficult and it does
feel at times that you are completely cruising round which is not ideal. You
know there’s so much potential in these cars and my thinking is if everyone
did one stop today, if you do one stop pushing flat out it would be more fun
but that’s the issue for everyone now. The cars are quicker than ever. I was
involved in some of the testing for next year’s tyres a couple of weeks ago
and I’m sure they are pushing flat out and hopefully it’s going to be a bit
better next year.
MV: I think like Lewis said, it was well explained. |