1 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes)
2 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)
3 – Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing)
TRACK INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Martin Brundle)
Q: Valtteri, the race of your life?
Valtteri BOTTAS: I think so! I don’t know what just happened.
Q: What a perfect start, to get away.
VB: I don’t know what to say. It was definitely my best race ever. I don’t
know what happened. I felt so good and everything was under control. The car
was so good today. So truly enjoyable. I need to enjoy today.
Q: You made it a one-horse race. Twenty-six world championship points with
the fastest lap. You were determined to have that fastest lap.
VB: Yeah, definitely. It’s a new rule for this year. As I had really strong
pace I wanted to go for that in the end and it’s always a bit risky with
worn tyres but it was worth it. I’m just so happy and I can’t wait for the
next race.
Q: A one-two for the team, congratulations Lewis, second place, but maybe a
bit of a frustrating day for you?
Lewis HAMILTON: No I’s been a good weekend for the team, so I have to be
happy for everyone and a really fantastic job from everyone. Valtteri drove
an incredible race today, so he truly deserved it. We’ve just got some work
to do. Still, it’s a great, great start to the year, more than we could have
hoped as a team.
Q: Max launched an attack on you at the end. Did you have it covered?
LH: Yeah, no problem at all.
Q: Any idea where the pace may have gone to?
LH: I do have some ideas, but I’ll wait until I sit with my engineers to go
over it. Naturally, position at the start was a little bit frustrating,
especially when you have a good weekend up to that point but that’s how the
game goes and I’ll just train and work hard to try and improve the next
time.
Podium place for Max Verstappen. You had an interesting afternoon.
Max VERSTAPPEN: Yeah, I had to overtake Seb to get onto the podium, which is
not easy around here, so I was happy to pull that move off, and also
challenging Lewis for second, so, yeah, pretty pleased with that.
You had the Ferraris covered. You had a little trip across the grass,
probably took you back from behind Lewis. But you were still coming at him.
MV: Yeah, it was unfortunate but I don’t think it would have changed the end
result.
So, reasonably happy with today?
MV: Of course. To start the season on the podium, challenging the Mercedes
car ahead, I think that’s a very positive start for us. Also a big well done
to the team, after the difficult Friday we had. And also big thanks to
Honda, also their first podium in the V6 era, so very happy for them.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Well Valtteri you said on the podium that you had porridge for breakfast
but was there any indication in practice that you were going to be able to
unlock that sort of performance from the car?
VB: Well, first of all, as a team, in practice we saw that we were strong,
both in short runs and long runs, but obviously it’s impossible to draw a
proper conclusion but we saw the raw pace yesterday in qualifying, as a
team, with a good margin to Ferrari, and today race pace was strong – much
stronger than we expected coming into this weekend. That’s obviously good
news. It shows that we have definitely done all the right things between the
testing in terms of direction with the car. Also, for myself, it was
definitely the best race I’ve had in my life. Obviously, the key thing for
me was the race start, to get to the lead and then being at the front I
could show strong pace and I could pull a gap. I think in the first stop I
could also…. I stopped a bit later so I was a good tyre in the end. Just the
car was feeling so good today, it was truly enjoyable.
Q: Well, many congratulations. Lewis, it all seemed to slip away from you at
the start. Tell us about that moment?
LH: I don’t really remember much of it, honestly, it was quite a long time
ago really. I don’t know, maybe I got wheelspin. It doesn’t really matter,
Valtteri got a better start. Once we got to the first corner, we held
position, we had the front row still. And Valtteri did an exceptional job
throughout the race, so congratulations to him and after that it was just
about bringing the car home.
Q: You talked on the radio about maybe some tyres issues. Did that play out?
LH: No, not really. I wasn’t entirely happy with the balance I had but it
wasn’t the end of the world. It wasn’t a problem for me to finish second.
Q: Thanks. Coming to you Max: If we had said to you before this race that
you would finish 35 seconds ahead of the lead Ferrari, what would you have
said?
MV: I would tell you ‘we will find out on Sunday’. Winter testing doesn’t
really show the true picture, as you can see this weekend. We had a good
car. In the start, stayed out of trouble. It was just very hard to stay
close to Seb, as my tyres were overheating very quickly. I just did my own
pace, a manageable pace, and we could extend our stint a little bit and then
when we did the pit stop afterwards we had a bit fresher tyres than Lewis
and Seb ahead. I managed to get by Seb, which is not easy around this track,
because it’s just so hard to follow. But very happy to get to third. Trying
to challenge for second was a very positive feeling, especially after my
Friday. At the end we couldn’t pull it off, but in general I’m juts very
happy to be on the podium. I think we managed to turn it around in a very
positive way after Friday and for Honda to have their first podium in the V6
era is a great start, so big congrats to them.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Yianni Mavromoustakos – talkingtorque.com.au) Question for Max. How did
you find the Honda engine after your first race with it – and do you think
you’ll be capable enough to compete for top spot?
MV: Well, I think in terms of speed we had throughout the race, it was again
a very good step forward to last year. If I just compare top speeds against
the other two top teams, so I’m very pleased for that. Also, in general, the
engine has been performing really well, without any issues. So, that is also
very important. I guess time will tell if we can fight for top spot.
Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Max, obviously the performance of the Red
Bull Honda package, evidenced by the fact you finished third – but how
encouraging was it that you were not only able to finish third on the road
but were able to push Lewis and show performance all the way to the end. It
didn’t look like you were having to manage the package at all towards the
end.
MV: No, we didn’t. Well… you always have to manage the tyres because as soon
as you get close to the car ahead they overheat, the tyres. In general, just
very pleased, because I could at least have a go at it, in terms of top
speed. Good progress, and there are a lot of positive things coming as well,
and so far we have been working really well together. Very pleased with
that. I think Valtteri was very far ahead still. It was a good result today,
but we have to work hard to, of course, improve.
Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Congratulations Valtteri. For the first
time in six years, a Finnish driver is leading the championship. How does it
feel to be first time there as a leader?
VB: Congrats to you as well! Thank you. Obviously, I don’t think I was ever
leading a championship. Obviously I know it’s only the first race of the
year. I’m not so good with the numbers of the days and statistics but all I
can say is that I’m really pleased with the way the season has started.
First of all for us as a team, we have such a strong package going forwards
and then, for myself, after quite a tricky last year, to have started the
season like this. It’s very good and I look forward to the next race.
Q: (Roger Byron – Beyond the Racing Line) For everyone, how was it with the
new aero package, following cars this weekend? In a race you find out more…
MV: Ask Valtteri how it was following!
LH: No different.
No different to previous seasons?
LH: No.
You were pretty close to Lewis at the end there Max…
MV: Yeah, I had no chance to get by. It is still very hard. The only
positive thing what we improved is the DRS effect. So, as soon as it opens,
it’s a lot more powerful than last year but following is still a lot of
turbulence.
Anything to add Valtteri, when you were coming through traffic…
VB: It was quite… I didn’t get close enough to traffic ahead to really see a
difference.
Q: (David Coath) Valtteri, you drove the perfect race and your pitcrew was
perfect as well. How does that make you feel when you know how much everyone
in the team is giving?
VB: It means a lot. It is teamwork and nothing comes for free. Or by one
person’s efforts. We’ve all worked for this result we’ve got now as a team
together, over the past years and over the winter, and over the weekend. I’m
very proud of every single person here in the team at this race weekend but
also at the factory. There’s many hidden heroes in Brackley and in
Brixworth. Just want to say a massive thanks to them and I really know how
much they work and how much it means.
Q: (Don Kennedy – Hawkes Bay Today) Valtteri, was there any moment during
the race that you had a flashback to Russia last year and you thought maybe
someone might come on the radio and say ‘slow down’?
VB: No, I didn’t think of that, actually, and there would be no reason to
think about that. We are all starting a new season with zero points, we are
here to fight, both me and Lewis will want to fight this season, for sure,
against each other and against everyone and we are still one team so no
point in thinking about those kind of things.
Q: (inaudible – Finnish News Agency) Valtteri, you said yesterday that you
approached the weekend differently, started from zero. Can you explain how
your preparation was different from last year, for instance?
VB: Yeah, for sure every year you learn as a person, you learn about
yourself, what works for you, what doesn’t work for you in terms of
preparation and what preparation includes: how you rest, how you spend your
free time, how you do the training, how much training, what kind, all those
kind of things, travel plans, all sorts. So just trying to optimise
everything for this year, try to maximise every single thing that is
possible. I don’t know, it’s quite difficult to explain what’s been going on
here last winter, inside of my head and definitely something changed in
terms of the way I feel about things in life in general and in racing, but
that’s all in my thoughts. I felt good in the car today and yesterday.
That’s all that matters.
Q: (inaudible – The Age Newspaper) Max, I want to ask about your mindset and
the first race without Daniel. Does it change not having to look sidewards
and being able to focus on yourself and not focus as much on internals and
have a weekend purely about your performance? Did it feel different today
without Daniel?
MV: Well, I always focused on myself so it’s not like something changes,
from my side. No.
Q: (Giusto Ferronato – Gazzetta dello Sport) Lewis, can you tell us
something about (how much) wheelspin you had, wheelspin at the start?
LH: Yeah, probably too engaged with the clutch, probably, but I don’t really
know because I won’t know ‘til I go back, but ultimately I didn’t do a good
enough job.
Q: (Phil Branagan – The New Daily) Lewis, the build-up to this race has been
very much about your team versus Ferrari, and many people in the room have
written about that. Did we have it wrong? And you just fought off a Red
Bull; is this now a three way fight for the championship between those three
teams?
LH: I don’t know if you wrote it wrong. It was supposed to be a three-way
fight… I thought it was going to be a three-way fight so maybe you did write
it wrong.
Q: (Jeremy Statis – L’Equipe) You really seemed to care about the fastest
lap point at the end of the race. Would you say it will be a big deal during
the season and will you be ready to take a lot of risks to get it?
VB: Yeah, obviously it’s a point and if you get three of those or more it’s
going to make a big difference at the end of the year. You never know. One
point can make a difference in the end. For sure we’re willing to risk but
still knowing that if you’re about to get 20 or 18 points or 15, whatever,
they are still more important than getting one extra so you need to
calculate the risk but today was worth it, within a stop for an extra set of
tyres for it, but with the worn tyres I went for a quick lap and it was
worth it.
I just want to say, again, thank-you Charlie and I want to say that this win
is for Charlie and all his work for Formula One. He’s done a massive amount
and it means a lot to all of us drivers.
LH: It’s 21 points so we’re going to fight for them.
MV: There are 21 possible points you can get so it can help but like
Valtteri said, at the end of the day it’s most important to score 25 or 18,
15, 10. Try to go for one more and then it goes wrong, it can happen
sometimes but anyway, I think in some situations like today, I was pushing
anyway to try and get Lewis so it happened that I was doing, at that time,
the fastest lap. It’s nice if it happens. |