1 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes)
2 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)
3 – Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing)
TRACK INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Martin Brundle)
Q: Valtteri Bottas, pole position to victory and you’ve just beaten on the
greatest drivers of all time in Formula 1 history. You must be so satisfied
with that victory?
Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, it’s a nice win. Feels good. It just felt very good
since yesterday, the car, and yeah, we had a strong pace so we were able to
get the win. It was the only I could really focus on and do this weekend in
terms of the championship, but obviously it was not enough and Lewis got the
title…
Q: You weren’t lucky with the traffic. Was there a point where you thought
‘I might not win this now’? You really had to come back at Lewis and his
pace was amazing.
VB: Yeah, I wasn’t quite sure which strategy was going to be ending up the
better one, but luckily my pace was good so I could make even that two-stop
happen, which was not planned initially. Yeah, we both had some traffic here
and there.
Q: Have you got a quick word about Lewis and for Lewis?
VB: Yeah, obviously big congrats to him. I personally failed on my target
this year, but there’s always next season. But he deserves it. He had some
season.
Q: OK, we’re going to talk to the six-time world champion. He had a great
second place today as well. Lewis Hamilton, congratulations, six times a
world champion. You’re one clear of the great Fangio and you’re one behind
Michael Schumacher, bless him. How does that feel? What’s going through your
head?
Lewis HAMILTON: It’s just overwhelming if I’m really honest. It was such a
tough race today. Yesterday was really a difficult day for us. Valtteri did
a fantastic job, so huge congratulations to him. Today I really just wanted
to recover and deliver the one-two for the team. I didn’t think the one-stop
was going to be possible but I worked as hard as I could. I’m just filled
with so much emotion. I have my whole team here, everyone back at the
factory. I’ve got my mum and my dad, my stepmum and my stepdad here, my
uncle George and my aunt from Trinidad, and all the family back home
obviously. It’s just an honour to be up here with those greats.
Q: Great start: you went around the Ferraris, so now you’ve put yourself
into nice championship position. You could have put your feet up, but you
just never give up do you?
LH: My dad told me when I was like six or seven years old to never give up
and that’s kind of the family motto, so no. I was pushing as hard as I
could. I was hopeful that I might be able to win today but it didn’t have it
in the tyres unfortunately.
Q: How far can you go? How many championships? Just where can this end?
LH: I don’t know about championships but as an athlete I feel fresh as can
be right now, so I’m ready for these next races, we won’t let up, we’ll keep
pushing. I’ve got to say a big, big thank you to all team LH around the
world, everyone that has come out here this weekend to really make this
event what it is, and also to all the Brits and people with the UK flags
supporting me this weekend. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart.
Q: Congratulations once again. Max, you kept the great Mercedes team very
honest today, you pushed like crazy, but in the end the strategy didn’t
quite work out for you?
Max VERSTAPPEN: Well, it didn’t work out but I think we did the best we
could. They were just a little bit faster today. I tried to stay close in
case something happened. For us it was a very good race. It was fun, I could
still see the cars ahead of me and I think we had quite decent pace today.
Q: Yeah you did. Your pace was relentless. We thought you were going to have
a chance to catch and pass Lewis right at the end. Was that in your mind
too?
MV: Yeah, but there was a yellow flag on the back straight, so I couldn’t
use the DRS. Otherwise, I think we could have been second today, but
nevertheless still good to be on the podium.
Q: And a quick word about Lewis?
MV: Yeah, of course very impressive. Yeah, what else to say? He’s just doing
phenomenally. He has a great team behind him, and, yeah, I hope we can take
the fight to them next year.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Valtteri, many congratulations, you nailed it this weekend, winning from
pole position. Did you have any concerns during that race?
VB: Thank you. Obviously, a really good weekend, some solid progress since
last year on a track I struggled with a bit. So yeah, obviously, as an
individual race weekend, really pleased. Crossing the line really made me
happy, because it was not an easy race. Even though the start went as
planned, it was strong, also the first stint. But for me, Plan A was to do
one stop, but Max pitted quite early, moved to two stops, so I had to try to
cover him and then I went for two stops as well. Lewis stayed long, he tried
to do one stop and one stage I worried that it was going to be a better
strategy for him. All I could was focus on my every single lap, corner,
trying to perfect everything, you know, with the traffic, all that, trying
to minimise the losses and maximise all the gains I could. Then it was all
about seeing towards the end of the race where we are. And my pace was good
today and at the end I could catch Lewis and have some good fighting with
him on track, which I enjoyed, and it was a good feeling to get ahead and to
win the race like that it feels good when it doesn’t come easy.
Q: Well done Valtteri, second win in three races, very strong end to the
season for you. Max, coming to you: without that yellow flag at the end for
Magnussen might you have had a go for second place?
MV: Yeah, absolutely. Because of that you have to lift off, otherwise I
would have definitely gone by. But that’s how it is. Sometimes those things
happen. Overall, we had a really good race. I was just struggling with some
weird oversteer in the car. Initially, they said it was my front wing, which
had a little bit of damage but after the race I looked at the car and I was
missing a big piece of my floor in front of the rear tyre, so that
definitely cost me a lot of lap time today. I don’t know when it happened
but already quite quickly into the race I had this weird behaviour from the
car, which I had not felt before. So that’s a bit unfortunate and otherwise
I think we could have been stronger today. But still, to be on the podium
here after a very positive weekend in general I think was a really good
achievement for us.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Abhishek Aggarwal – Indiainf1.com) My question is for Max. As you
finished third today and in the championship points you are closing the gap
now, do you think with two races remaining you can pretty finish ahead of
the Ferrari driver and finish the gap and close in at three?
MV: I think the gap to third is quite big. It might be a little bit too big
to close, but let’s see. Today was good for that. But of course my last few
races we lost so many points, that was not ideal. I expect we will be
competitive in the last two races so let’s see how it will all work out for
us. It is of course always better to finish third than fourth or fifth, even
though I think everybody wants to be first, but we will try everything we
can.
Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Valtteri, I guess you knew coming into this
that it would be unlikely that you would remain in title contention, so the
fact that Lewis has wrapped it up here, does it take the sting out of that
to win but also win in the manner that you did and beat Lewis on track in a
straight fight?
VB: This weekend, winning it was the only thing I could do to try and
maintain the title hopes and delay them. Obviously I did my part, which
feels good, but Lewis was strong this weekend, as he always is, so he got
some solid points and got the championship. I’ve got mixed feelings, really.
As an individual weekend it was strong but then, on the other hand, I felt
this year being best of the rest it doesn’t feel good. But it always need a
little bit of positives as well, you know. It’s my best season in Formula
One so far, so that’s good, and looking at other positives, I’ve made huge
gains in many areas, in terms of race pace and everything. But yeah, winning
the race this way, Lewis still… I’m sure he really wanted to win this race,
to win the title by winning the race, I could stop that and that feels good,
obviously. But I just look forward to next year – it’s a new opportunity.
Q: (Luis Vasconcelos – Formula Press) Valtteri, the first time you passed
Lewis it was pretty straightforward, there was a huge pace differential. The
second time you had two attempts: the first one you had to go wide and the
second one you made it. Can you talk is through those last two attempts?
VB: Yeah, I was closing in, there was also some traffic also ahead. Lewis
had a bit of a mistake in Turn 11, so I could suddenly get this first
opportunity. He covered the inside, so I had to take the outside line,
although I was ahead, but he braked very late, so eventually I had to run
off the track to avoid the collision, but it’s fine because if I was at his
position I would have done the same, to defend as well as you can, so I’m
fine with that. The other opportunity: again I think he went a bit wide on
Turn 8 or 9, so I could get very close before the back straight and then it
was much more straightforward. Again, I had good momentum out of exit of 11,
got the tow and got him. So, then, after that, it felt like job done and
tried to get car home without mistakes.
Q: (Lawrence Edmonson – ESPN) A question for Valtteri. Congrats on the win
but as you mention it’s slightly bittersweet. So when you look back at the
year, where do you think it got away from and what do you think, ultimately,
was the difference between you and Lewis this year?
VB: Overall I think there were a few mistakes, for sure, from my side I
should have been able to avoid. There were a couple on race starts, at least
some of them were mistakes, some were maybe unlucky moments but they made me
learn. Then a couple of qualifyings I messed up in Q3, definitely, which
cost me starting position for the race and compromised the race and I lost
points because of that. And then, otherwise, I don’t know, luck, unluck
(sic) whatever has been pretty even for me and Lewis overall, so he’s just
been on a great level again this year, every single race, and I’ve not been
able to be at my very, very best every single race, but much more often than
ever before, so the direction is clear for me in terms of my development,
overall. It’s a good momentum now and in terms of race pace, which has been
my weakness in the years before, I’ve made huge gains by working really hard
with the engineers, you know, every single detail of my driving and set-up.
That’s getting better and that gives me really confidence for next year and,
unlike at the end of last year, now I really look forward to the year ahead,
and I’m already excited to start the next season and start from fresh. So
that’s going to be good fun.
Q: (Stew Myrick - KTXX FM) Congratulations to you both on your respective
finishes. There was talk on Friday about bumps on the track, on certain
portions of the track. For both of you, how much of a concern was that today
and how much did it change your strategy going into today’s race?
VB: Only really the biggest effect in terms of driving was trying to avoid
mistakes into Turn One with the bumps in the braking zone. Apart from that,
there was a line in Turn Nine where there was a big bump that you could
kind-of have a little bit less of an impact with that line, you would lose a
little bit of time. So, always when I could, I tried to manage the car by
taking that line, taking the time loss but making sure we didn’t damage the
car – because obviously, example Sebastian, he had damage in his suspension,
probably because of the bumps, so we tried to play safe when we could – but
other than that it was not too bad. I think it brings a bit of character to
the track. Obviously sometimes visibility is poor because of that but
hopefully they don’t get any worse because that would be difficult to cope
with.
Max?
MV: I don’t mind bumps but they’re almost like ramps in some places. But
anyway, I think they will adjust it for next year. I think we have talked
enough about it.
Q: (Christian Menath – motorsport-magazin.com) Question for both of you.
Ferrari was pretty strong since the summer break. Today they were nowhere.
Have you been surprised by their performance and do you have an explanation
for that?
MV: Not surprised. At all. About it. After what came out. So that explains
everything.
VB: What came out?
MV: The piece of paper.
VB: I haven’t seen it.
Max isn’t surprised. Are you surprised Valtteri?
MV: Clearly!
VB: Actually, I am. Because I haven’t seen that piece of paper. Look forward
to seeing it. But yeah, it was crazy. Since the beginning of the race they
were far away – but Red Bull was really strong today, as they’ve been now
everywhere lately. So… yep.
Q: (Peter Windsor – Clarksport) Congratulations Valtteri on a superb pole
and win. Just going back to your driving again, there was a moment when you
didn’t know if you would be racing for Mercedes after this year, and the
contract was taken up, and it was announced that you were staying – and I’m
wondering in the build up to that, how much uncertainty there might have
been in your mind, and whether that might have affected your ability to work
as you just described, and how long that period went on for – or was it a
given in your mind that it was always going to happen?
VB: There was definitely uncertainty for 2020 at some point. Lots of
rumours. I had no idea what was going to happen. I just had to wait. So, for
sure, as an athlete, as a driver, it’s not an ideal situation. You can’t be
completely with peace of mind and focus on the job and, y’know, feel
mentally free and in the right place. It’s tricky. When that continues, you
know, year after year, every single year of your career, at some point it’s
getting a pain in the ass – so it’s definitely nice to get the contract
signed. But, it’s going to be the same story next year. But not too worried
at this point because the pace is good, I enjoy the driving, I enjoy working
with the team and hope they appreciate that as well.
[Valtteri and Max leave, Lewis arrives]
Q: (Abhishek Aggarwal – indiaInf1.com) Lewis, congratulations first of all.
In two out of two races we’ve seen you went on with the one-stop strategy.
Was that always the plan or are you kind-of improvising, the tyres are
responding good and you are making it work ‘til the end?
LH: Well, today, I think it originally looked like it was going to be a
one-stopper but that changed once the temperatures came up today. You could
see the guys ahead were starting to struggle on their tyres. Max then
stopped quite early. So, I don’t think the team was expecting to do a
two-stop, for sure, and on my side, I was thinking, ‘OK, I’m starting fifth,
I’ve got to figure out how do I get to first.’ That’s all I’m thinking all
day: how I could win this race. And so, I nursed those tyres like the best
that I could possibly do. And I think that’s probably been a real strength
of mine this year. I think I’ve always been able to do that kind of thing
but to get the car in a position where you’re able to do that, and each year
I’ve been getting better at it. And to eke as much as I could out of those
tyres, I was so close to being just able to keep those guys behind – but I’m
grateful to have been able to contribute to the team getting the 1-2.
Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) How would you rate this title compared to
the five before? Is it the easiest or the toughest?
LH: No way has it been the easiest. It’s been the hardest year for us as a
team. We lost Niki this year. A crucial member and a real pivotal member of
our team and the emotional rollercoaster that we’ve been on with losing him,
and a race where I didn’t have Bono here, outside of the car, just trying to
remain focussed throughout the year. That is the toughest, and only really
other athletes who are at the top of their game can really, probably related
to it, probably because it’s just: arrive: week-in, week-out, can’t drop the
ball – like I did yesterday, for example – and being about to bounce back
from the tough… the lower days. And this car has not been easy, not been
easy for us. It’s not been easy for us. We started the season honestly going
off to Melbourne thinking that we were going to be behind. Mid-point of the
season we were behind, and it’s been a real challenge, this second half of
the season. It’s been the toughest second half of the season that I think
we’ve had as a team, fighting against Ferrari and Red Bull, which is great,
we welcome that. But, I don’t know, every journey is different. Every year
you go through a different rollercoaster ride of emotions to get to where
you’re going. I wrote something in my post this morning, that each and every
single one of us is struggling with something in life. Whatever it may be:
small, big. I tried to show people that, from the outside, things always
look great but it’s not always the case. And I am also struggling with lots
of different things and battling certain demons and trying to make sure that
I’m constantly growing as a person. I think yesterday was something that was
sent to test me, and I was able to do one of my favourite races today, I
think. I was really happy with that one.
Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Congratulations Lewis. Because you’ve had
this run of success now with Mercedes, I guess one of the things that
sometimes critics question is how much of it as team and car – but if you
look at Ferrari, they’ve had their strongest season to date and you and
Mercedes have still pretty much wiped the floor with them. So how satisfying
is it to have built this team around you. And a second question on Ferrari.
Are you surprised at how much they faded from competitiveness this weekend
specifically?
LH: On the performance side, no I’m not surprised. You saw that advantage
they had through the season, and even last year. They had a huge amount of
power, but more so this year, out of nowhere, had a tonne of power and I
really just think, at will, whenever they wanted they seemed to have more.
This weekend, I don’t know how their speed traces with ours but it’s
definitely not like it used to be. It was seven-tenths we were losing on the
straights before. Winning world titles. There’s not a single driver in the
past that’s won a title without having a great team around him. There’s not
a single world tennis player that’s won a title without having a great team
around him. It’s part of the game and it’s how you navigate, and how you
utilise those tools that are around you and those people around you to shape
the future of the journey that you guys are on. And I’m just a chink the
chain with this team but I feel very, very privileged and feel very… I feel
really happy with my contribution, y’know? That I’ve been able to help steer
the team in the right direction with the development, with the way the car
needs to get quicker. And, more often than not have delivered performances
for them when we’ve had a car that’s quicker than the others and also when
the car has not been as quick as the others. Particularly that last year,
they were just too quick for us to beat but we out-willed them, we had to
out-think them and we did that collectively as a team.
Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Lewis, I know you’ve talked about qualifying
this year and you not being happy with that, but overall you’ve kept up a
very consistent level, probably the highest I think we’ve seen from you.
Would you say this has actually been your best season overall, as a driver?
LH: I think so. I definitely think so. I think last year was a year of just
continuous growth and I think this year has also been continuous growth but
I tried to make sure that I’ve started the season as I finished last year.
And I think that’s just stayed through the season. If you looked, I’ve been
very consistent in qualifying. I’ve not had particularly spectacular pole
positions that perhaps I did last year – but it’s been, y’know, first,
second row the majority of the time, except for this weekend. And apart from
Hockenheim – but I’ll give myself a pass for that weekend because I wasn’t
really 100 per cent. Otherwise I think it’s been the best performing year
and I think I’m really just trying to… I’m working on a masterpiece and I
haven’t quite finished it yet, so I’m trying to understand… it takes a long
time to master a craft and whilst I feel like I am mastering it, there’s
still more to master. There’s still more to add to it. There’s still more
pieces to the puzzle to add. There’s going to be more ups and downs along
the way but I feel like I’ve got the best tools now, to this point at least,
to be able to deal with those.
Q: (Peter Windsor – Clarksport) You’ve always said that you would take each
race as it comes; you’re looking forward to the next race already and how
motivated you are to win. But the championship is there now and I’m
interested to know now whether – looking back at yesterday – maybe what
happened yesterday wouldn’t have happened if the championship hadn’t been so
close? That’s one question, and as a sort of corollary to that, when you
woke up this morning, were you thinking ‘got to win today’; or were you
thinking ‘got to get the championship done today’? Or both? Or neither?
LH: I woke up this morning and I wasn’t really thinking of the championship.
I think really I generally try to put that always at the back of my mind and
during the season I’m generally not thinking about it, I’m taking it one
race at a time. That’s worked for me in the past and so what ain’t broke
don’t fix it. Each weekend there’s a different build-up to it, there’s a
different journey towards… in that week or two gap that you have and you
come across so many different people, different territories that you’re in
and it’s a real roller coaster and each time you’ve got to arrive with
positive energy, with the right fitness, the right mental attitude. So
anyways, yesterday… it sucked, you know? I love qualifying and I was looking
for one of those special laps and it was below average. I practised it,
practised it and practised it and to think that we’re towards the end of the
year and I’m still having those experiences… it’s OK because if it was all
good and perfect there would be nothing to be excited about. I came here
today in fifth, knowing that it’s going to be a very, very tough race. I
watched all the starts from all the previous seasons that we’ve had here,
trying to figure out where I’m going to place the car at the beginning of
the race and all I could see was first place. How do I get to the guy that’s
right on first. I wasn’t even looking at… when I was in third, I wasn’t even
looking at the blue car that was ahead of me, I was looking at Valtteri and
that’s how I’m built, I’m always looking and wondering… I was like, don’t
give me the times of the car ahead of me, I want to know the times of the
car ahead because that’s the one I’m trying to beat. So that’s how I’m wired
and I was hopeful that potentially this… there was a long way to go on those
hard tyres. So I tried not to doubt that we could make it. But Valtteri did
a great job today so hats off to him and I’m really genuinely pleased for
him and he’s done a fantastic job this year. He’s taken a real step in
performance and I tell you what’s really hard: when you’re in the team, you
help each other sharpen your tools so when I work with an engineer… I’m
pretty sure Bono’s always been a great engineer but I like to think that
through our collaboration, I think he’s now probably the greatest he’s ever
been as an engineer and the same for me as a driver. And when you work with
those people closely and then your number two goes over to the person in the
other car and then starts to utilise what you’ve experienced for all those
years to give advantage to the other driver, that makes it really hard, so
this is why it’s probably been even more of a challenge, particularly from
within the team to work with the first year new guy in Marcus, who’s done a
fantastic job but it wasn’t so easy at the beginning. And then all my cards
have been shown on the other side so creating new strategies, creating new
thought processes, trying to really be innovative when it comes to my
driving style, having to try and keep an ace in the pocket. Where the hell
do you find that used time, so you’re constantly recreating the way you go
about driving and try not to show everything, you know, and I think this
year, as I said, I think he’s done a fantastic job but I’ve just managed to
keep that edge which gave us this championship.
Q: (Ben Hunt – The Sun) Lewis, I was struck by something you just said to
one of the previous answers, you were talking about dark or demons. You
mentioned demons, battling demons. Would you care to elaborate any more on
that at all? It just strikes me as a strange time to mention that, given the
success that you’ve had this year.
LH: Well, not particularly; to each and every one of us is personal, what we
all challenge when you look in the mirror each day, when you feel good or
you feel bad for whatever reason. There’s always the darker side that’s
always trying to pull you down and you’re constantly having to wake up… I
don’t know how you guys wake up in the morning but I look in the mirror and
I’m trying to lift myself up and say ‘yes, you can do it. Yes, you are
great. Yes you can be fit if you go and put that time in. Yes, you can win
this race if you do the right steps and you continue to believe in yourself,
and no one else is going to do it for you.’ So it’s just encouraging
yourself always and I’m just trying to show a side that I didn’t understand
that we’re all similar in many ways. I would say this year that losing Niki,
I didn’t think that was going to hit me as hard as it did. It really was
upsetting and I miss him dearly today and I didn’t realise how much I loved
the guy, from the moment that he was calling me, when I was back home,
asking me to come to the team, to when we sat together in the hotel in
Singapore, the weekend my gearbox broke at McLaren, to him always taking his
hat off so our negotiations to all sorts. Great conversations about his
planes, that was a tough pivot point for us in the end and also we lost a
young kid in Spa. Again, I saw it on the TV, I saw it happen. That again,
when something like that happens, can put lots of doubts in your mind and
batting that off and thinking OK, jeez, is it time to stop or shall I keep
going, because there’s lots of life afterwards. I still want to spend time
with my family, I still want to have a family one day, all these different
things, but I’m so charged to do… and I love doing what I do so much that I
don’t think there’s a lot that can particularly stop me in that sense.
Q: (Rebecca Clancy – The Times) Lewis, six World titles, it doesn’t just put
you among the greats of Formula One drivers, it arguably makes you one of
the greatest British athletes ever. How do you get your head around that, is
that something you are able to comprehend yet?
LH: I don’t see no – and I don’t know why, I really don’t know why. How am I
supposed to feel, you know? I was just saying out there in the scrum that I
remember watching this sport when I was younger, waking up, come downstairs,
my stepmum, Linda, who’s here today, she would make me a bacon sandwich and
me and my dad would sit there together and watch the Grands Prix. It’s odd
to watch it and see someone in the TV set and now to be the person that’s in
the TV set, you know, and be doing something like the great that I saw in
Ayrton and the great that I saw in Michael. It’s beyond surreal to think
that this journey, my life journey has brought me to this point in winning a
sixth title. But I don’t really know how I’m supposed to feel right now. I
just feel… I don’t believe in the whole cloud nine thing, I’m flying super
high right now and I’ve got my family with me which is just… I don’t
remember the last time my stepdad and my stepmum, my dad and my mum were in
the same… at a Grand Prix. I don’t think I’ve had them at a World
Championship Grand Prix before so again, to experience that and share that
with them, people who have ultimately been at the core of who I am and
sacrificed everything they had for me to have the life that I have today, to
have this opportunity to do this today, so I was really proud to see them
all smiling and share it with them.
Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action, Speedsport) Lewis, you’ve talked a lot about
what this all means to you. You’ve also not had a moment to yourself. Is
there a time – tonight, tomorrow, next week – when you sit down and really
reflect on everything?
LH: Usually the reflection comes at the end of the year when work finishes
and you can just take a load off and just sit back and have a beer. I will
be with my dogs, with my feet up and just only then you can have a moment to
grasp how great a year it has been. In my mind, I’m just too competitive, so
I’m thinking OK, we’ve got two more races to go, how am I going to do a
better job, how am I going to improve in qualifying. There’s two more
qualifyings to try and get pole, how am I going to see if I can potentially
pull out a lap like I did in Singapore last year. How am I going to work it
that I can be at the front of both of those. I’m always just looking to
improve and I really love being in this sport. I’m so grateful to this sport
for giving me a life and giving my life purpose. Also, with social media, we
have this platform where you can also have a work and have an impact on
people so I’m grateful for the position I’m in and as I said, I really like
the idea of trying to create a masterpiece. I think we all should be
challenging ourselves to create our own masterpiece in some way, shape or
form, and mine’s not finished.
Q: (Phil Duncan – Press Association) You’re obviously now within one of
Michael’s record. How motivated are you now to end your career as
statistically the greatest driver that’s ever been in a Formula One car?
LH: I think it’s really… it’s all about how you position your thought
process. I’ve always said to you that reaching Michael’s was never a target
for me. I’m not really one that really thinks of records and those kind of
things. I definitely had thought that getting anywhere near Michael was just
so far-fetched and I remember having my one for a long period of time, then
getting a second one. It was so far away and now yet it seems so close yet
it is so far away that I still can’t really even comprehend. The challenges
that we’ll face in these next coming months, the next season. You look at
these other teams that have really been putting some astonishing
performances in in the second half of the season. It’s going to take another
load of incredible performance and work from myself and all the people who
are around me and I really don’t want to have to think about it right now.
And also, I don’t want to build up the idea of trying to get to Michael’s…
to get to seven because at the moment, I’ve got enjoy right now. Tomorrow’s
not a given, I don’t know what’s going to happen over these next days or
months but what I have to do and what we all really should try to make sure
you enjoy each day because one day you’re here and one day you’re not. So
not trying to think of what’s going to happen potentially at the end of next
year or 2021. I believe that I have the ability to continue to grow and to
do more with this team and within Formula One and so that would be the
target but time will tell. Right now I just focus on trying to be as fit and
healthy as I can be and smile as much as I can and enjoy this beautiful
journey we call life. |