TEAM REPRESENTATIVES Toto WOLFF (Mercedes), James VOWLES (Williams), Andy COWELL (Aston Martin)

QQ: Andy, welcome. We might as well start with you. The updates at Imola appeared to work. Are they working here as well? What can you tell?
Andy COWELL: Difficult to say, to be honest. They worked well at Imola. We're not doing a comparison here. We were happy with the data that we got from Imola. So, both cars just running all the updated parts right from the beginning of FP1 and we'll optimize based on that.

Q: Andy, also it's great to see Adrian Newey in green this weekend. How's the garage received him on the ground here? What difference does it make to the guys?
AC: Adrian's been welcomed well in the factory back in March and welcomed well here. So, it's great to have him here with the engineers during meetings, helping to look at the way we look at data, the way we set the car up, and also in the garage seeing how everything's going together. Yeah, everybody's really excited to have him on board.

Q: How hands-on is he in the garage?
AC: He's got his notebook. He's looking intently at what's going on. The pencil's been scribbling in there. He and I have had the odd conversation, and the jobs list gets bigger, but it's all good positive actions to help us move forward.

Q: James, Williams – two cars in the points at the last three races. It looks like you're on a roll. Is that how it feels inside the team?
James VOWLES: I definitely think we’ve stepped forward a little bit relative to the field. There are elements that we've just been working on in the background that are coming to fruition, but you can't take anything for granted. Our goal from the beginning of the year was to get two cars in the points, which is a tall feat in this competitive field. Across the last few races, we haven't extracted all of the points that are possible, but it's good to see we've been able to work across different circuits.

Q: Alex Albon has been in the points at every race, bar one. Are you seeing an improved Alex this year? Where is he better?
JV: Undoubtedly, he is. I remember on Boxing Day [December 26], he started his physical training. He dropped the Christmas lunch and got straight into it. He executes the weekend cleanly from start to finish. No small mistakes creeping in. He's focused on building up across the weekend. He has the advantage of data next to him from, really, a world-class driver, which brings him up to that level as well. His communication, his work in the simulator – all of it has stepped up.

Q: And this weekend, he started well. The car is performing well. What can you tell us from FP1?
JV: I don't think you can really tell much from it. Teams are running, a) different fuel loads, and b) different engine modes. Frankly If you're lucky to get a lap in, because it’s busy out there, then you get fortunate to put your car up there. But it was a sensible place to start. What I’m more interested in is where the balance is and it was a little off, so we need to rectify that going into FP2.

Q: Once a strategist, always a strategist. Looking ahead to the race, mandatory two-stop – is that going to present more opportunities than normal?
JV: I didn't have my best record in Monaco, so I might not be the right person to ask. So, I think this is what it will do, which is a good thing for the sport. I think it means you can't back up the queue anymore at the front of the pack. You’ve got to get on with it. There are going to be cars stopping early on and that will force you into position. That’s good for where we are. it creates unpredictability. If you listen up and down the paddock no one is quite sure what is going to happen. That’s good for us. We’re here to be a sport and a spectacle above all and I think it will do that.

Q: Toto, you said earlier this week that you were working hard to understand the car's limitations at Imola. What conclusions have you reached?
TW: First of all, you know, Andy and I, we are exchanging politeness here at the beginning, when coming in, but it's, for me at least, a pinch moment to see you two here. I never thought that you were doing chassis because you hated chassis. No? You're an engine person! We had such a good time, so many wins, so tough moments, and absolutely deserved, you being leaders of these organisations. It's a proud moment for Mercedes, I guess.

Q: Toto, just on this topic, did you always see these two as future team principals?
TW: With Andy, he was one of the strongest managers that I've seen ever in my life with all the other businesses. He had also the human side and the people management, on the other side, the technical skill. We used to laugh when we had an engine issue, that Andy was having his fingers on the pistons, and in the cylinder head on the Saturday, after qualifying. And I always said, ‘are your nails dirty?’ Because that meant he was in control of what was happening on the engine side. So, yeah, definitely. And James, you know, James could have been a team principal in Mercedes if it wasn't about me. I was in his way. So, he chose another route, and does that very well as you can see. And as by the way, and as a strategist, we all remember the monumental situation when our screens froze. But it was also a learning.

Q: So, Toto, what about Imola then? Just very briefly, what have you learned? What conclusions have you drawn since Imola about the performance then?
TW: Well, in Imola, we got our car in a completely wrong place. It's always painful to find out in a postmortem what you did wrong. But I guess we know that, you know, we just really screwed that up, and gave the drivers a car that was very difficult. We overheated the tyres, massively, and that's why we underperformed.

Q: Yeah. Well, what about here in Monaco?

TW: Well, we didn't exactly—we weren't exactly stellar also here at the beginning of the session, but it is a totally different track than Imola. There will be different learnings. I think, like James said, most important is to put the laps in to understand where you need to balance the car, how you need to, you know, find a sweet spot in the tyre temperatures and get the drivers up to speed. You know, Kimi has just done an F2 race here, so it's his first time. And you can see some of the rookies, they just need the time before they have the confidence to let the car fly through some of the high speed.

Q: If you look at the strengths and weaknesses of the car over the season so far, do you think it, at least on paper, should be quick here?
TW: Well, you know, I'm formulating this very simplistically. We're still fast in the cold and slow in the hot, which you have seen last year and our relative overperformance when the ambient went towards us. And so what this is going to be is again very, very different. It's a qualifying— even with the new strategy, it's going to be a qualifying race. The drivers need to feel confident with the car. They don't at the moment, and you just need to align the stars to be in the front in qualifying. And from there on, obviously, you have a few options, but I wouldn't say that I would count us in the favourites. At the moment, it's a tough fight. You have the Williams right in there. Alonso did a good lap. So, you know, just stay humble and try to do the best possible work and count everybody in.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Ian Parkes – Racing News 365) Question for you, Toto. It was in September, the Italian Grand Prix, that you finally confirmed Kimi Antonelli as your driver alongside George Russell. Is George going to have to wait that long this year until he's finally confirmed as having a new contract, or is there anything this year again in the latest Max Verstappen rumours that just will not go away?
TW: No. Definitely not that long. George and I are totally clear of how this is going to go, and 100% alignment. There is no such thing as, you know, dragging this on because that's not what we do.

Q: (Adam Cooper – Adam Cooper F1) The C6 tyre was a bit of a tricky one in Imola. It was expected to be a bit more straightforward here because it's a different type of track. What have you learned in the first session? Is that the case? It won't really be a talking point, but also, is it a potential race star for the last 20 laps or something depending on how things play out?
JV: It's still a tricky tyre. There's no doubt about it. But it is working. I mean, it was more designed for this track than it was for Imola. The energy you put into a tyre in Imola is quite strong which is why the medium was quite good in qualifying relatively speaking. So I think it's more appropriate here. However, I'd say the early sign is the medium and the soft haven't got a huge amount between those two. So, they are two usable tyres. So, will people fit a Soft in the race? Potentially, as you described, right at the end, but I think you'll primarily see Medium as the good tyre.
AC: So similar to James, we've only run the C6 tyre so far this weekend. In Imola, the C5 was the best for our car in qualifying. And we'll learn through the next session and then make the call tonight as to which direction we're going in.
TW: No idea. The only reference is McLaren on the Mediums. And then I think Plasti put the soft on, and that wasn't much faster than the Medium if I recollect. How much was it? A tenth?
JV: Not even. I think the tyres were about the same.

Q: (Scott Mitchell-Malm – The Race) A question for Toto. You mentioned about the similar trend to last year in terms of good in the cooler conditions, struggling in hotter conditions. Are you surprised or disappointed by that? How much was that focus, sorry, of the development for this year's car?
TW: I think it's not so much about being surprised or disappointed because it's a fact. You know, we are in front of a situation that we wanted to work ourselves out. I think we had a much more decent start to the season than last year, so that is maybe the positive way of looking at things. But definitely for all of us and under expectation delivery so much, maybe also a little bit influenced by Miami – Miami and Imola having been really not good enough. So, let's see how we can sort ourselves out a little bit more, after Monaco. Again, Monaco is such an outlier. You between hero and zero, it goes quickly. So, Barcelona is the one that counts in order to assess our performance levels.

Q: (Mark Mann-Bryans – Autosport) A question for Toto. Kimi said last week after Imola that he probably had too many distractions around him last week off the track. Firstly, do you agree with that? And secondly, if so, is that something you almost have to help him with and protect him with moving forward?
TW: Yeah. I think, you know, this is a learning process. I think, we concluded last year that we've made a mistake in maybe exposing him in Monza in his first ever running in FP1 to the local crowds, and he wanted to perform particularly well. And I think that Imola was probably the perfect storm because it's where he lives. It's his home track, school, family, local football club, all the people that helped throughout his career. Everybody wanted to have a little bit of Kimi. And you know, even as early as Friday, he was just toast. And I spoke to him on Saturday. He said, “I'm out of energy of all of this.” And it’s clear, he’s young, he wants to say thank you to everyone that participated. He doesn't want to be unfriendly to friends, family, fans, all them around. And, you know, it's also, like, what I—the guidance I gave to him, you know, at a certain stage, you need to be—you need to protect yourself, hide yourself in your room, in the engineering room on the Sunday, and everything else just comes second. And I think all of us together, the family, we realized that that was too much, and that is a mistake we will not repeat.

Q: (Luke Smith – The Athletic) A question for James and for Andy. I guess, picking up on the Mercedes reunion, a topic that Toto brought up. For both of you, like, how much did you learn from Toto from a leadership point of view? How much has that informed your own leadership of both of your teams as team principal now?
JV: Toto just joked, “all of it,” but it's not a joke. It really is that. I had the pleasure of being… Toto probably 10 years ago, 12 years ago or so, pulled me in…
TW: The Brits are not so into body contact among…
JV: He pulled me under his wing and just slowly allowed me to get more and more responsibility within the organisation in a way that exposed me to the difficulties that he's going through daily but in a safe and positive way. So it went similar to drivers—drivers into more technical bits of the business. And there's no doubt about it. I would have sunk without his expertise and guidance by my side. And it's what he does really well, but he's bashful and doesn't talk about it too much. But it was a pleasure in that circumstance. There was a time that's not very well known, but we spent a week together in his place in Austria and that was one of the best weeks of my life. So, there are some incredible things that you can do, whilst you're under the guidance of Toto.
TW: F**k it up?
JV: That one as well.
AC: Well done, James. That's it. I think, you know, my time at Mercedes, I learned from Toto. I learned from Niki Lauda. I learned from Ola Källenius, you know, and there are all these characters that you come across when you're in the Mercedes family. And yeah, you try and remember the good bits and push and move forwards.

Q: (Graham Harris – Motorsport Monday). Question for all three of you going back to tyres. Pirelli have indicated that they're now going to be bringing tyres not in consecutive sets. In other words, skipping a compound. How do you think that's going to play out with all your notes and everything else you have from each race? And do you think it'll make racing a little bit more interesting?
AC: Yeah. As James said, you know, this weekend we've got to use three tyre sets and that is something new. So, all the strategy groups are sat working out what to do for this weekend and some will ace it, some won't, but there’ll be variety and that means we’ll be providing greater entertainment. Missing a step in the compounds is a similar route to doing that. So, yeah, that'll be—that'll be great to see. It'll be great to see the strategy group scratching their heads and working out what to do.
JV: Exactly that. This happened a few years ago so it's not the first time we've skipped a compound step. But I'm glad I don't do strategy anymore and I wish them all the best and I'll be by their side, whatever happens.

Q: (Diletta Colombo – Automoto.it) A question for James. Given your strong focus on the 2026 project as a team, do you think you can keep the momentum going with the current car without any major upgrades?
JV: I think it'd be tough is the reality behind it. I mean, we've been very candid that the other car got up the tunnel very early on, for good reason. And the '26 project’s going very well. We had to do that because we're in a different position perhaps to most where that clean sheet of paper – we're not carrying anything across at all – gives us an ability to do a full reset and fix some things that perhaps we should have done a few years ago, but it's very difficult to do in that cycle. So that's our reasoning behind it. Without doubt, you can see that development rate is high, and the field is closer than it's ever been before. What I can say is there are a couple of things that may or may not come our way to help us. Barcelona is a new front wing for everyone in terms of regulations. So, let's see what happens on the back end of that. And we have a few things a little bit later in the season that we're just finding. But the way we're developing is trying to find concepts and ideas that carry through into next year to make sure that we're using that learning for greater avail for '26.

Q: James, if you are closer to Ferrari in P4 in the championship, would you have been tempted to keep the car in the tunnel a bit longer?
JV: No. No. It really is that—for those that really understand what is inside Williams, this is a brilliant opportunity to properly reset a few areas that need to be and make sure that we're using robust systems and processes. And if you get caught up in the now too much, you won't be able to do that.

Q: (Ian Parkes – RacingNews365) James, just to pick up on one point you made earlier. You said you're glad you don't do strategy anymore. Given your wealth of experience, though, is there no element of you that plays a part across a race weekend and/or when a call is made by your strategy team and you think, “I perhaps wouldn't have done that,” or something along those lines?
JV: The way I've sort of described it… The best way I can describe it is, when you go to a bowling alley with a three-year-old or a really competitive teenager, you put bumpers up on the side. And I see my job as just acting as one of those bumpers. If I see things that are just going the wrong direction—not to tell people what to do, that's not my job—ask questions, allow them to think through things differently. And there were a few examples of that in Imola, for example. But in reality, the team—I'm not in the detail that they're in. They are working 12 hours a day every day in that level of detail and I trust them and empower them in what they're doing. The difference is when you helicopter above a bit, you can see something slightly different, and you bring that to their attention.
TW: Says he! Three micromanagers sitting here, control freaks on the bench!
AC: You didn’t learn that from Toto, did you?
TW: I'm not involving myself in strategy, right?
JV: Exactly. That's how I see it.

Q: (Adam Cooper – Adam Cooper F1) A question for Toto. You've missed skip traces in the past, but I think Imola was the first time—or one of the first times—when you've been properly disconnected in terms of screens and so on. How closely did you follow the weekend? Was there any frustration or was it actually refreshing to kind of half switch off and do family stuff instead?
TW: Yeah. I mean, there was no doubt that—I always knew that I was gonna miss Imola because of my son's graduation, and there's… The academic record in my family is limited, so we have the first one that's actually finishing and with honours, so that was a proud father moment. And it was obviously made more difficult that it was a nine-hour time lag. So, you end up at the weirdest hours on the West Coast tuning in, and that makes it even more, like, feel detached. But emotionally, you know, you're all in there and watching it with those limited tools such as live timing and the F1 app is certainly for me not something that I enjoy doing.

Q: (Scott Mitchell-Malm – The Race) A question to Andy. Lance has a one-place grid drop after the incident with Charles this morning. It's obviously an odd one. It seemed quite straightforward in that he just didn't understand that there was a second car coming. Could you just explain the extent of the damage? Obviously, he didn't get back out in the session, and how much of a setback is it for the weekend both to lose the track time in FP1 and have a one-place grid penalty?
AC: Yeah. Our radio call wasn't clear enough is the bottom line. So, we need to learn from that. Rear wishbone broken, damage to the floor. The best option is to change the gearbox because we set up two gearboxes yesterday ready for that sort of scenario. And the downside is that Lance doesn't get—you don't get FP1 back. It's those laps that he's missed. In terms of set-up and learning, then it's the learning from Fernando's running that feeds across to both cars going forwards.

Q: (Tom Gueurde – Pole Position Magazine) A question for Toto. This will be the first time that Kimi is driving around the Monaco track with an F1 car. What are your expectations for him this weekend?
TW: I think you need to have realistic expectations. Driving the car here fast needs experience, and I think he started the weekend very well in building up in the right way, not making too many mistakes. I mean, he clipped the inside of the barrier, but that wasn't hugely damaging for the car, and then slowly continuing to find his limits. I think laps are important, to put them in, and just make him learn. But I have no doubt that tomorrow by qualifying, he's going to be dialled in. Obviously, never on the level of the really more senior drivers that know their way around blind here.

Q: (Leovid Kliiuev – GrandePremio.com.br) Question to all three. Any new thoughts on the McLaren brake design? Any plans to develop something similar?
TW: You mean the cooling or… Yes. I think we've said that, you know, you’ve got to take it on the chin if somebody has done some good engineering. There's a technical team around Andrea Stella and these guys… We have no doubt there is a millimetre of being not in a legal place. So it's just, you’ve got to look and learn and try to understand.
JV: Similar. Except you have the best haircut in the room.
AC: I guess, you know, we've all experienced success and we know that it's very rare that there's a silver bullet for good performance. It's attention to detail everywhere. And I think that's McLaren's secret at the moment. They've just chased everything really well and pulled it together. So that's the mission that we're taking on to catch up.

Q: (Luke Smith – The Athletic) It’s a bit of a business-led question for you, Toto. We’ve got Miami, Vegas, Austin—now those US races have been so important commercially. For Monaco, is it still relevant on that point of view? Has it lost its sheen a little bit because of that? Or is it still the place you want to bring people to schmooze and impress them?
TW: It's still a super attractive race. I mean, if you look at the backdrop of this race for all the people that watch it on TV or on social media, it's just spectacular. And in terms of guest activation programmes or sponsors coming, it's huge. And especially for the European market, very, very important. And Monaco needs Formula 1. Formula 1 needs Monaco.

Q: (Adam Cooper – Adam Cooper F1) again. For all three of you, I think you've all seen the movie. What are your thoughts on it? What's it going do for the sport? How happy are your sponsors going to be bearing in mind that people are going to be watching it on TV in 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, and so on?
TW: I think we've all watched it. And, you know, you kind of get the feeling from the first few minutes onwards that it's so well done. The racing scenes are immaculate. I mean, even us experts couldn't really find anything. One of the drivers said the only mistake I saw is they both had DRS at the same time. So if that is the only thing… So for us Formula One people, we find the racing great. The storyline is nice, it's realistic. And overall, I think this is going to be a big success and not because I'm biased to Formula One, but it's just a great, great movie.
AC: Yeah. I agree with Toto. It was great to go and watch it, see the preview. Wonderful Hollywood movie with, you know, Formula 1 stars interwoven into it. It was great on-track spectacle, awesomely done to see, you know, the imaginary team blended in with all the existing teams and some good cameos as well from these two.
JV: So, for me, it was exactly what I was hoping it would be. It's authentic to us as a sport. To be clear, it's not a documentary—but it's not intended to be a documentary. It's a Hollywood take on who we are as Formula 1, but they've done it perfectly. I think the concept behind it is whatever level you want to come in—whether you've never watched Formula One before or not—you can interact and understand the storyline and then get as deep as you want into it. And from that perspective, they've done a brilliant job. The opening scene is brilliant and it's from that moment onwards, you're just captivated by the film.

Q: (Scott Mitchell-Malm – The Race) Toto, recently George was talking about 2026 and the prospect for the pecking order to shift—how important it is to make the change in terms of full focus on next year at the right time. And he mentioned that he'd seen that Williams had the '26 car fully focused for a while now. What do you think the chances are of Williams being a dark horse and entering the sort of sharp end next year with it being such a big rule change and the progress this year?
TW: I mean, Williams is not such a dark horse anymore. James has done a really good job with his team. They are playing, maybe not in the front, but neither are we, you know, with McLaren and Max there. And it's still beneficial because he's carrying quite some wind tunnel time over from last year. Switching over to 2026 is just the right move to do. And when you look at the development slopes of those early gains, every single week of a new ca they're just like tenfold of what you would achieve in a mature regulation. And that's why everyone who decides the right things—I mean, you can do tenfold development steps, but if you develop in the wrong direction, that's obviously not going to be helpful. But if you take the right decisions and you utilize this more wind tunnel time and steeper learning, that can be a tremendous advantage for next year, especially if you don't need to worry about the power unit and the fuel and oil and these things.
JV: Yeah, well summed up. I think we have to be realistic. The reason for doing this is to make a good foundation so that we can start moving forward. But we are fortunate to have the Mercedes power unit behind us, which is… when we work together, we work together very much as a unit and it's nice to see. We're a customer team, but it feels integrated. But we have to be realistic on this. The reason why I've started early is because our development rate and efficiency won't be the same as others around us whilst we still go through a process of fixing and improving things. I'm really pleased with how the team's performing. It's never one individual. It's just how all thousand people are pulling together. But we still have a long journey in front of us before we're anywhere close to the front.