F1: Austrian GP post-race quotes
Oracle Red Bull Racing
Max Verstappen (2nd): “We were just a bit too slow today, we were doing the best we could with the strategy but the Ferraris were extremely fast. Of course, we need to understand why we had so much degradation with the tires, I’m not sure exactly what happened, no matter which compound we used none of them seemed to work well. Although we didn’t win today, we still walked away with a lot of points. In difficult moments you need to score points and we did that today. It was incredible to receive the support I did from the fans this weekend, but I’ve been hearing a few shocking things. It’s clearly wrong and what’s been happening is not right at all – I shouldn’t need to say this on a weekend that should be a celebration of Formula One at our home race.”
Sergio Perez (DNF, Handling): “It was a big shame that we had our race ended so early. I had the whole race ahead of me and I thought I had good opportunities coming my way, so it was very painful. We had a lot of damage to the car and we were going nowhere so we had to retire. I gave all the room I could to George on lap one, there was enough room for both cars not to crash and unfortunately, we ended up colliding, I don’t know what else I could have done. Today has hurt us in both Championships and hopefully we can recover the ground. It has been the same way all season, sometimes we are quicker and sometimes Ferrari are. It is still very close but today they were clearly the quicker car. We need to look forward now, the season is long and hopefully we can come back stronger in the coming weekends.”
Christian Horner, Sporting Director: “We scored some really important points today but it just wasn’t meant to be for us. Congratulations to Ferrari, although they were unlucky with Carlos, they had the faster car for the majority of the race which gave them more strategic options but Max’s tire deg was higher from halfway through the first stint and it was hard to combat that. Over the two races this weekend, we’ve only given away five points to Ferrari but obviously we’re really disappointed for Checo today. There was so much damage to his car from George that there was no chance for him to score any points and we had to retire him and save the mileage. We’ll do everything we can to bounce back in France, we’re still ahead but we know how quickly things can change and we need to keep pushing. We are shocked to hear that there have been some incidents of abusive behavior in the grandstands and the fan parks. We stand united with every member of the F1 community in condemning this. We value inclusion and want a safe space for fans to enjoy our sport.”
Scuderia Ferrari
Charles Leclerc (1st): “Every win is special, but this one feels just amazing. The last 15 laps were on the limit with the issue we had, but we brought it home. Today, we had a really strong pace and some great battles. I worked hard last night to find where I could still improve and it made the difference today. I’m very happy!”
Carlos Sainz (DNF, Engine): “It’s difficult to find the right words today, as it was clear that a one-two was pretty straightforward. I had strong pace today, especially on the hard tire. Degradation was very high but we managed it well. On the last stint the car felt really good on track until we obviously had the issue and we had to retire. Today’s result is a hard one to take as it cost the team and myself an important number of points for both championships. On the positive side, I’m feeling better and better in the car, more comfortable every race, and this keeps me motivated. We are fast, and this is what’s matters the most. Congrats to Charles for the win! We’ll keep pushing!”
Mattia Binotto, Team Principal: “There are a lot of positives we can take home from today’s race. We have secured our second consecutive Grand Prix win, which confirms that we are doing a good job with a car that is proving to be competitive at every track. Our management of all aspects of this race went well, from our detailed preparation, even after yesterday’s Sprint and I think we made all the right decisions in terms of strategy, running an attacking race right from the start. That meant we were able to put Verstappen under pressure, forcing him into a defensive race. The mechanics carried out five very quick pit stops and the drivers executed everything we asked of them prior to the race and managed the tires very well. Charles drove like a lion, overtaking Max on track no fewer than three times and Carlos looked like doing the same which would have resulted in a well-deserved one-two finish. Of course we are very disappointed for him, but I’m sure he will fight back in the upcoming races. We are still suffering with reliability problems, we know what they are and we must make every effort to solve them as soon as possible. I am sure we can do it, but after a performance like today’s, I want to congratulate the whole team, here at the track and back in Maranello, where all the departments did such a great job over the winter.”
Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team
Lewis Hamilton (3rd): “First, I want to say a big thank you to the women and men in the garage who worked so hard to rebuild the car. I needed a brand-new car on Saturday morning, unfortunately. That’s something I don’t do often, but I’m just thankful for how hard everybody worked. It was tough in the Sprint yesterday, but today felt better. We had decent pace at different points of the race, even if I was racing a little bit in no-man’s land. It’s been a bit of a rough weekend for the team – but I’m grateful we got third and fourth today. That’s great points, and we have improved the car. Now we need to keep chipping away to get back to the front.”
George Russell (4th): “I started P4 and finished P4 – and probably would have taken that before the race. But I’m a little disappointed at how everything unfolded. On lap one, Checo dived down the outside at Turn Four, then took a tight line. I had Sainz ahead and had to get up on the apex curb. I thought the penalty was harsh – for me it was a racing incident. But after that, we optimized the race well from lap two. Looking at the positives: we had a 20 second pit stop at the start – and finished around 15 seconds behind the podium; I came back through the field from P19 to P4; and we maximized as a team. Now we need to get our heads down and keep pushing.”
Toto Wolff, Team Principal: “We always seem to be in two minds at the end of the races right now. We must accept P3 and P4 today. And when you think we had two cars in pieces on Friday afternoon, that’s a strong result. But we are missing the two or three tenths to be able to race at the front. We have glimpses of light at the end of the tunnel with the car – then it disappears again, and we need to get on top of that. Today, over a race stint, we looked more competitive than yesterday. But we had two drivers needing to put in strong recovery drives, after incidents in the Sprint and in the opening laps. It was good to see Charles on the top step. He’s had a lot of bad luck, and it looks like the fight is on at the front. Now we need to work on the car to close the gap to the teams ahead, then see how we can get in the mix.”
Andrew Shovlin: “It’s been a very tough weekend in the garage but very satisfying to come away with third and fourth positions. We felt that George’s penalty for the incident with Sergio was harsh. He was up on the apex curb and left more than enough room. We had to change the front wing after the contact, so it made for a very long stop. He had to pass through the field twice but raced superbly and maximized the opportunity. Similarly, Lewis had rather a lot to do in the first stint due to his start position. Once he was through the midfield cars he had good pace but by then the gap to Charles and Max was way too big to chase so we just focused on bringing the car home. This hasn’t been a track that has suited us in recent years. Despite lacking a little pace to Ferrari and Red Bull, we’re encouraged by the fact we’re moving in the right direction and have more to come in the next few races. We have a busy few days ahead at the factory to recover the situation on car parts, this weekend has not been great in that regard! But we’ll pull that back in time for Paul Ricard and are looking forward to a track that should suit the car.”
McLaren F1 Team
Lando Norris (7th): “A positive day, we went forward a good few positions and scored some decent points. I made a couple of mistakes with the track limits and ended-up with a five-second penalty, which probably hurt us. I should have been P6 but, apart from that, a solid day. The pace in the car was reasonable and we got the points that we wanted, so happy in the end. We just need to keep improving and keep pushing for next time. Big thanks to everyone for working so hard at the track and back home, we made a good recovery from Friday to score some decent points.”
Daniel Ricciardo (9th): “Obviously the target was points. I think, as a team, we’re happy with that. It’s a lot better than where we were Friday, so to get double-points is good for us. I was struggling with the left-front on the first stint as I’d had a lock-up into turn one, and put us a bit on the back-foot. So it didn’t feel as good as yesterday. We then struggled more with the front, particularly front-left, even without the flat-spot, but I think we did well to get what we could today. I would have loved to have got Magnussen, but we’ve got to take what we can today. More points, bit of damage-limitation, so pleased with that.”
Andreas Seidl, Team Principal: “Scoring with both cars is a good outcome from a tough Sprint weekend here in Spielberg. Starting P10 and P11 after a good recovery yesterday, the objective today was simply to move further forward. Finishing P7 and P9 in the Austrian Grand Prix is satisfying after starting the weekend on the back foot with several issues on Friday. Thanks to Lando and Daniel for showing great fighting spirit. Same for the team who worked hard this weekend – as they have all through this back-to-back sequence. Today we executed a clean race, which got us where we needed to go. Thanks to everyone here trackside, and back at the factory, together with our colleagues at HPP, for helping secure eight valuable points in our Constructors’ Championship battle. A short break now to rest, reset and analyse our performance before we go again in France. We’re looking forward to Paul Ricard.”
BWT Alpine F1 Team
Esteban Ocon (5th): “What a day, what a weekend! I think we really maximized the pace of the car today when it really mattered. It was a great way to cap off my 100th Grand Prix in Formula 1. There were some good fights on the track today, but in the end George [Russell] was too quick and fifth position was the best we could have achieved. We go home with some very good points after this weekend, moving up to eighth in the Drivers’ Championship and now level with McLaren in the Constructors’ Championship. As a team we are moving in the right direction and we have momentum on our side going into Paul Ricard, one of the team’s home races, and of course mine as well. It should be an incredible weekend and I can’t wait to be back in front of the home fans in two weeks’ time.”
Fernando Alonso (10th): “One point is better than nothing considering we started on the back row today. I think it was one of my best races this season, other than probably at Silverstone last weekend. I think we were fighting for sixth or seventh positions, but then there were some strange vibrations on the tires we fitted after our second stop under the Virtual Safety Car. As it was still under the VSC, we decided to stop again for another new set of tires. Unfortunately, we lost some positions with this extra pit-stop and had to fight back on the last few laps. In the end we managed to take tenth position. Ultimately, only one point from this race feels a little bit of a shame for me, but we can be very happy with our overall pace and performance as a team this weekend.”
Otmar Szafnauer, Chief Operating Officer: “Firstly, congratulations to Esteban for marking his 100th Formula 1 Grand Prix start by scoring ten points in fifth place. He thoroughly deserved that after driving so well today and executing a very good two-stop strategy. By scoring so highly, combined with yesterday’s effort in the Sprint, it means the team is continuing its momentum forwards after delivering some good upgrades at recent events. Fernando too drove exceptionally well to put behind yesterday’s disappointment and go from the back of the grid through to a points-scoring position. We had some reliability issues this weekend, which means we cannot leave Austria feeling completely satisfied. We must focus on getting on top of these issues so we can have a trouble-free second half of the season. We clearly have a quick car, but we must also ensure all operational issues of the team are performing to a high standard, so we continue to score good points with both cars.”
Scuderia AlphaTauri
Pierre Gasly (15th): “I think we can write off this weekend, we just didn’t have the pace. I haven’t seen the footage yet, but I obviously received a penalty in the race, so I guess I’m the one to blame for the incident with Sebastian. I tried to fight as hard as I could, it’s always tricky in that corner and unfortunately he spun. We need a big reset, we’ve got a week and a half to try and understand why we were slow and then learn what we can do to improve in the upcoming races. Hopefully the new package allows us to move forward and be competitive in the midfield again.”
Yuki Tsunoda (16th): “It’s been really tough, that was a long race. I had no pace at all this weekend and have really struggled since FP2, with the car sliding all over the place. We need to go away and look at what the issue may be, as we’ve not seen anything in the data that explains why this weekend has been so difficult. I gave it my everything today and there wasn’t much more I think I could’ve done in terms of my personal performance in this situation but overall, this has been the hardest race weekend we’ve had so far this year.”
Jody Egginton, Technical Director: “A very difficult race for us today, as we weren’t able to make any progress. Additionally, on Pierre’s side we had a couple of penalties which set us back further. It was clear early on that it was going to be a two-stop race, so we brought Pierre in to try and move forward with that, however he hit a bit of traffic, holding him up, and from then on it was tough. Likewise with Yuki, we tried to get him in a stronger position through the stops, but he didn’t have the pace today. We’ve been on the backfoot all day and unfortunately have come away with nothing. We’ve got a lot to review back at base. Now our focus is to get our updates to the car ready for the French Grand Prix and get ourselves back in to the midfield fight.”
Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team
Lance Stroll (13th): “My start was decent, and I could hold position and battle with the McLarens early on. I also had some good wheel-to-wheel moments out there with cars on different strategies, which was fun. However, it was tricky to keep the faster cars behind. It would have been nice to have come away with a point or two after a strong recovery drive yesterday, but we have to keep pushing and will try and return to the points in France.”
Sebastian Vettel (17th): “It is disappointing to be pushed into the gravel again [after the contact with Alex Albon yesterday]. This time it was [Pierre] Gasly and it almost feels that there is a target on my car! I had made a good move on the outside and was ahead leaving plenty of space. I think he was just a bit too keen, ran into me, and I was off in the gravel. The car was not in the best shape after that and my race was pretty much done. Before that it was a tricky race because I was hit by some debris on the first lap, which may have damaged the car. We were not very competitive on the Hard tires at the start, but the Medium was better and we were working our way through the field until the contact with Pierre. I think we have had quite an unlucky weekend so let’s just turn the page and focus on the next race in France.”
Mike Krack, Chief Operating Officer: “With Lance starting 12th, we felt there was a reasonable chance to score points this afternoon. He drove well today, despite our car struggling a little for performance. He climbed as high as fifth during the first phase of the race, managed his first set of tires for 30 laps, and enjoyed a spirited tussle with [George] Russell and [Mick] Schumacher. Sebastian was unfortunate. He was climbing through the field and had just pulled off a well-judged pass when he was tapped into the Turn Four gravel – a move that rightly earned Gasly a five-second penalty. From that point, there was not much else he could do. Once again, we brought two cars home reliably – which is a great testament to the hard work of the mechanics – and we will be aiming to score points in France and Hungary before the summer break.”
Williams Racing
Alexander Albon (12th): “It was a fun race. We took risks, we were bold and I had to push a little bit too hard on the tires to keep up with Valtteri as he was a little bit quicker than us, so I knew what I was doing wasn’t kind to the tires but I was trying to stay close to him. You risk and you push to fight for points and today it didn’t quite work out for us, but I still feel it was a good race. The whole race we were more or less matching the McLarens, we hit a bit of traffic here and there but I was really happy with our pace and we’ve definitely made a step forward this weekend. It was the first proper race with the new aero upgrade that we have and there’s a lot learnt from today so we can look at the data and come back stronger in France.”
Nicholas Latifi (DNF, Handling): “We sustained floor damage from running over some debris at the start of the race and I ran wide on one curb. Towards the end of the first stint I could feel the balance getting worse. Beginning of the second stint there was a lack of downforce and pace. The decision was to retire the car to save the engine mileage and we’ll be ready to go again In France.”
Dave Robson, Senior Race Engineer: “Today was a good recovery after the result yesterday. Alex drove well and the strategy worked well. Having got into the top 10 with only 10 laps to go, it was disappointing to miss out on a point. However, we had been battling with Bottas since the first pitstop and it was a tight race that could’ve gone either way. At least we got a full race completed with the updated car, which gives some data to go through before we run again in France. Nicholas suffered with some floor damage early in the race, which cost him a lot of downforce and made the car very difficult to drive. As the damage worsened, we elected to retire him before more significant damage occurred. After the damage done in Silverstone last week, to come straight to the Red Bull Ring and for Alex to be competitive throughout the weekend and for Nicholas to continue his good qualifying performance, is a good result for the entire team who worked very hard to get us back into this position.”
Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN
Valtteri Bottas (11th): “I was hoping for points today, that was the target, and it’s a bit disappointing to be finishing just outside the top ten. In the last lap, Fernando was closing the gap pretty fast with a new set of tires, and ultimately got me. Besides that, I think it was a good race, also strategy-wise, and we did everything we could given where we started: we just lacked a bit of pace, especially through the corners. At least, I managed to climb up the grid from a pitlane start, so that’s a positive to keep. We must keep progressing, since the other teams are doing so as well. I reckon France could be better for us, but we will need to qualify in better positions than we did here to maximise our chances come Sunday.”
Guanyu Zhou (14th): “I feel we had a lot more potential in our car this weekend, so I am not happy with this result. We looked strong yesterday, but today we spent the first part of the race stuck in a train and then struggled with the hard tire. Once we switched to the mediums, I was a lot more at ease and I felt we were competitive, but by then it was too late to make it back into the points. The pace we showed in the Sprint yesterday and in the final stint today is a positive to keep, as well as the mileage that does help with my overall experience. I had some fun battles and enjoyed the close racing we had, but I wanted more from this weekend.”
Frédéric Vasseur, Team Principal: “It’s been a difficult weekend for us, and to nearly come away with a point despite all that happened shows the attitude of this team. With Valtteri starting from the Pit Lane and Zhou in P13, we knew we had a tough job ahead of us if we wanted to come away with a good result, and we very nearly did. It was a hectic race, with lots of battling and action – a great advertisement for our sport: for the team, we had nearly delivered a great comeback, but the tire advantage Alonso had on the final lap was too much for Valtteri to overcome, and Zhou’s penalty really put an end to his hopes of points. It’s disappointing to leave without a point, but we will regroup and aim to start scoring again in France.”
Haas F1 Team
Mick Schumacher (6th): “Fighting again with Lewis was fun. I felt a lot different compared to yesterday, obviously knowing that we had to take care of the tires. Quite soon I felt it wasn’t going to be a one-stop race just because of the way the tires were behaving – the winds were very different and difficult to manage. It was tough out there but it’s another double-points finish again after Silverstone, so everyone in the team can be very happy about the result. Being voted driver of the day as well is great so thank you to everybody.”
Kevin Magnussen (8th): “What a weekend for our team, it’s really been great. Finally, we had a bit of luck, it kind of went our way after those four or five races recently that weren’t good for us. It’s hard not to get a little bit down about it but the last two races we’ve been lucky and we’ve had the pace, especially this weekend. I had a bit of an engine issue all race so I was just praying to God that it wouldn’t blow up, which it didn’t, so I’m super thankful for that so I could finish the race without a problem. We just had a great qualifying, a great Sprint and then a great race, so I’m super happy.”
Guenther Steiner, Team Principal: “A fantastic result for the team today with a double-points finish and back in P7 in the championship. There was one little issue with Kevin’s engine, but everything went as perfect as it can be. Thanks to the whole team for a big effort.”