Part 1: Max Verstappen, Isack Hadjar and Pierre Gasly.
Max, why don't we start with you. You have an incredible record here at the Red Bull Ring - four wins so far. Just how confident are you of a fifth this weekend?
Max Verstappen: Is it four? Five.
Going for five.
MV: It's five.
How confident are you of another one!
MV: Well, I mean, there are no guarantees. So, yeah, we'll always, of course, try to do our best. In the past, yes, we've had a lot of great races here. I mean, some, I think, back then were also unexpected wins. So, in a way, maybe we come into this weekend again, not as favourites, for sure. But I know that myself and the team will always try to optimise everything that we can. It looks like quite a warm weekend as well, so it's going to be tough to make the tyres last anyway. But I'm excited. I'm here to do the best I can, and of course I hope to be on the podium.
You talk about optimisation. You've got some new parts on the car here in Austria. What are you expecting from them?
MV: Yeah, I mean, hopefully it gives us a bit more performance. The team has been working hard to get these parts. So, of course, I'm very happy that we have an upgrade here. And yeah, every little bit forward will help us be more competitive and hopefully close the gap a little bit. But at the same time, we also know that others are also bringing bits throughout the year. So, we just need to keep working hard, keep trying to close that gap down.
Max, tell us a little bit about how you drive a lap here, because you stunned everybody last year with that pole lap that was 0.4 of a second faster than anyone else. What is the secret?
MV: Brake late or go early on throttle, smooth driving. I've always felt good here for whatever reason. I think there are always tracks that are naturally probably suiting you a bit better than others. And this one probably suits me a bit better than some others, naturally. I know, of course, it's our home Grand Prix, but I don't know. It's just a flow of the track, maybe in Sector 2, Sector 3, faster corners. You need a car that performs around here. And I think for most years, our car has been pretty decent. Last year was a bit of a surprise, the gap in qualifying, but I think we really executed the performance well in qualifying with our tyre prep and everything, which on a short lap is not always the easiest. Because I think in the race, it was a proper battle.
Max, final one from me, about Sebastian Vettel, who's come out this week saying that he's been in regular contact with Helmut Marko about maybe a position within Red Bull Racing. Can we get your thoughts on the prospects of Sebastian Vettel joining the team in some capacity?
MV: I mean, it's more than normal that someone that has achieved so much with Red Bull, has been brought up by Red Bull, that, in a sense, there's always a spot available, right? I think also, Seb always kept a really good relationship with Helmut anyway, even when he left. So, I didn't know that they were talking, but I'm sure that there's always a space for Seb in any kind of form.
Isack, let's come to you now. Can we throw it back to last time out, first of all? It was a slightly frustrating weekend for you and the team in Canada. Do you understand the cause of the issues that you had there?
Isack Hadjar: I mean, on one-lap pace, it seems like it was very hard to drive for us.
Our ride was quite terrible, but somehow we managed to be in Q3. But you can do those things on one lap; over 70 laps it's much harder to be on the very maximum of what the car can do. And we are suffering a lot more compared to the other teams in terms of tyre degradation, especially on the Medium, with the graining. But again, it was a very fine margin with the other midfield cars. It's just that we were on the wrong end of it, which usually we're on the opposite side. So, we'll try to turn this around.
I mean, this is race 11. Just tell us a little bit more about the car. Is it actually a difficult one to dial in? In one race, it'll be good, the next race, it'll be bad - or are you feeling some consistency there with it?
IH: No. It's been probably the most consistent car, performance-wise. We never had bad surprises. It's just you don't design your car around Montreal, that's for sure. It's a very specific one. And I think going back to a more traditional track, the European rounds, we're going to be much more competitive just like we were in Barcelona.
Tell us a little bit about this race track here in Austria. You finished on the podium in the past in Formula 2. It's a short track. Qualifying has been a strength of yours so far this year, so do you feel that Saturday here is something that you can really get stuck into?
IH: It's going to be the target. If the car is able to go to Q3, then I'll go to the maximum I can, to top the midfield. But again, it's a track I really enjoy. I've been competitive in the past.
But every time you go in an F1 car on a track you've been in the past with Formula 2 or Formula 3, it becomes a different track, to be honest. It's so much faster, obviously. But yeah, I enjoy this. Sector 1 is more like pure braking efficiency and very slow speed, and then you go into very high speed. So, the track is kind of split in two, which I really like.
Pierre, let's come to you now. Can we start with Canada as well? Difficult weekend. Tell us about the learnings that you've had from Montreal.
Pierre Gasly: Well, I think it was quite unfortunate. We had an unfortunate Q1 exit, which put us on the back foot, starting from the pit lane, in a DRS train for 40 laps. So, it was a very frustrating race. I think the pace was not too far off to challenge the last few points inside the top 10, but starting from the pit lane obviously was going to be tricky. We got some learnings. We knew going to Montreal it wasn't going to suit our package too much. And looking at the gaps this year, how tight it is, you can easily swing one way or the other, and we would probably be on the wrong side of it in Montreal.
Similar question to Isack - is the Alpine a difficult car to dial in? Easy one week, hard the next?
PG: I wouldn't say it's difficult. I wouldn't say it's easy. At the same time, I think we know our weaknesses and we know our strengths. And at the minute, it's very much about maximising the strengths. A tenth at the moment can move you three or four positions up and down the grid, and that's why we've got to focus on every single detail we can. The focus is going to be there. We know the car we have is going to be the car we love until the end of the year. The focus is on next year, and that's our weapon and we'll try to get it in the best position we can every single time.
Questions From The Floor
(Craig Slater - Sky Sports) A question for Max. Obviously, some good championship points and a strong second place in Canada. There was the team protest - not a driver protest - after the race. Toto Wolff described it as petty, maybe unnecessary. Did you think enough was going on there to make it a reasonable protest for the team to submit?
MV: I think everything has been said about Montreal. At least, I have nothing to add from that race.
(Craig Slater - Sky Sports) Even the time it took to sort it all out?
MV: I have nothing to add. It doesn't help anything to keep talking about it.
(Nelson Valkenburg - Viaplay) For all three - we started off the day with the publication of stewarding guidelines. We're at a track where racing is always tough. Are you completely confident that you know now, in situation A, it would always result in situation B or penalty B, like it's set out in the guidelines?
PG: To me, it's clear on how hard you can race and the limit of it. Obviously, as drivers, you always take it right up to the limit and try to use any grey area that you can. But I think step by step, we're reducing these grey areas. And I think it's, at least to me, it's very clear on what you can do and can't do.
IH: Yeah, clear.
MV: Has it changed? I've not seen anything. I've been busy.
The FIA has published them.
MV: OK. Well then, it's the same. We know that already.
(Mariana Becker - TV Bandeirantes) Max, you've several times been pointed out as a driver very sensitive to any signs that come from the car. You understand the car in a way that is rare to see. Your fellow drivers have said that. Do you think that with this car, when you see the feedback your teammates have been giving to the team, is it a matter of being super sensitive or also experience that brings you this?
MV: Well, I think first of all, every driver is different. Every driver needs a different thing from the car. So what I need from the car might not work for someone else. That is quite normal. So, from my side, I just focus on what I need from the car, and just go off what I learned from a very young age - how I drive, how I adapt to car situations. For me, it's a very natural process. It's nothing really special from my side - how I do things. It's just how I know how to operate, how to work. We just focus on if I have understeer, oversteer, how can I balance it out, how can I adapt my driving, and how do we move forward with the progress of the car? There's no rocket science behind it. It's just what I feel, what the team sees, and you communicate what you want to improve on. Every year you build a new car, and there are always things that can be done better. Then if things cannot be modified very quickly, how can I adapt as a driver? It is a constant process that you go through in Formula 1.
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