Track Interviews - Conducted by Davide Valsecchi
Lando, what a race. What enormous pressure. How did you handle it? From outside, that was just epic.
Lando Norris: Yeah, it was a tough race. You know, pushing the whole way through. Tricky, hot, tiring. But the perfect result for us as a team, a one-two is exactly what we want, and we did it again. So, I'm very happy. Probably the best comeback after Canada.
What a turnaround. How did you handle Oscar Piastri in the first 20 laps? At a certain point when he overtook you just up there in Turn 3, you had a great battle.
LN: We had a great battle, that's for sure. Yeah, it was a lot of fun for me. A lot of stress, but a lot of fun. Yes, a nice battle. So well done to Oscar. Hopefully, it was a nice one for everyone to watch. But inside the car it was tough, especially when he was in the DRS. The DRS is so big around here, it's hard to get him out of the gap. But once I did, I could manage things pretty well. But yeah, he was still quick. So, it was good fun.
Congratulations. It was a great show.
LN: Thank you.
Oscar, congratulations. How was it drom inside the car because it was impressive how you could pressure for all the first 20 laps. It was just something unbelievable. How was it from inside?
Oscar Piastri: Intense. I hope it was good watching because it was pretty hard work from the car. So yeah, I tried my absolute best and probably could have done a better job when I just got ahead momentarily, but yep, it was a good battle. A bit on the edge at times and probably pushed the limits a bit far. But yeah, it was a good race. You know, that's what we're here to do, try and race each other and then try and fight for wins, and that's what we did today. It was close for me but not quite enough. So, thanks to the team. To have the kind of pace we did whilst battling each other was very impressive. So, I can't thank the team enough for the car we've got.
After yesterday and your Friday, did you expect to be so competitive, to fight Lando all through the entire race?
OP: Yeah, I mean, I thought it was possible. I think qualifying yesterday was unfortunate with the yellow flag, and then I felt like the pace this weekend has been good. So, I think once I could stay in the DRS, I felt pretty good. Afterwards, once I dropped out after the first stop, it was tough to make the progress to get back. But yeah, some things to go over, see if we could have done anything better.
Congratulations. Lovely show.
OP: Thank you.
Charles, tell me your feeling after you're back on the podium. I think at the beginning you wanted to fight for victory, but then the pace was there. What do you think? How do you rate your weekend?
Charles Leclerc: I rate our weekend as a team really well. But unfortunately, the pace today was just not enough. In the first corner I was thinking about going, but Lando closed the door, and then that left the door open to Oscar. I lost second place there. But anyway, I think they were too fast for us to stay in second, so third was the best we could do. I don't regret much of what we've done today. I think we've done our maximum, just not enough pace.
Tell me about your Ferrari. The move at Turn 3 was good because behind there was contact. Probably it was better to stay calm in that corner. And about your Ferrari, seems that during the weekend you improved a bit, then in the race, in the first part, you were closer. What's your feeling inside the car?
CL: Yeah, in the first stint I think I over pushed a little bit at the beginning trying to follow them, then I degraded a little bit more. But it's part of the game. I've tried, at the end, and it didn't make it today. I think eventually we need more pace. We've brought some upgrades this weekend and they definitely helped us to do a step forward, but we need to keep pushing in that direction in order to close the gap to the McLaren that for now are too quick.
About the next races, because we are missing a victory this year. Tell me about the next races.
CL: I'm missing it too. So, I'll give it all to try and be back on the top step of the podium. Obviously, this is our main priority. The whole team deserves it, and hopefully it will be at the next race in Silverstone. We'll give it all.
Press Conference
Congratulations, Lando. It was a thrilling victory for you today. What was the most pleasing aspect of it for you?
LN: Crossing the line at the end! That was the best bit, but there was plenty of fun along the way, with Oscar, in the first stint especially. Some close moments, some good battles. Just a lot of laps of looking in my mirrors out of Turn 1 and all the way down to Turn 3. Stressful for sure, not the most comfortable position to be in, but it was a good battle between us. And then quite a long race from that point onwards because I never had a lovely gap, and Oscar kept coming at me the next two stints. So, yeah, good fun, but a tricky race, but well managed.
This was the first time that we've seen you and Oscar going wheel to wheel for a prolonged period. Did you learn anything new about him today?
LN: No. I mean, we just had some good battles, and we've had a couple in the past. Granted, they probably didn't last as long as they did today, but no, I think we both knew what to expect from each other. We both want to race hard and race fair. It goes both ways, and of course, kind of have to put Montreal behind us and behind me for sure. It's something I wish never happened, but it was nice that we could go out and have a good battle and push things to the limits. There were still some close moments, but nothing that would make Andrea or the pit wall sweat too much.
The pace today, Lando, was frenetic. You were twenty seconds ahead of Charles in third place. Were you pushing hard in all three stints?
LN: Yeah! Especially stint one. I think we got, like, ten laps here, and the gap was already, like, five seconds. And I knew what our pit stop window was going to be or was planning to be. And I was like, there's no chance we're going make it to the pit stop here. Oscar was pushing too, and I think we knew quite quickly that we weren't racing the Ferraris behind with a quick race car, and it was kind of eyes forward. But the first stint was difficult just because I couldn't get my battery up, and it was quite a strategic part of the race. And I was just always vulnerable for those reasons. But as soon as I did the pit stop, I could get the battery back up for the first time, and then I could be a little bit more comfortable.
This is a great springboard for you ahead of your home race at Silverstone next weekend. Are you expecting the updated parts on the McLaren to perform strongly through Silverstone's fast sweeps?
LN: I mean, our strengths here were the high speed, so I want to hope it's a similar case next weekend, but it's still a very different track. It's a different layout. We're not going to take anything for granted. But the upgrades were working as they should have done today, and that's certainly a good sign. So I think we give a lot of credit to everyone back in MTC and to the whole team for giving us another very, very good car, upgrades that we just can put on - they've been a little while and we've been pushing with things - but we put them on the car, and they worked as they should. So we're satisfied. The team is satisfied and excited for next weekend. The best race weekend of the year, in my opinion. To have my own grandstand, to have the British fans for McLaren and for myself is something I'm looking forward to for sure.
Alright. And very well done today. Thank you, Lando. Oscar, let's come to you now. Can we start by talking about that battle with Lando, what you learned about him, how close it was?
OP: I mean, again, there have been a few battles in the past, not just last week, but last year and the year before. So, I think we both knew what to expect. It was a tough battle. It was close at some points, probably pushing the limits a bit much from my side once or twice. But we're fighting for race wins in Formula 1. It's going to be pretty tough work and pretty hard. I thought it was an entertaining race. After the first stop, maybe we didn't do the right thing giving Lando some breathing room, but the first 20 laps were pretty intense. So, it was a good battle.
Why did you pit four laps later than Lando?
OP: I knew that I was always going to be pitting second in that scenario. For me, it felt like if I couldn't stay within DRS, then getting back inside one second was going to be very, very tough. So, I kind of wanted to go a bit different and give myself some fresher tyres and hopefully be able to use them at the end of the stint. It didn't really pan out that way, unfortunately, but that was the thinking at least. We'll go back and look and see whether that was the right thing to do. In the moment, I was always going to lose some amount of time by pitting a lap later, so I kind of went, why not try something a bit different?
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