Track Interviews - Conducted by Jenson Button

Welcome to Miami, Kimi! I mean, that was a masterclass. They didn't make it easy for you. There was a lot of great fighting out there, especially with Turn 1, but you came through in the end with a really strong victory and a great last stint.
Kimi Antonelli: Yeah, I mean, start was not as bad as yesterday, it was a little bit better. I didn't expect Charles to brake that early, so to avoid him obviously I locked up and then I was a bit lucky with what happened then in Turn 2. And then I did a little mistake with the energy management trying to overtake Charles and then I lost the place to Lando. But then the pace was strong, I was able to stay close, and then the team did a great strategy. We did a massive undercut and then we managed to bring it home, even though it was not easy.

I know you're thinking about this moment in time, but today you made history: the first driver to win his first three Grands Prix from pole position, and you're only 19. I mean, it's so impressive.
KA: No, thank you, thank you. I mean, this is just the beginning. The road is still long, but we're working super hard and the team is doing an incredible job. Without them I wouldn't be here, so mainly thanks to them, to my family. And yeah, I'm going to enjoy this one and then get to work, because Canada is in two weeks' time.

Well, congratulations and take a nice rest before the next one.
KA: Cheers, thank you. Thank you so much.

Lando, the first stint looked amazing. Great fighting out there with Charles and Kimi, and it looked really good on the Medium tyre. And then on the Hard, the pace didn't seem quite as good and maybe the pit stop was quite an important one.
Lando Norris: I mean, a mixed bag, really. We just got undercut. There's no excuses other than that. We got undercut. We should have boxed first. Kimi did a good job. Hats off to Merc and Kimi. They drove a good race. Easy to make mistakes out there with the big braking zones and with these cars, but he didn't make any big enough for me to capitalise on, so I have to be happy. I think as a team we have to be happy. I'm gutted to miss out on a win here in Miami, I think it was possible today, but yeah, not the pace to get back past him in the end, so we take it on the chin. But it's still a positive weekend altogether.

The racing out there looked great from the outside. How was it racing wheel-to-wheel out there? Do you feel a good improvement from yourselves but also from Formula 1 as a whole?
LN: So-so. It was still good. I still enjoyed the racing, honestly. Some things have improved, some things are the same, but today was still about who could make the least mistakes, who could push in the correct areas. And it looked good, I guess. If you guys enjoy it, then I'm very happy. It was tough. You still have to be tactical with how you use battery. You can easily just get caught up in the wrong running of things, and I got caught out badly. But other than that, I feel like I did a good job and the team did a good job all weekend, so I have to be proud of everyone.

Progress?
LN: Progress. Thank you.

Oscar, we didn't really see that much of you on the screens initially, but a great fight through in the end. It looked like after Suzuka, where you were so strong at the start of the race, it's been a bit of a trickier weekend, especially qualifying, but you came through in the end and picked up a great podium there.
Oscar Piastri: Yeah, definitely. It's not been the most straightforward of weekends. I think qualifying yesterday was a bit messy for both of us, but the pace seemed more encouraging again today. And yeah, had to make a few overtakes. Obviously, the end of the race was a pretty late charge, but yeah, just very tricky around here, especially in these conditions. So, thanks to the team. Clearly, we were a step closer in performance once again, so yeah, it's nice to see it.

It must be promising to see obviously Lando doing a good job this weekend and seeing yourselves get so much closer to the Mercedes, obviously with sprint racing in front of them, so you must have a positive attitude moving forward to Canada.
OP: Yeah, definitely. I think this weekend we showed that if we get track position, we can hang on to things well. We were close in Japan, but we've definitely taken a step forward and hopefully in Canada we can take another step forward again. Yeah, excited for the future.

Press Conference

A brilliant win, Kimi. Very well done to you. It was a very different victory to the others, with pressure all the way. How pleased are you with what you've done out there?
KA: Yeah, it was a good race, a very special one. It was not an easy one because I had a bit of everything. OK, the start was still not great, plus I did a mistake, then I was lucky with how things played out despite the mistake. And then, yeah, then obviously we were in a fight, me, Charles and Lando, and then I got passed by Lando, did a little mistake on energy, and then I was chasing. And then luckily the undercut worked very well, and then we found ourselves being chased. But it was not easy because Lando was quick and he was applying a lot of pressure. And I just knew I couldn't make any mistakes.

Tell us more about having Lando, the reigning World Champion, on your gearbox for so long. What was that like?
KA: Yeah, it was very stressful because he was also sometimes on the edge of getting so many times the overtake mode. We know how powerful that is and I just knew I couldn't make any mistakes. And it was not easy because the conditions were tricky today, with the rain that kind of cleaned a bit the rubber that was on track, and it was very slippery. So, it was not easy, but very happy that we brought it home. Of course, massive thanks to the team for the incredible job and also to my family, who was here the whole weekend.

You reported some kind of gearbox issue over the radio, I think. How did that play out? How much did that affect your performance?
KA: No, it didn't really affect. I mean, just in the moment I had two, three laps where I wasn't getting some of the downshifts, and then I had a couple of laps where it wouldn't upshift from seventh to eighth. So, it was a little bit stressful, but luckily it was just a matter of those few laps and then it was fine. Obviously, it was adding stress because I was being chased and I knew I couldn't make any mistakes, and that wasn't helping for sure. But then it lasted very shortly, so I was happy with that.

Final one from me. You have upgrades coming for Montreal, the next race. Just how much confidence do you have in this car now?
KA: I have really good confidence in the car. Obviously, we're in a great momentum. Hopefully, the package is going to work as we hope, but also McLaren is bringing another package and the step they made this weekend was very big. So, we just have to keep pushing, keep raising that bar, because we saw this weekend how much it flipped compared to the first three races. So, we just got to stay on top of the game.

All right. Very well done to you. Thank you, Kimi. Lando, let's come to you now. Career podium number 45 for you. What's your overriding emotion after that one?
LN: I can look at it either way, I guess. I think I'm just very happy with the situation we're in, which is we're fighting for wins or fighting for the win today, a pole, the Sprint win. So, I think when I look at it from that side, it's been a very strong weekend. I feel like I've done a very good job the whole weekend too, so there's a lot of positives. And like they just said, we've improved such a big amount, and the fact we're just fighting for a win, when, if you look at our pace in the races over the last couple, even though we were fighting for podiums and wins, and Oscar was, the pace and the speed we had was certainly not there. So, the fact we made such a big step this weekend is great to see and I'm very proud of the team. And all the work that's been put in has paid off immediately. But you always have to look at it and ask yourself the question, do you feel like you maximised everything today? And I'm unsure about that. So, I feel like there was a chance that we could have fought better for it, just not simply letting him undercut us. I know he came and passed me on track because he had just the warmer tyres out of Turn 2, but we should have just never been in that situation in the first place. I'm not saying we would have won the race because I think Kimi drove an excellent race and his pace was very strong, especially his pace end of stints was incredibly strong. So, he might have still passed me later on in the second stint if we boxed earlier, but at least we would have given ourselves a fighting chance, and we didn't give that to ourselves today. So, I'm a little bit disappointed by that.

Check out our Sunday gallery from Miami here.