FIA post-qualifying press conference – Sao Paulo

DRIVERS
1 – Lando NORRIS (McLaren, 2 – George RUSSELL (Mercedes), 3 – Yuki TSUNODA (RB)
TRACK INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by James Hinchcliffe)
Q: Lando Norris, polesitter for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix. Eighth pole of your career, but this one did not come easy. Lando, just talk to us about the entire qualifying, Q1, Q2, Q3, conditions changing, red flags, it threw everything at you, but you still came out on top.
Lando NORRIS: Yeah, it was a lot going on today. But super, super happy, because I was struggling a lot at the beginning of qualifying. I had a lot of work to do. So I was not comfortable at all. So to end up on pole, I worked at it a lot through qualifying. I had a lot of areas I needed to improve on, but I did exactly that. A little surprised again. I mean, I’ve been surprised a little bit lately, but a little bit surprised to be on pole. But some nice laps. I felt good in the end and a good result for us.
Q: From the driver’s seat, how tough is it when every time you’re on the racetrack over that qualifying session, conditions are changing? Sometimes even lap to lap, it’s changing. How tough is it to judge where the limit is?
LN: Very. Probably more than it looks on TV at times. It’s just, you’re always trying to find that next little bit, but I mean, you saw how many people were going off and crashing and locking up, so it was easy to end up badly, you know, and end up in a wall or do something where you might not even make the race later today, you know. So, that risk-reward was not easy today, especially from where I was in Q1. I found it very tough to know how much more can I push. So that’s why I’m happy, because it’s a relieving qualifying after something like this. So very happy at the same time.
Q: So right before that last green, after that final red, Will Joseph came on the radio and said, ‘hey, huge opportunity here, let’s not do anything silly’. You still pushed. You still went faster every lap. But let’s look ahead to the race. Obviously, from a championship standpoint, huge implications. Does that at all change your mindset going into the event? Or is it just eyes forward going for the win?
LN: No eyes forward. I mean, I got some quick guys behind. George put in a nice lap. Yuki’s been flying in the wet all day today. So it’s never easy in these conditions. It’s never as much as just settling down and getting on with it as that is what I would like to do. It’s not always the easiest thing, you know. So we’ll see. We’ll prepare well. I hope we can get a race in. That will be a good start. And I’m excited to see what we can do.
Q: No man wants a race to happen more than this guy, Lando Norris, your pole sitter. George Russell, incredible result here. It’s been a bit of a struggle for you guys with this race car around this newly paved track. Big cheers from the crowds for the effort, though. You must be one of the guys that was kind of happy when you pulled up this morning and it still looked like it was going to be a wet session?
George RUSSELL: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, always love coming to Sao Paulo. Obviously, such great memories from a few years ago. And after yesterday, it was so tough just waiting and all the fans stayed out. And honestly, this morning, I was so impressed coming into the track at 6 o’clock. Everybody was queuing. Everybody wanted to be here. And really pleased to be lining up here P2.
Q: Now, let’s talk about that coming into the track at 6 o’clock. This is a very different Sunday for you. This is not normally how your Grand Prix Sundays go. How does having qualifying this morning, having the race brought up a little bit earlier, change how you prepare and you focus on the race?
GR: I love that, to be honest. Reminds me of the karting days, waking up, having breakfast in your race suit, and just going out there and driving. So, yeah, maybe the guys need to have a bit of a think about the format moving forward. Maybe this is the one, you know, qualifying Sunday morning. As I said, it was a great session, but let’s see what we can do in the race.
Q: Absolutely. You’re one here in 22. Let’s see if you can do it again today. Cheers. And up next, big cheers from the crowd for Yuki Tsunoda. Congratulations, Yuki. Top three start here in São Paulo. Best career start, under incredibly difficult conditions. Just walk us through your session and the challenge of getting that perfect lap in those tricky conditions.
Yuki TSUNODA: Yeah, it was very tricky. Certainly, I enjoyed it. I think we had a good pace from straightaway. Had a couple of mistakes, but yeah, had a bit of luck as well. I think overall as a team, including Liam as well, we did a really, really good job.
Q: Yuki, as a driver, how tough is it to balance that risk versus reward, especially when you’re seeing other drivers crash, have incidents when you know the Grand Prix is just in a few hours, and that a big incident could eliminate you from even starting the race?
YT: Yeah, I mean, this track especially, probably is one of the trickiest tracks. Once you start building confidence and you try to over-push a little bit, you have massive consequences like we saw with multiple cars today. And I had one big moment, and luckily I was away from the barrier, but, yeah, it’s certainly also the track you want to nail it. But, yeah, I feel much better than yesterday. The car felt good. I think we had a good pace in the rain as well, so it’s a good place to start for today.
Q: And just real quickly, your team-mate Liam Lawson also up there. Huge opportunity for you guys in the Constructors’ battle with both Haas cars going out early. Are you guys very focused on collecting maximum points and trying to close that gap?
YT: Yeah, 100%. Yeah, we are slightly behind P6, especially Haas. So we need definitely catching up. And this is the moment that we want to maximise the opportunity. So yeah, as a team, we do as much as we can to score as much as possible.
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PRESS CONFERENCE__
Q: Many congratulations, Lando. You overcame very difficult conditions out there. Does that make pole even more satisfying?
LN: One hundred percent. Yeah, I mean, there’s a lot more risk involved in a day like today. Especially because I was 15th in Q1. I was struggling. I was miles off the pace. I was like a second and a half off Oscar. I don’t know what was going on. I was pretty concerned at the beginning. It was not looking good. So to be sat here now on pole, that’s probably the thing that makes it sweeter. But it’s also just these conditions. I mean, you saw how many people were going off and making mistakes, how easy it was to lock up and one lap just be gone and you’d be out. So any mistake today and you paid the price. And I think those are definitely days when things go right and you put in a good job and you do a good job that you feel happy about the whole thing.
Q: What were the issues early on and how did you improve the car?
LN: I didn’t. It was the driver! The car was the same from start to finish. It’s just your confidence and braking was just half of it. I was pushing too much half not enough. I just couldn’t get comfortable with the car and. It was showing at the time, so I really didn’t have a lot of confidence. You know I was one position away, one 10th away from being out in Q1. It could have been a very different story today uh but it was more just conditions and days like today you know when you got Yuki here and you got such a mix up in the order, it shows that it’s not all about the car, it’s about how who can get the tyres in and drive well, not make mistakes and that showed because of how bad I was at the beginning and how much better I did at the end. The car was the same. I was just driving terribly and then started driving well.
Q: You keep talking about the conditions. When it’s like this, how difficult is it to read where the grip is on the racetrack?
LN: I think the knowledge of where the grip was, was always pretty obvious. Let’s say from the beginning, that’s your first job as a driver is find the grip and then it’s trying to exploit that. The thing that is tough and trickier is how easy it was to lock tyres into one and four, how easy it was to have one wheel spin. I think if I probably had one wheel spin, George would be on pole today. One wheel spin costs you easily one and a half, two tenths. So I got just a mega exit out of all the slow speed corners. I kept it clean. And I think just a clean lap was what got me pole today. People don’t realise how easily things can go wrong, how quickly, whether it’s a snap out of two. You know, what happened to Alex, what happened to Fernando, what happened to Lance. Even Yuki. There was a lot of places things could go horribly wrong today. That was the point I kind of said at the beginning, was the risk versus reward. It was very difficult to know, ‘okay it’s a tiny bit wetter now, so do I push as much as before, because I want to risk it and I want to be on pole or do I take it a bit easier and just get the car home in one piece?’ That’s always playing on your mind a little bit. But my approach was the correct one.
Q: The approach was the correct one for qualifying. weather-wise it looks more of the same for the race this afternoon. how are you going to approach that?
LN: Hopefully I just start as I ended. That would be the best thing. But I mean, the race is a completely different job. The conditions, I’m sure, are going to change. You know, it was much nicer when it stopped raining. People could get more laps in, and the spray was less. The spray was so much in the beginning. You know, you have to be almost 10 seconds behind the car in front in order to kind of see where you’re going, see where the brake markers were, all of those things. You don’t get those opportunities at the start of a race, you know. So yeah, difficult. But we’ll find out later.
Q: Brilliant job. Well done, Lando. George, let’s come to you. So just one wheelspin away from pole position, according to Lando. Did it feel that close to you?
GR: I had no wheelspin, that’s why I was so close to him. Otherwise I’d have been a few tenths behind. But yeah, as Lando said, it was such a challenging session and you’re only a minor mistake away from having huge consequences and it was so up and down. Again, at the start of Q1 we looked like we were out of the top 15 and then also just getting that one lap in at the end to be on the front row. So pretty pleased with that.
Q: How difficult was it to have only one lap in the Q3?
GR: It was exciting, to be honest. Obviously the more laps you get, the easier it is, but it’s the same for everyone. I wanted to go all in for that last lap, so we decided to wait in the garage and just try and nail that last lap. And it wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t easy for anyone out there. So as Lando said, I think just getting a clean lap in and there just seemed to be no grip off the line. So it maybe a little bit difficult to race this afternoon. I think it’s going to be difficult to race this afternoon. But obviously, probably the guys around me have got more to lose than we have. You know, they’re all in their championship fights. So that gives us a small opportunity.
Q: George, final one from me. Your team-mate has qualified in 16th. Just where is the performance of the car this weekend?
GR: Well, I think like Lando said, it was just so challenging out there and Lando was on pole and quickest in Q2 and Q3 and did a great job. And in Q1, he was a tenth from being knocked out. So it just goes to show how quickly your fortunes can turn, I think, in normal, circumstances. we know we’re a good couple attempts off of these guys.
Q: Very well done to you. Yuki, great job as well your best ever qualifying in Formula 1. start by just describing your emotions right now?
Yuki TSUNODA: Yeah, very happy, obviously. But at the same time, it’s going to be a long race. And it’s going to be today as well, so I have to refocus. But definitely, overall, the team did a fantastic job, especially good turnaround from yesterday. It just felt weird throughout the week so far, and we made a lot of change to the car. And I think it’s hard to compare between yesterday and today because of rain and dry. I think I got much better, I think.
Q: And Yuki, your best result is seventh so far this year. Just how high are you aiming this afternoon in the Grand Prix?
YT: Yeah, definitely high, you know, in rainy conditions can be tricky to overtake or, you know, defend, but yeah, just to be clean as much as possible every lap. That’s the main target, like we saw in qualifying. And yeah, I think both cars are in good positions, and especially we’re fighting for P6, so I think this is a good opportunity to overtake again the Haas.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Filip Cleeren – Motorsport.com) Yuki, there have been a lot of stories about your future, and you’ve got a strong challenger in Liam next year. So how much did you need a performance like this, and what does it do to your confidence as well going forward?
YT: Yeah, I think from yesterday, especially, these kind of things are very needed. But also yesterday, I think we know what happened there throughout. Straight away from FP1, just didn’t have real grip and made a lot of change, the parts as well. I mean, it’s hard, like I said, to compare, but it got much better, I think. Just needed a smooth weekend, you know, like probably from Austin, Mexico, didn’t have any clean race week. Austin, you know, started really good. Didn’t turn around towards ourselves, in Austin, for example, in the race. Mexico, just my bad in the qualifying. You know, there was good opportunity there, there was good pace, but just, yeah, I lost the opportunity for myself. So just needed like this very clean race week and I think still always confidence there. So yeah, I mean, some point in this qualifying kind of flashback, you know, in Mexico things happened in qualifying. It’s kind of similar things happened in Q2 or Q3. And yeah, everything looks very slow when I was spinning. And thank God for the gravel that made me rejoin the track. But maybe I trained too much legs and I’m braking too hard and locking up. But yeah, so far it’s definitely good.
Q: (Emanuel Colombari – Band.com) For the three of you. This is quite an unusual schedule for the Sunday – qualifying and racing, both on Sunday. How did this affect drivers’ preparation for, like, sleeping or breakfast or lunching before the race, for example?
LN: I mean, it was a quick getaway last night when we were told it’s a 7.30am quali. I think my alarm was on for ten past five. It’s not a nice sight when you have to put that on in the morning. But I think I was asleep by nine. I had my best sleep of the whole week, which I wasn’t expecting. Yeah, like I said a few times before, I don’t normally eat on a Sunday. I don’t have coffees either, so I had nothing to really get me going too much. Maybe that’s why I had a bit of a slow start. I had a Nutella sandwich, and that was all. So nothing too different. I probably expected worse. But I think as soon as you jump in the car, your brain switches on, and you’re kind of in that race mode. Adrenaline kicks in. So it changed a bit, for sure. You normally would have had nice poached eggs on toast. But this morning, the Nutella sandwich was good enough.
GR: Yeah, I mean, it definitely feels weird now because after qualifying, it feels like the afternoon. You look at your watch, it’s half nine in the morning. But yeah, similar to Lando, sort of no breakfast. I had my standard coffee before, which on an empty stomach made the start of Q1 a bit tricky. So I’ll do it for next time on a Sunday morning qualifying.
YT: Yeah, I mean, I got the best qualifying throughout my career, so I would prefer every day, every time, 7.30 in the qualifying. But I was expecting, I mean, straight away, Q1, I got a good pace. So probably, I mean, preparation went well. I had a lot of coffee, a lot of caffeine. Made it a bit too excited in Q3, but it was good.
Q: (Maria Clara Castro – Car Magazine Brazil) Lando, we’ve seen a lot of videos of you when you were way younger drifting with go karts in the water. And I was wondering who encouraged you to do that and how your past experience like that help you in tricky days, tricky conditions like today’s?
LN: I don’t remember the exact video. In my Bambino, I was probably six years old. I can picture it perfectly. My dad is the answer to all of this. We used to have a lot of fun. Yeah, doing a bit of everything, you know. I didn’t start on a track. I started just at home, around some cones. Yeah, it was quite a difference to now. I mean, it’s hard to know how much of that helps nowadays, you know, when you’re driving a Formula 1 car in Brazil. It feels very different to having slicks on a go-kart at home with, I don’t know what, five horsepower. There’s a large difference, but it all starts somewhere. And that little bit of knowledge, that little bit of correction and drifting, it has to start somewhere. And I’m sure nowadays, they’re starting earlier and earlier, kids. And when I started, I had no idea on how to drive, and neither did my dad. Yeah, I think it helped. It’s a starting point. And I used to enjoy a lot of that, driving on slicks in the rain. Because you can drift and you can have a bit more fun. You can take it a bit less seriously when you’re like this. And that’s almost how you have to drive. Yeah, days like that, tiny things along the way over the last, what, 18, 19 years of my life now since I was five, six years old. I’m sure all of it adds up slowly over time to make you a better driver. It’s probably the same for everyone on the grid to be sat here today.