Parc Ferme Interviews – Conducted by Martin Brundle.
Many congratulations, Max. First of all, on the birth of Lily this week, what a wonderful week you’ve had already. First time I’ve had a chance to see you – spectacular – and then today pole position. Where do you find this time? It’s extraordinary. You magic time up out of somewhere.Max Verstappen: Yeah, it’s been a great qualifying, I think we improved the car a tiny amount as well, which helped me to basically rotate it a bit better and honestly, you know Q1, Q2, Q3 just improving every run, really, trying to find a bit more the limit. I had a tiny moment on my final lap into Turn 1, so I lost a bit of time there. But around here it’s just very complicated with the tyres over a lap, but at the end it worked out well so I’m very happy to be on pole.
Yeah, because the back end stepped out on you in Turn 1. But you obviously had the confidence just to keep pinning it.MV: I mean, you can back out of it, but it’s qualifying, so you try to correct it and just floor it out of the corner.
So you’re in the right place. It could well be wet tomorrow. The track was pretty difficult earlier on today in the Sprint.MV: Yeah. Let’s see. I mean, race pace, I don’t know. We have to wait and see for the weather, but it’s the best starting position – that’s always positive. And then in the race, of course, a whole different story, but of course we’ll try to maximise everything we can.
Lando P2, top McLaren but Max found the ounce of extra speed somehow.Lando Norris: Yeah. No, hat’s off to Max, especially being a dad now. I was hoping he was going to slow down a little bit, but it clearly didn’t. So no, I’m happy with today. I’m happy with the progress I’ve been making with the car, with myself. So no, Max did a Max lap once again and I can’t fault him. So happy and yeah, excited for tomorrow.
You were right there, but you had a little lock-up into T17.LN: I did. Yeah. Yeah. I think even that lap, well, it’s all ‘coulda, shoulda, woulda’ stuff, you know. But I didn’t deliver. But yeah, no, I mean the pace was there. The car has been feeling good. I’ve been feeling better than I have done over the last few weekends. I’ve still not put it together, but it is what it is. Max on pole and P2, so yeah, ready to see what we can do into Turn 1.
Yeah, especially if it should it rain tomorrow. You were mighty on the intermediates earlier on in the Sprint.LN: I was. So let’s pray for that. You know, I don’t really mind if it’s going to be dry or wet, but Miami seems to be surprising quite a bit with the weather at the minute. So I’m ready for both.
Kimi, another outstanding performance in your rookie season, top three. You were on pole for the Sprint. I mean you must be so satisfied. So pleased with what you’re achieving this weekend.Kimi Antonelli: Yeah, I mean, this weekend is going well so far. Was a bit disappointing this morning, but it was good to bounce back this way and yeah, I struggled a little bit during the quali. I didn’t have such a clean run like I had yesterday. But yeah, that last lap was quite good. I was a bit too greedy in Turn 1 starting the lap, but the rest of the lap was quite good, so I’m happy with it.
I think it was more than quite good. You split the mighty McLarens to put yourself right in contention.KA: Yeah, I mean, it’s definitely… the gaps are super tight and definitely, you know, if you can gain just few hundredths, you can make up so many places. So it’s really about putting everything together. And so far this weekend, I’m doing that and yeah, hopefully tomorrow we can have a good race.
Press Conference
Max, very well done. We’ve seen some brilliant poles by you this year, and this looked like another one. Did you extract the absolute maximum from the car in that second run of Q3?MV: I think apart from entry to Turn 1, yes. But yeah, it’s just been really tricky to get the tyres in the right window over a whole lap. So I think in hindsight… Of course, you never want to have a little oversteer moment on entry, but over the whole lap I did feel a bit more comfortable. So yeah, of course, very happy to be in pole. I think every qualifying, like Q1, Q2, Q3, just kept on chipping away at it and just kept on improving a little bit. So that’s exactly what you want.
You found a couple of tenths between run one and run two in Q3. Where do you think that time came from?MV: Just a little bit in 7-8 and then a little bit in the second sector. And then I think a tiny bit in the last corner maybe. So yeah, little bits everywhere.
We’ve seen some developments on the car this weekend, particularly on the floor. Just give us a few words on how the car is performing, how the upgrades are performing.MV: I mean, we are still struggling a little bit with our limitations in the car, but I do think that we’ve been quite decent over a lap, if you look at the cornering, we’re a bit slow on the straight this week. Then I think especially McLaren and Mercedes, and they took a new engine and of course that always gives a little bit more power than a used engine. But yeah, it seems like it’s a little bit better. Of course, the long run is a different story. The tyres get really hot around here. But of course tomorrow I don’t know what will happen in terms of rain or not, how warm it will be. To be honest, the colder it is I think the better.
Just if it’s dry tomorrow, how do you see it playing out in terms of particularly tyre wear?MV: I don’t know, to be honest. No one has really done any proper long running because of also the Sprint race being wet mainly. So yeah, I just try to do the best I can to manage my tyres to what the car can do, and then we’ll see what that will bring us.
Final one for me. This is a very different racetrack to where we’ve seen you on pole earlier this year. How encouraging is that for you?MV: It’s good. I mean, coming into the weekend I knew that this was not our strongest track with all the low speed, but actually I think when you look at the data it’s probably not even most of our problem around the lap. So I guess that is already a positive.
Best of luck. Very well done. Thank you, Max. Lando, let’s come to you now. So close to that pole position. Can you visualise where the time went?LN: Yes, I can.
Can you tell us a little bit more? Did it look like 17? Is that the biggest problem?LN: Yep. You got it right. Yeah. I just didn’t quite put it together, but that’s it.
Look, you say you didn’t quite put it together, but Lando, this has been a really strong qualifying for you. Better than we’ve seen at the last couple of races. Just how encouraging is that for you?LN: Very. I mean, I’m very happy with the end result. Just a shame when you miss out on pole, so that’s the only frustrating bit. But I think I’ve been trying different things, I’ve been doing different things with the team to try and work a bit more in this area and things have been taking a step forward. So I’m happy. Maybe not quite there yet, but happy with the progress.
Throw it forward to tomorrow. Do you feel this racetrack presents more opportunity for you than, let’s say, a track like Suzuka?LN: Yeah, I would say so. I mean, the DRS helps a lot around here with the overtaking. It’s what you need. You also have some much bigger braking zones than you have in Suzuka, so I hope so anyway. I hope that’s the case and we can have a good race tomorrow. But I don’t just expect competition from Max. Kimi’s been quick all weekend and Oscar has been as well. So yeah, I just expect a tough race from all accounts.
Very well done. Thank you for that. Kimi, great to see you in the top three qualifying press conference. You’ve been flying all weekend. Let’s just start by talking about that last run in Q3. How good was it?KA: It was quite OK. I struggled a little bit during the qualifying. I felt like I didn’t have such a clean run as yesterday’s Sprint Quali. I struggled more today to put the tyre in the right window and to extract the best out of it during the whole lap. I think the last lap was a bit better on that side, still not amazing, but really happy with the result.
Kimi, you’ve been the faster of the two Mercedes drivers all weekend. That must be very encouraging for you. But just from a performance point of view, have you unleashed something in the car that means you’re happier in it now?KA: Definitely. I mean, every weekend is learning and experience and more confidence with the car as well. So really, really happy with how every weekend I’m more able to play a lot more with the car and trying to explore the limit as well. So far this weekend I felt really good in the car. So that’s definitely a positive. And hopefully tomorrow we can do a good race.
Tell us a little bit more about your goals for tomorrow. The Sprint obviously this morning was disappointing in the end. What is your target for the Miami Grand Prix?KA: I don’t really want to say because it always goes terribly wrong! So I’m just going try to have a good start and then try to set a good pace and stay with Max and Lando. It’s not going to be easy of course, but we’ll see , first of all, how’s the weather, because there are some thunderstorms probably, so that might not be really nice. But yeah, let’s just see how the weather is going to be and then we’ll try to do our best with what we have. Definitely also in FP1 we did quite a long run, so we were able to collect good data on the dry and hopefully we can have a good pace in the race.
