Track Interviews- Conducted by David Coulthard & Terry Crews
(DC): Oscar Piastri, the end to a perfect weekend. That wasn’t as easy as I was expecting for you guys when I saw your pace in qualifying, but a beautifully executed race. Oscar Piastri: Yeah, definitely. It was a bit of a surprise to see Max try a three-stop, and it nearly worked for him. So, yeah, it was a great weekend overall though. I think the pace was really good. We could turn it on when we needed to and just very proud of the work we’ve done this weekend. It wasn’t the best first practice and then we got our stuff together and, yeah, it’s a nice way to bounce back from Monaco. So, been a superb weekend.
(TC): Now, Oscar, this is your seventh win overall, the fifth of the season. How do you feel about your performance going into the Canadian Grand Prix?OP: Hard to complain. Yeah, very hard to complain. It’s been a great year and this weekend’s been exactly the kind of weekend I was looking for. You know, we executed everything we needed to when it counted and that’s all you can ask for. So, the team gave me a great car once again. It’s a lot of fun winning races at the moment. So, I’ve been enjoying it, and I hope the team are too. So, thanks to the crowd for being out here. It’s been a great weekend, a lot of support out here. A lot of traffic as well, but that’s the sign of a lot of fans. So, it’s nice to be here.
(DC): Now you did the restart perfectly once again. There was a lot of action behind. I don’t know if you had the chance to see anything on the circuit screens?OP: I’ve seen that [Nico] Hülkenberg finished sixth [sic, P5], which is pretty impressive. So well done to him, I guess. But, yeah, my restart was okay from a time point of view. I’m not sure my rear tyres were very happy. I think I was wheel-spinning in sixth gear. So not the cleanest of restarts, but it was good enough. And then just getting used to how much grip there was on low fuel again, it was like being back in qualifying. So that was a bit of an adjustment, but no, very well managed.
(DC): And now we have the second-place finisher. Lando, it was all kicking off with the restart there. I guess you did everything you could to manage your race to second place?Lando Norris: I did, yes. But, you know, Oscar drove a very good race today. Didn’t quite have the pace to match him, but we gave it our best shot. It’s a long race, you know, anything could have happened at the end. We both got pretty sideways with the Safety Car restart. It was a good fun race, you know, and for us as a team to finish one-two is even better.
(DC): And then Charles Leclerc, I suppose one of the happiest podiums you’ve had, because it all came to you right at the end there with the restart. Put us in the cockpit. We saw Max get out onto the kerb, and then you had contact along the start-finish straight.Charles Leclerc: Yeah, it was, I mean, it was a battle for the track position to get the slipstream of the guys in front. Max wanted to bring me towards the inside where there’s all the rubber, so I didn’t want to go too much there. So, I was trying to push him to the left. There was a little bit of contact, but fortunately for us, no consequences. But I’m really happy. Obviously, yesterday I sacrificed quite a bit in qualifying in order to have better tyres for today. I didn’t know whether it would pay off. At the end, it did. I think P4, in a normal race, would have been in our position. With the Safety Car, we got lucky and got a podium. So I’m really happy with that.
(TC): Now Max was third the whole race. Tell me what was going through your mind when you saw that opportunity to take Max.CL: Yeah, I mean, when my engineers told me that Max was going on a new Hard for the last stint, I don’t know if they had the choice or if they had no choice. I guess they had no choice. I was obviously very optimistic because I knew how bad the Hard was. And, yeah, that’s where I thought that I really need to have a good restart, and maybe there’s an opportunity, and there was.
(DC): So, we’re just seeing this contact…CL: Yeah, I just wanted the slipstream in front, but it all worked out well.
Press Conference
Oscar, a brilliant victory for you. There was a lot going on throughout that race. Just how difficult was it to manage from the cockpit?LN: [To Oscar] Did you use my deodorant?
OP: No. I used my own.
LN: Is it a female one?
OP: No, it’s chocolate flavoured. Sorry. We’re just discussing deodorant here. [To Lando] You can get a better whiff, if you want. Your question was about managing it from the car? It felt mostly under control. I think I wasn’t really expecting Max to try a three-stop race, and I wasn’t really expecting it to work… Well, almost work as well as it did either. So there was a bit going on at that point definitely, and just with all the traffic and the blue flags as well, that made the race a bit more interesting than I wanted. But, apart from a few laps trying to get through the blue flags, I felt pretty much in control and could increase my pace when I needed to. So, yeah, it was a really strong race and a strong weekend. I think we did a really good job of managing everything in that race: sticking to our plan on strategy, not getting distracted by the three-stop, really good pit stops. Yeah, I think we just did a good job all around.
You say it’s a very strong weekend. Would you say this is your strongest weekend in Formula 1 to date?OP: It’s definitely up there. I don’t know if it’s the best one, but certainly it’s been a strong one. You know, it’s pretty hard to complain with the results we’ve had this weekend. And I think more so than that, just the effort that’s gone in, and analysing some of the things from last week that we could have done better – I think we turned it around very nicely and got back to the form we wanted to be on. And, yeah, that’s what I’m very satisfied with this weekend. Definitely one of the strongest.
Lando, let’s come to you now. Great race as well. Talk us through the key moments for you to finish second.LN: To finish second? I’m not sure. I mean, obviously, I got past Max quite quickly…
Lando, if we take it in chronological order then, talk us through the start. You were three wide going into Turn 1. How close did that get?LN: Were we? Yeah? You know. I don’t. I don’t remember. I just remember the lights going up pretty quickly, and obviously I was a little bit caught out by that. So, yeah. And then I just couldn’t get a slipstream. Yeah, I just… Oscar didn’t give me a slipstream down to Turn 1! And then, you know, it was hard to commit into the braking of 1 and Max got past. So it was a long race. I think we knew our pace was going to be strong, so I didn’t need to do anything too risky into Turn 1. But, yeah, I don’t think I lost out in the race. I think Oscar drove a very good race today and had a good day yesterday. And, yeah, I had the pace to go with him, but not enough to try and catch up and put him under threat.
And, Charles, let’s come to you now. First, can you talk us through the moment you took P3 at the restart there?CL: Well, I mean, from the moment where I knew that Max was on a Hard tyre, I was like, ‘OK, that’s not a great tyre to be on for the last five laps’, especially if there’s no saving or whatsoever. So, I knew that it was a full attack for me and that there was an opportunity to finish on the podium. Max went with a lot of commitment in the last corner, lost the rear on exit, and then I was basically side by side, and I was very happy to take the third place. And then we touched on the pit straight.
Max was very vocal on the radio saying you drove into him. What’s your interpretation of what happened?CL: I mean, I probably would have been very vocal if it was the other way around as well, because you are fighting for third place. So, you are just trying everything to get that third place back, and I think he knew that on track it would be very difficult with the tyres he was on. So, yeah, I mean, honestly, I don’t have any particular feeling about it. There was nothing special. I overtook on the inside. He tried to squeeze me on the dirty side of the track, then I had the upper hand because I had more speed because of the mistake he had done. And then I was trying to take the slipstream of the McLaren, went a tiny bit to the left. He didn’t seem to want to move at all. And we touched a little bit, but there was nothing special.
Final one from me. You’ve now finished on the podium at Monaco and then here in Barcelona – two very different racetracks. How much confidence do you have in the car now and your ability to finish on the podium going forward?CL: Today, we finished on the podium because we were lucky with the Safety Car. Otherwise, I think fourth was our position. So, I don’t think I have much more confidence in order to finish on the podium consistently. But, yeah, we are getting there. I guess we start to understand the car, how we can set it up in order to extract the maximum out of it. But still, we need to go in quite extreme directions, which is not so nice to drive. So, unless we have upgrades very soon, I think it’s going to be difficult to be fighting regularly for podiums.
Check out our Sunday gallery from Barcelona here.
