Parc Ferme Interviews – Conducted by David Coulthard
Lando Norris, what a lap on a circuit where we expect it to be super tight. Half a second! Put us in the cockpit – where did that come from?Lando Norris: Oh, it was a good lap, that’s for sure. I guess just little bit by little bit. I feel even like my Q3 run one was good, but I knew there’s a few places where if I just got it right, I could get still quite a bit more time. And I did exactly that. So, I did what I planned to do. And when I plan to do something and it goes right, it normally goes very, very well. So yeah, very happy. A good day. It’s been a good weekend for me so far, so hopefully we can keep it up.
So, you didn’t do the first practice session, you’ve been top of the times every time you’ve done a lap around this track. I feel that I’m a little bit more impressed and excited by that lap than you are. Is this just a new, steely focus for this weekend?LN: I don’t know. I mean, I’m still very happy. It’s just a long season. I still savour with this moment, especially because this has been some of my tougher moments in qualifying. So, to put in a lap like today, to have the performance throughout this weekend like I had, was pleasing for myself. But I’m excited. It’s a long race tomorrow. I’m very happy with today, but I want to prove it to myself over and over again, and hopefully this is just the beginning of it.
Okay. Well, congratulations. I think that was an awesome lap.LN: Thank you so much. Cheers, everyone. Thank you.
Charles, after what was an average qualifying in Canada, here we are right there, front row, second place. You must be very happy.Charles Leclerc: Yeah, I’m very pleased. I mean, it’s been a long time since… I think it was Monaco the last time we started on the front row, and it’s been a difficult season overall, but the team have kept pushing. We brought some new parts this weekend, which for sure made a difference because if you look at the gaps, everybody’s super close. So, it’s also thanks to the team, but I’m very happy with the lap. Overall, yeah, it’s a good start to the weekend. We know that we have a better car normally in the race than we do in qualifying, so I hope that we can put a bit more pressure on McLaren tomorrow.
Well, you’re obviously happy with that performance. You’re right there with all your other competitors, but a half a second gap to Lando. Can you imagine that lap?CL: I mean, not with our car yet, but we are going to work towards that. But it’s not to minimise Lando’s job, obviously. I mean, he must have done an incredible lap. I haven’t seen it because I just got out the car, but I’ll definitely look at it. Congrats to him. He deserves it. And tomorrow we’ll try and bring him a tough time.
Congratulations on second place.CL: Thank you.
Now, Oscar, you’re a man that doesn’t really show his emotions. But when I saw you get out of the car, I sensed a sort of disappointment in your walk. Was there something on that lap that you didn’t manage to pull together, or is it just the size of the gap to Lando that’s a disappointment?Oscar Piastri: It was the fact I didn’t get to start it. That was the problem. I had Gasly spin at the last corner, so I didn’t even open my second lap. And Lando’s been very quick all weekend, so it would have been a tough challenge, but I think we easily had enough pace in the car this weekend to be on the front row. So always a shame when you don’t even get the chance, but we can still have a good race from there. Sometimes it’s just not your day.
Well, long game of course, the race, that’s where the points are. Good position to start. DRS is very effective here as we’ve seen in the other formulas, so still an opportunity tomorrow.OP: Yeah, definitely. I think our pace this weekend has looked very strong. I think the Ferrari pace looked good as well, which was a bit of a surprise, but I think we still got some opportunities tomorrow. So, I’m not planning on finishing third, that’s for sure.
Press Conference
What a session, Lando. Great job by you. Just how close to a perfect lap of the Red Bull Ring was that last lap of Q3?LN: Always impossible to say, but as close as I would probably ask for. You know, in all the places I could be close to being in the gravel or over the limit, I feel like I was. So, it was a very good lap. I think I improved in every corner and, especially around here, with the high speed in Turn 6, Turn 7, 9, and 10, especially in quali, you’ve got to commit, and it’s exciting and nerve-racking at the same time. So, yeah, again, rewarding when things go right like they did today. And to put the laps in that I did today, I was very happy with. So, yeah, it was a fun qualifying.
And after going fastest on your first run in Q3, were you able to approach that final lap slightly differently? A bit more relaxed maybe.LN: Not really. No. I mean, the others were not far behind. Even the Ferraris and Charles was a bit closer. I think all the way through quali, actually, the gap to some of the others was bigger than I was expecting. They were not miles away in FP3. But then as soon as we went out for quali, we seemed like a good step ahead. So, I wasn’t too worried, but there’s this guy here on the left, he’s also pretty quick, and the expectation is for him to go out and put some good laps in too, especially in Q3s normally. So, yeah, I think the pressure was still there, and I still knew there were places to improve. So, again, just try to do Turn 1, 3, 4 correctly and then push it a little bit more in the high speed, and that’s what I did.
Lando, you’ve had a couple of tricky qualifying sessions in recent races. Just how satisfying is this pole given what’s gone before?LN: I mean, it’s very satisfying, but, again, it’s about consistency. Everyone can be a hero in one weekend. It’s progress. It’s steps forward. I’m very happy with today, but it’s still a long journey. It’s a long season. The job I needed to do today, I did. And it doesn’t make up for the last few weekends or anything, but I did it today, and that’s what mattered. So, yeah, very satisfied and happy for putting it together when I needed to.
And you’ve been quick throughout practice. Just how much confidence does that give you ahead of the race?LN: I think a good amount. I’m starting in the best position. But we’ve been good since the first laps I did in FP2. We’ve been competitive, and I’ve been feeling confident and comfortable in the car. We’ve had some upgrades on the car this weekend, which is our first proper set of upgrades for the whole season. So, we’ve waited a good amount of time to apply them, and from what I see today, it looks like it’s definitely moved us in the right direction – especially on a circuit where there’s only eight corners really. So, yeah, I’m confident we can still have a good race tomorrow, but it’s a long one and plenty of things can happen.
Charles, let’s come to you now. Great job as well. You’re on the front row. What does this one mean?CL: It’s nice. It’s been a long time. I think this year overall, we’ve been quite weak in qualifying and then pretty strong in the race, but it’s good to be at least this time starting from the front row. At least we have a little bit less road to make before fighting with the guys in front. We’re there. However, obviously, the gap is pretty big to Lando’s lap, which must have been very special for sure. But I don’t know if we’ve got the tools to fight for a victory tomorrow. However, as I said, we are normally very strong on Sunday compared to the qualifying pace, and this gives me hope.
You’re running some upgrades here. What difference have they made over one lap?CL: Well, enough to be P2 because the gaps are very tight around here if you take off Lando. So it definitely helped us. I felt like there were some steps forward. How much, we need to see it in different characteristics of tracks. It’s not only on this track that we’ve got to judge that, but over multiple tracks. However, the numbers that we expected, we had them, which is a good start. That means that we are working in the right direction.
Still a long way to go, but do you think you can challenge for the win tomorrow? Is that realistic?CL: I’ll do everything to put more pressure than usual on those two guys. We have Oscar behind with a little bit of luck today, but tomorrow, try and look forward and see what’s possible.
Oscar, let’s come to you now. A case of what might have been for you?OP: Yeah, to an extent. I think through all of qualifying, I was missing that last tenth, but not getting the chance to do my final Q3 run was quite frustrating. Sometimes those things are going to happen. I was quite happy that I didn’t lose more spots by not doing that. So, third’s still an okay place to start around here. You can race around this track, so try and make some progress.
I mean, Lando’s clearly been very hooked up from the moment he drove in FP2. How comfortable have you been in the McLaren?OP: Pretty comfortable. FP1 was a little bit of a messy start, but then I felt pretty good through the rest of practice. And qualifying again felt quite good. It’s very difficult around here to get that perfect lap because there’s a lot of corners that have gravel on the exit, and you’ve got to be pretty careful there. But there’s also a lot of corners that you miss an apex by five centimetres one way or the other, and you’ve lost a couple of tenths easily. So it’s not the easiest track to hook up even though it’s short, and I just kind of felt like I didn’t quite do that today. So, a bit of a shame.
Can we also get your thoughts on the upgraded parts that you’re running here? Do you feel the team has taken a step forward with them?OP: It doesn’t feel that different in the car, but on the timing sheets, it looks good. So that’s all we ask for. I think the pace this weekend has looked very strong. So, hopefully, that translates to tomorrow as well.
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