Track Interviews – Conducted by Karun Chandhok
Oscar Piastri congratulations, your 50th Grand Prix victory tonight. What a way to celebrate!Oscar Piastri: 50th victory?
Well, 50th start!OP: I hope it’s my 50th victory! No, great to have this result out here. It’s been an incredible weekend, starting off with qualifying yesterday and, yeah, to finish the job today in style was nice. So, yeah, can’t thank the team enough for the car they’ve given us. It’s pretty handy out there. So no, it’s been a great weekend and, yeah, very proud of what I’ve done this weekend as well. Very proud to do it here in Bahrain as well. It’s obviously a very important race for us, given our owners, and it’s never been a track that’s been kind to us. So it’s nice to finally have that first win for the team.
Well, you’re absolutely right. McLaren have only led 8 laps here at the Bahrain circuit – an amazing achievement. Just talk to me about the race itself. Was it stressful around the Safety Car? Because you built up that gap of 7.2 seconds – what did you think when the safety car came out?OP: I would have preferred to not have it, yes, but I was still pretty confident. I think the pace was good. I was pretty confident I could get a good restart. I also knew that Lando and I were the only ones with another Medium, and that was the tyre to be on, so from that side of things, it was relatively straightforward. Obviously, you try and get a good restart – you never quite know how it’s going to go – but no, I was never going to let that one go.
We saw that the city was turned papaya when you won the Constructors’ World Championship last year. How are you guys going to celebrate this first home win for Bahrain and for McLaren?OP: I don’t know. I’m sure there’s going to be a hell of a party. I’m not going to get involved because I’ve got to race again next week. But no, it’s been a great weekend for everybody. And yeah, it’s a great, great place to do it. So I’m sure everybody will enjoy it – and as they should.
Fastest lap, pole position, great victory – congratulations.OP: Thank you very much. Cheers.
George Russell, congratulations on second place – bit stressful at the end there.George Russell: Yeah, it felt all under control for a moment and then suddenly we had a brake-by-wire failure. So suddenly the pedal was going long, and then it was going short… I didn’t know what was going on. The steering wheel wasn’t working properly, so it was really hard fought to keep Lando behind. I think one more lap, he would have got me pretty comfortably. But nevertheless, really, really pleased with P2.
And we saw you have a lunge around the outside of Oscar – a bit of a lock-up in that early part. After that, was it a case of just trying to protect second place?GR: I mean, Oscar was in a league of his own. So congratulations to him and to McLaren. We knew they’d be pretty extraordinary around this circuit, and that was proven right. But for ourselves, you know, it’s been four races, three podiums – all on different types of tracks – so it gives us confidence going into the future.
We heard you say that the last stint – 25 laps on a set of Softs – was going to be audacious. You made it work. GR: Yeah, I’m not too sure how that one worked as well. I saw, you know, Charles behind me on the Hard and I saw 24 laps to go. I thought, you know, “Jeez, how the hell are we going to make this work?” But we did. The team did a great job and it’s been a great weekend.
And we know you had some systems issues towards the end – DRS issues as well. Any concerns about that? Because I think there’s a point where you’re being looked at for using the DRS outside the zone.GR: Yeah, we basically were having all sorts of failures and basically we did an override on the DRS. And on one lap, I clicked the radio button and the DRS opened, so I straightaway closed it again, backed off – nothing gained. I lost more than I gained, it was only open for a split second, so kind of goes to show you the amount of issues we were having. But, as I said, really pleased with P2.
Lando, it was a bit of a roller coaster there. Let’s try and remember the start first. What happened there? We saw you creep forward in the grid box – can you tell us what happened there?Lando Norris: I didn’t think I was that far forward, I guess, nothing more than that. So, a tough race. Of course, I made too many mistakes with the overtakes, the out-of-position. It was a messy race for me and disappointed not to bring home a 1-2 for McLaren because it would have been lovely at home. So, a tough one – but still a few positives.
We saw on the restart a great battle between you and the two Ferraris. Were you aware that you’d gone off and you had to give that place back to Lewis at that point?LN: No. I just got told. It was close. I mean, it was good racing throughout, so no complaints. Just good fun. I mean, good overtakes – everyone hard and on the limit, as it should be. So, a good one.
And good, fair racing with George there right at the end – someone you know and have raced together with for a very long time.LN: No, he did a good job. So, yeah, I thought I’d be able to get him. I guess he was probably just saving a little bit for the end, which, yeah, he did well. So he did a good job. Oscar did a good job. So congrats to Oscar and the whole McLaren team. And I’ll try step it up for next weekend.
Press Conference
Tremendous race by you, Oscar – fully in control throughout. Just how satisfying was this one?OP: Very. It’s been a great weekend – maybe not FP1, because that was pretty diabolical for everyone, but FP2 onwards has been very, very strong. I was happy after qualifying yesterday and I think that made quite a big difference today. So yeah, very, very pleased with how the weekend’s gone and happy to come away with another win.
Strategically, the team was on point. Just talk us through the decision to start the race on the Soft tyre.OP: I mean, we kind of thought most people would start on the Soft. You know, George only had one Medium and one Hard, and there were quite a lot of people around us that were in the same boat. So yeah, we felt starting on the Soft was going to be the best option, and I think it was the right choice in the end. So pleased with how we managed everything. I think we had the pace today to be able to manage things pretty well. But yeah, I think we made all the right calls.
Seems the only drama you had in this race was the drinks bottle. What happened there? Did you get any use at all?OP: No, it didn’t work. I don’t know what happened. It worked on the lap to grid and then when we plugged it in for the race it was still working a little bit, but I had to draw the water out pretty forcefully, let’s say. And then once the race got underway, I couldn’t get any water through the straw. So that wasn’t ideal, but you know, Bahrain is not the most physical race of the year. If it had happened next week, it would have been a much bigger drama, but we’ll make sure it’s fixed.
And Oscar, you’re the first repeat winner this season. Just how do you view the way the car’s performing and the way you’re driving?OP: I think both have been good. I’ve been happy with how I’ve driven all season so far. Maybe not all the results have been exactly what I wanted, but I think this weekend has definitely been the result I wanted. So yeah, been proud of the job that I’ve been doing and very proud of the job the team’s done. Obviously the car is in a great place. Still has its moments where it bites, but for a lot of the time it’s an incredible car to drive and clearly very quick. So yeah, very proud of the work we’re doing. This has been a track that’s not been kind to us in the past, so to have a weekend like we have had this weekend is a really meaningful result – outside of the victory.
Very well done to you. Thank you, Oscar. George, let’s come to you. Many congratulations. It was an exciting end with Lando just behind. How tough was it to keep him at bay?GR: Yeah, it was exceptionally difficult towards the end. I had all sorts of problems with the car. The steering wheel, I was losing all my data and the brake pedal went into a failure mode, so I had to do all these resets. One minute the brakes were working properly, the next they weren’t. So I was pretty pleased when I saw the chequered flag, to be honest.
And what about the DRS moment? Can you just talk us through that?GR: Yeah, I don’t really know how that happened. It was something to do with all these failures we were having. As soon as I saw it opened, I backed off. I lost two tenths of a second. It never happened again throughout. I didn’t actually click the DRS button – I clicked another button and it opened. As I said, I lost a lot more than I gained – I don’t think I even gained anything because it was open for less than a second.
So given all of these problems, is this one of the most satisfying P2s of your career?GR: Yeah, I mean, I’ve not actually had that many P2s to be honest. I’ve had a few P3s, but we did not expect to be anywhere close to McLaren this weekend. Qualifying on the front row was a real surprise. And then seeing Lando right up there on lap one behind me, I thought, “He’s going to fly off into the distance here.” Oscar did an amazing job to control the race, but to keep Lando at bay, I was really, really pleased about.
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