DRIVERS
1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Ferrari)
2 – Oscar PIASTRI (McLaren)
3 – Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing)
 
 
TRACK INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Jacques Villeneuve)
 
Q: Max Verstappen, third place podium. Obviously you're happy when you win, but you've had a hard car to drive all weekend. At first it looked like you could bring the battle to Lewis and then had to back off. Ultimately, good points in the championship — are you satisfied?
Max VERSTAPPEN: I mean, if you look at it like that, I think it is positive. Of course, I tried to give it a go because I also had Oscar behind me pushing, so I was trying to keep in that DRS. You know, that helps a lot on the back straight. But unfortunately, yeah, I think the last 8–10 laps I would say we just didn't have the pace to the others, so I was just trying to survive out there. So I definitely take that P3. Even the cars behind were catching up quite a lot, so it was tough out there to manage your tyres somehow, but it's OK. We'll try to do better.
 
Q: Well, like you said, you had to survive for the second half of the race. Does that give you good info on what to do on the car for qualifying and the race tomorrow?
MV: We'll try to make it better. You know, we'll look into the data and see what we can improve a bit on the car. But I think in general we just lack a bit of overall pace and then of course, naturally, you have to push a bit harder, you kill your tyres a bit more, so that makes it very difficult.
 
Q: Oscar Piastri, second place finish. Well, you didn't get the point you were wanting in Melbourne, but today you had pace, the car was quick, and out of the whole field you actually managed to salvage your tyres so you could actually be aggressive — overtake, get an extra position. Does that feel good?
Oscar PIASTRI: Yeah, I think it was a productive Sprint. Obviously finishing second is always a great result. And yeah, I really learned a lot in that one. And I think, you know, as much as the result is a nice thing, the way I got the result, like you said, is an encouraging thing. So yeah, we didn’t quite have enough pace for Lewis out front, but I think we’ve got some good ideas for this afternoon and tomorrow and see if we can go one spot better.
 
Q: Not seeing your race today in traffic — you're confident for the race tomorrow?
OP: Yes. Hopefully we don't have as much traffic though, that's the plan. So we'll see what we can do this afternoon to start a bit higher and go from there. But yeah, I think we've got good pace in the car. We've clearly got a lot of competition this weekend. The Ferraris look pretty rapid, so we've got to be on our best form.
 
Q: Lewis, amazing — second race in your new team and at Ferrari, and already a win. I mean, after Melbourne, which was a tough weekend, to come here and destroy your opposition — how does that feel?
Lewis HAMILTON: Oh, I mean, today I woke up feeling great. You know, the weather is beautiful here in Shanghai. And we have this amazing crowd. But yeah, the first race was difficult and obviously I really do feel a lot of people underestimated the steep climb it is to get into a new team, to become acclimatised within the team — understanding and communication, all sorts of things — and the amount of critics and people I've heard yapping along the way just clearly not understanding. Maybe because they never had the experience or just unaware. And so it felt great to come here and feel more comfortable in the car because in Melbourne I really didn't feel comfortable. From lap one here this weekend I was really feeling on it. We've done a great job — the engineers have done a great job, mechanics have done a great job — to really fine-tune the car. And it felt great. Today I got a good start, and then it's such — it's so much grip on this new tarmac, it's really hard to look after these tyres. But I think everyone was struggling the same.
 
Q: Well, you arrived here and we could tell that you had the winning mindset. I mean, you were emotional after qualifying — that's very rare to see you that emotional. Aggressive at the start to stay in the lead, controlled it when Max came back, just disappeared in the distance. That's looking good for the viewer. This is the Lewis we like seeing. But remember, you have a lot of Italian fans now. You're an adopted Italian, and you know how much pressure that brings. What do you think will be the reaction now back in your new home?
LH: I don't know. I mean, I don't feel the pressure. I know the Tifosi, I know the fans, I know the team wants to win and I know it means everything to them. But I said the other day, like, Rome wasn't built in one day. One step at a time. We're not going to get ahead of ourselves — we cannot. We've got to continue to push, we've got to be diligent and just remain focused, stay calm. Most importantly, stay calm, because these moments get us all excited. But we'll be back at our desks after this and focused on qualifying this afternoon. And you know, it's a long, long way. So it's a marathon, not a Sprint, right? So we just got to take our time.
 
 
PRESS CONFERENCE 
 
Q: Lewis, what a weekend for you so far. Your first win in red. How special is this moment for you?
LH: Sorry, we were just getting... I haven't been up here for a while, so it's a little bit new.
It’s been a really, really special weekend so far. Like, you know, China, Shanghai has always been really good to me since my first race here back in 2007. It's a track that I really do love driving on. It's got so many great challenges throughout. It's one of the best new layouts that, or new tracks, that they've built over the last couple of decades. But yeah, to arrive today, it's a much different view, starting from pole. It's been quite some time since I've had that view. So I got in the car extra early because I just wanted to be present and enjoy it because I haven't been there for a while. Good start. Challenging race. I think it is generally really close between all of us, but the tyre degradation today was pretty huge, I think, for everybody. So I think for me it was just trying to manage that early on and then... Yeah, the last like five laps or something, I was in a really pretty comfortable position. Yeah, I just... it's hard to put into words what it feels like. Obviously it's a Sprint race. It's not the main race, but even just to get that is just a good stepping stone to where I'm working towards.
 
Q: You say it's a stepping stone. Just how much confidence does this give you for the remainder of the weekend?
LH: Yeah. The car was feeling really good today. Hopefully we'll make a couple more changes to improve the car going into qualifying this afternoon. And yeah, we won't change too much. We've got a pretty decent platform so far, so definitely feeling good. But as you saw yesterday, qualifying was incredibly close between the top three and I don't think Lando got his lap, so it will be very difficult again this afternoon. But we'll give it everything.
 
Q: Oscar, let's come to you now. A great race. You needed to be tactical in terms of how you looked after the tyres. How difficult were they to manage?
OP: Yeah, tough. Probably one of the more difficult ones in terms of tyre degradation. So I knew I had to try and be patient. And yeah, I think I pretty much executed the Sprint that I wanted to. Probably one position short of what I wanted to do, but I think in terms of how I went about it, I was happy with the end result.
So yeah, a pretty challenging race, but happy with it.
 
Q: And can you pinpoint areas where you can still improve the car ahead of qualifying and the main Grand Prix?
OP: Yeah, I think we've got some good ideas. The difference between qualifying and the race in terms of what you want from the car and what the tyres need seems to be quite big. So it's going to be a balancing act for sure, but I think we've got some good ideas on what we want for certainly tomorrow and even this afternoon.
I think the pace we had in the car yesterday was good. I think we just, in hindsight, would have done a few things a bit differently in qualifying. But I think the pace is there and there's plenty of confidence going into this afternoon.
 
Q: Max, let's turn to you. Great race. Just how soon into it were your tyres starting to suffer?
MV: I would say like midway. You really started to feel that the deg was kicking in. Yeah, it just seemed a little bit more aggressive for us than maybe the cars around us. But I think that just comes from maybe also not having the base pace. You try to hang in there and you naturally just destroy your tyres a bit more. So to be in the top three, I think it's still a good result for us. I mean, we started a bit more ahead than I think we should have anyway, so I'm pretty pleased with hanging in.
 
Q: Max, can we look at the reasons for the deg? Do you think it's down to the new surface? Is it down to the increase in tyre pressures made overnight by Pirelli? Do you have any ideas where it may have come from?
MV: I think all of that. But it's the same for everyone. But for sure, I mean, the tarmac is very good. I like it. It has a lot of grip, but it does seem that we are struggling a bit more with graining. Pressures went up a little bit as well. Probably that made it a bit more difficult for everyone. So it will be, I think, a very challenging race also tomorrow.
 
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
 
Q: (Jon Noble – The Race) Lewis, congratulations. You're in a totally different place with the car this weekend compared to last. How do you explain that step change? Is it the set-up has improved? Is it that you're more comfortable and know what's needed from the Ferrari? And how much is down to track characteristics, that it's a front-limited track?
LH: Yeah, I think... I don’t know, it's just like every time you get in the car, you're learning more. I would definitely say last week, for whatever reason, I really didn't feel comfortable in the car. Friday… Saturday was a little bit better. But I think set-up wasn't where I really wanted it to be. And I think really last weekend I still am sitting back and letting the guys do what they do. I need to observe how they like to operate, rather than imposing – because maybe what I've done in the past won't work. So I've just been basically in that area. And then coming into this weekend, straight away on Monday, I hit Riccardo up and said; "These are the things that I want to start with this weekend. This is more the direction." And I'm much happier with that. That's something I tested back in Bahrain and we kind of veered off from there. So there’s been a couple of changes. But yeah, from the moment I started driving yesterday, I felt more one with the car. And even through this race, I'm still learning. I didn't get to do the long run in Bahrain. I didn't get to do the race run in Bahrain. So the race last week in the wet was my first long run in the car. So that was actually my first proper long run of any significant amount of laps. I'm learning along the way still, just how this car, how to manoeuvre the tools in order to make the car work the way I want it to work. So I'm really happy with how it came out, given that that is the case. But now I've got a much better knowledge now of what the car likes and what I need to do to make it faster.
 
Q: (Molly Hudson – The Times) Lewis, you mentioned in your TV interview the detractors that you've had, whether it was last week or maybe last season as a whole. How satisfying is it to be sat there in first place again? And what is it that's making you click here that maybe didn't last season?
LH: Well, yeah, I mean, I'm not really talking back to them or anything like that. It's just that we live in such a strange time in the world. People just love to be negative at any opportunity, even with the smallest things, they’ll just be negative about it. And I think that's just the difficult time that we're living in. I see certain individuals – and again, I don't read the news, but I see bits here and there – see people that I've admired for years just talking out of turn. Clearly some of them really just making uneducated guesses of what's going on. And like I was just saying, just a real lack of appreciation. It's not easy moving to a new team that works completely differently, completely different characteristic of car. You don’t just jump in and it's good. I mean, look at – it's true – if you look at Seb, you look at Fernando, they did a great job when they joined the team in their early phases, but to build long-term success with the team takes time to build. And that's what I'm trying to do. I'm not trying to jump-start it, get ahead of myself. I'm just taking my time to build with this great team.
There's so much potential in this team, but for us to be at the second race already and have that experience – this is a track I've gone well at for many, many years, so you got to take that a little bit. But in general I've been feeling really good in the car. And as I'm learning more of where the car likes to be set up for a track like this, for example, when I get to another track like the last one, I think I have a better understanding of where to put it.
 
Q: (Alex Kalinauckas – Autosport) Another question to Lewis, please. You said you got in the car a little bit extra early ahead of the start today. I just wondered what were you thinking at that stage? What were the team's pre-race expectations? And also, when did it become clear that you were on to a winner today?
LH: Well, I felt unusually calm in myself. I would say definitely more so than usual. I'm generally a relatively calm person, but I think today there was a stillness in me that I haven't felt for a long time. I didn't know if that was going to be a good or bad thing – if I'm dormant or just ready. But also, I've got… Ange and I, it's her first... you know, Ange is still getting used to things. This is her first Sprint for ages, so even for her, we came to the grid and we happened to be there a little bit early... You know, like, shoot, we were earlier than normal. Yeah, just the timing, I was like, I'm going to get in the car. And it actually worked really nice. I got time to spend talking to the engineers from the car. I think really from the moment – the good start that I had, I was really happy with the start – and then a couple laps in, I felt that I was managing. So I felt like I had the car beneath me. But of course, the two behind were pushing quite hard, and I could see Max was getting close in certain places, so I didn't know. And also the graining actually started appearing quite early. I don't know how it was for you guys, but already four or five laps in, you could kind of already see it, even though we were managing. So I didn't know where that would go. But the fact is I think all of us were experiencing the same thing.
So once I got calm there, kind of like after lap six or seven, I kind of got into my stride and that was that.
 
Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) Lewis, I appreciate after the race, you said that now’s the time to keep calm. But obviously, great win – you know, seven seconds clear of Oscar – and everyone's saying that McLaren's the car to beat this year. So that must give you real confidence that you're in this championship fight?
LH: Well, I think it's just... Look, we’ve just come from a race where we finished 10th. So there are so many factors to really take into account. So I guess we just can't get ahead of ourselves off that one result that we just had and be like, yeah, now we're... The car felt good today. And yes, managed to finish ahead of a McLaren and a Red Bull. But that doesn't necessarily mean... You know, look at qualifying, it’s very, very close. So not making the mistakes is going to be key. But I think we seem to be there or thereabouts this weekend, which is really good. I hope that that continues. But again, from track to track, we'll have to wait and see. We saw last week we didn't have that. So I'm hoping that, you know, there's a lot of learnings from last week that we applied already to this week and the car has been in a much better place. So I hope that we can keep it there. And if we can, then yes, that makes me happy.
 
ENDS