Track Interviews - Conducted by David Coulthard
Max Verstappen, your second victory at the British Grand Prix (sic), people are talking about the dominance of you this season but that was far from easy to win that race.
Max Verstappen: Yeah, we had a terrible start, so we need to look into why that was - but even after that, I think, especially Lando, he was very... well both McLarens... were super-quick. So, I took a few laps to pass them and that at one point I could ease-out a gap and I think everything looked quite alright again. But then again, after the Safety Car, on the softest compound around here, it was a little bit more tricky for us to keep them alive, basically, so the gap basically stayed a bit around 3-3.5 seconds. So, of course, very happy that we won again, I mean, 11 wins in a row for the team, I think that's pretty incredible but it wasn't straightforward today.
We know how it finished. Take us back to the start, off the line. Seemed like you got a little bit more wheelspin in your initial phase and that allowed Lando to really just come up your inside before Turn 1.
MV: Yeah, I mean I was doing a bit of drifting on Thursday with marketing and it felt like I was also doing it on this start, which wasn't very good. It was just very bad. We'll look into that, because I think the last few starts were actually a lot better, and then today wasn't that great. But at least it made it a bit more exciting. I had to push for it. Lando didn't really put up a fight, he was very nice to me but then he came back in the DRS, so he had a lot of pace today.
We've got Lando here. You guys are good buddies, so...
MV: He did very well today.
Great to see the friendship between you two guys. I suspect that will change if you keep performing like you have this weekend. You drove brilliantly, and you had to defend against a seven-time World Champion, whilst leading against a two-time World Champion.
Lando Norris: Yeah! Pretty insane. I just want to say a big thanks first of all to the whole team: they've done an amazing job and none of this would be possible without the hard work that they've been putting in, so pretty amazing, pretty insane. They put me on Hard tyres, I don't know why, they're still beginners in some things! It was an amazing fight with Lewis, to hold him off, I made a few too many mistakes maybe. I did what I could, I brought the fight to Max for as long as possible. It's a long, lonely race when you're just in the middle but it's amazing.
We heard you calling for the Soft tyres. That looks like what the majority of teams were going that route. So, with the Hards though, it was very impressive what McLaren were able to deliver.
LN: Yeah. I think they just wanted to give me a bit more of a test, I guess. That's what Zak said anyway. Probably Zak called the shots on that one. I wanted the Softs. I feel it made a bit more sense, especially with the Safety Car coming out - but I don't care. I'm P2, so all good.
P2, first podium at the British Grand Prix and your seventh podium in your racing career.
LN: Yeah, pretty amazing. The whole in-lap I was just trying to wave to everyone. So, a big thanks to all the British fans out here supporting all of us. Also for McLaren. Honestly, we should have have P2 and P3. Oscar did an amazing job all weekend, and he should have been P3 today without the Safety Car, so a shame, he deserved it. The fans are amazing - so a big thanks to all of them.
Lewis Hamilton, welcome to your 14th podium at the British Grand Prix. You talk about the power of the crowd here, you did it again. You came from what was obviously a difficult qualifying to deliver a brilliant podium here at Silverstone.
Lewis Hamilton: Well, firstly, I didn't do it, the crowd did it. Once again, Silverstone put on an amazing show, we've got the greatest crowd here. So big, big thank you to everyone for supporting. I felt the energy, I felt the support. This is the reason we got back up there. Also, I just want to say a big congratulations to Lando and to McLaren, where it was my family, where I first started, so to see them back up there, looking so strong. I mean, that thing was rapid through the high-speed corners. Wow. I couldn't keep up, but we had a good little battle on the restart. The start wasn't so great for me but the long run on the Medium was really great, so I think this is a good positive for us as a team, to know that we're not that far away, that we've got to just keep on pushing, and we can catch those guys up front.
We're watching here behind us that battle you had with Lando. You got him up the inside of Brooklands and then, well, you just didn't quite have the straightline speed as you went to Copse.
LH: Once he goes through Turn 13 or 14, or 15, he's gone. So we had good performance in the lower speed - but we had a good little battle there - I just didn't have the grunt on the straights. But I'm really happy: to start seventh and come third is a mega, mega job, so big Thank You to my team: great pitstops, great work all weekend, and I love this crowd.
Well, Lewis, we should give the final word to you, to the crowd.
LH: It continues to be an honour for me to race and represent all of you. We're going to continue to push, thank you for the support, and I hope you had a great day today. Thank you so much and God bless.
Press Conference
Max, let's start with you many congratulations, your sixth consecutive victory. You're enjoying an incredible run of success. Just how sweet was this one?
MV: Yeah, it wasn't particularly straightforward. I had a bad start, a lot of wheel spin. So, I had to work my way up again to Lando, took a few laps, then also took a few laps to cool down the tyres again in the lead, because Lando came back at me again in the DRS. But then once everything settled in, we lap-after-lap could open up the gap to, I think at one point, it was like nine seconds before the Safety Car came out. So, I guess that was very positive. Everything was working quite well but it was still quite surprising to see that the McLaren was actually that quick, or Lando was that quick, over the whole stint. And then, of course, because of the Safety Car, we had to make the decision what tyre to put on: the Soft or the Hard, so we opted to go for the Soft, which at the time I thought was right. But when I restarted, it took only two, three laps and then I realised that it was quite tricky to keep them under control with the temperatures. The gap, of course, stayed quite similar, but it wasn't particularly nice to drive. So, we'll look into that, maybe we should have gone on the Hard tyre, at least we could have pushed a little bit harder over the whole stint. Maybe, of course, the first two, three laps are a bit more difficult, but at least towards the end, probably it was a bit faster.
Can you talk us through the opening moments of the Grand Prix? What happened is you are trying to get away from the line?
MV: Yeah, just a lot of wheelspin, and, of course, as soon as that happens you lose so much drive, all the way to Turn 1. And then, Lando was in front, I just tried to stay out of trouble through Turns 3, 4, then I had a little battle with Oscar into Copse, had to stay on the outside. But yeah, it all worked out.
Now, there were a few anxious radio calls during the race from you. You said at one point 'the cars pulling, it's a bit weird'. That was one of them. And you also didn't like the Soft tyre. Were any of these serious issues?
MV: No, they were not serious, but I like to report these things to the team. The wind was very, very bad. At one point, it was really unpredictable. So that's what I reported.
LH: You know he's serious when he puts the 'F' in front of it. Have you seen your videos?
MV: That was 2020! That was a great year. Yeah, that was a good one.
Max, final one from me. You are ever present at the front at the moment but what do you make of the changing order behind you at the moment?
MV: It's very confusing to me because every single race weekend, it's someone else. I think is because it's so close behind that if you get your car in a little bit of a better window, it works on one particular track. So for me, I don't know what's going to happen in Hungary to be honest, who is going to be quick or the second quickest. The stable factor so far is that every single weekend, it seems like we are on top, which of course is the most important from our side. But again, Hungary completely different track, we will put some upgrades on the car there and hopefully they will work well.
Lewis, great job by you, your 14th British Grand Prix podium. How much did you enjoy being out there again?
LH: Well, firstly, congrats to Max and, and especially Lando, because it was great to see... it was a great battle we had but it's really amazing to see the McLaren back up in competitive form. I think it's been such a long time. So, and then for me, I really didn't expect to be on the podium today. But when we go through all the different strategy options, this is the one you hope for, which is the Safety Car. I basically put on the Medium tyre in the hope and plan to just stay out on them until the very end, until the Safety Car potentially would come, and fortunately it did. So our a long run pace is really good and really grateful for the team for continuing to push. We do have a lot of work to do on our car to put ourselves in proper competitive form to fight the Red Bulls and now McLarens.
Check out our Sunday gallery from Silverstone here.
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