Q: Andrea, if we could start with you. Bad memories first of all. Can we throw it back to China, which was a source of great frustration for the team? Do you fully understand the cause of the problems prior to the start?

Andrea Stella: Yeah, so China was definitely a challenging and frustrating event for us. Two cars not being able to take part in a Grand Prix is pretty exceptional as a situation. We understand the source of the problem. In both cases it was related to the electrical side of the power unit. We had faults on the battery, but different faults, pretty much at the same time of the weekend, and in this sense it's quite exceptional. We have worked together with HPP to investigate the problem. I think the problem is now understood. It's not the same, like I say, on the two batteries, and on Oscar's side we were in condition to reuse the same battery because we could apply some repairs, while on Lando's side we needed to go on to a new battery pack.

Q: It's still very early in these regulations. Are you worried of a repeat happening here?
AS: No. We trust 100 per cent that HPP have put in place remedials. I think we are exposed as a team, likewise all other teams may be exposed. There's no team dependency in the kind of problem that we had on the electrical side of the power unit. HPP have very high standards. When they have information to process from a fault, for sure they will execute and put in place all the necessary learnings, adaptations and actions to avoid a repeat. So, we are definitely looking forward here to having, I would say, a regular weekend, like we haven't had the chance in China and, to some extent, not even in Australia with Oscar spinning in the laps to the grid. We look forward as a team and, above all, we look forward for Oscar, who has not been able to have a lap in a race this season. We want to definitely break this trend and be there.

Q: You mentioned Oscar. Just how much is he on the back foot, having not done a racing lap so far this year?
AS: With entirely new regulations and also a different way of going racing, where you have now, as a driver, to manage the shortage of electrical energy, which at the same time is so crucial for propulsion, there's a lot of learning in every single lap you do in a weekend, and obviously when it comes to racing and racing other cars, the race itself is the most important situation to learn. So, from this point of view Oscar is a little bit on the back foot, but at the same time there's a lot that you can learn looking at the data of your team-mate. Even in the race in China, I was with Oscar and Lando, we were commenting, we were learning while looking, so there's learning anywhere. Also, I have to say that Lando and Oscar are collaborating this season, if anything, more than ever before. They keep gelling in terms of team-mates, they keep sharing information, they keep trying to see what is the common learning. So, I think Oscar has taken some benefit from what has happened collectively as a team.

Q: Final one from me. Just how much potential does MCL40 have, do you think?
AS: I think the MCL40 is a very high-potential platform. At the moment, our car, when we compare it to Ferrari and Mercedes, suffers a bit of a deficit in grip. So, Ferrari and Mercedes are faster than us in the corners. I think compared to Mercedes GP we see that we are probably underexploiting the power unit a little bit. It was better in China compared to Australia. We are on a steep learning curve when it comes to getting the most out of the power unit, which is positive, and we are working very well with HPP to make sure that we get on top of all the potential, extracting all the potential that is available in the power unit. But coming back on the chassis side, we understand exactly what to do in terms of putting in place the actions to improve the chassis furthermore. In fact, it's just about bringing upgrades that will increase the aerodynamic efficiency. These will happen in the next couple of events, so I think from there we should see a positive trajectory and we are confident that McLaren will be in condition to compete for podiums and victories on merit within this season.

Q: Great, Andrea. Thank you for that. Now Ayao, if we could come to you. It's been a fantastic start to the season for Haas. You're P4 in the Constructors' Championship, just one point behind McLaren. But can we just talk about the two races so far as a whole? What aspects of the performance have pleased you the most?
Ayao Komatsu: I think it's overall togetherness of the team. I think, as everybody here knows, preparing for this brand-new regulation has been a huge challenge, and for us, being the smallest team, that challenge was, I'd say, even bigger. But we managed to hit every single milestone in terms of hitting the shakedown, Barcelona, Bahrain 1, 2, and then throughout, like Andrea said, every lap we send a car out we are learning something. So, the learning rate is really, really steep. We may lack some of the off-track tools that some of the bigger teams may have. Sio the things we have to learn at the track are huge and we have to be doing it really, really quickly. But everybody is working together, looking at the problems in front of you, making improvement every session, every run. So that's what translated into the result. We always said we really need to focus on the basics first. Let's say first five races, there will be reliability issues, which is normal for this brand-new regulation, so we know what's going to happen in front of us. We've just got to be there to pick up those places available, and I feel like we've done most of that. Not quite, because we couldn't get both cars into points, but overall, I'm really, really pleased how this team is putting it together.

Q: You say you're lacking some of the off-track tools. Just how long do you think you can maintain this level?
AK: That's a very good question. We know what we are lacking, we know what we can do, so we're doing obviously a parallel work. One, obviously making best of what we've got, but at the same time we are in the process of installing a simulator in Banbury as well and a few other tools. So, I think the development race is going to be very tough, but at least to start off with our car has a decent characteristic, it's a really good base, so we know the direction is correct. It's just a matter of can we find enough performance to keep up with the others.

Q: Talking of performance, Ollie Bearman is driving extremely well, scoring points at every opportunity. Do you think he's taken a step over the winter?
AK: He takes steps every single time. You saw how much he improved throughout last year, right? As we said, his speed's never been in doubt. Then you saw the consistency improvement towards the end of last year. Mexico, P4, was amazing under huge pressure. Then pre-season testing throughout, working with the engineers, mechanics, feedback, all the quality has improved. If you look at the first two races, he hardly made any mistakes. It's just the way he can absorb the information, understand the bigger picture, he's able to articulate it, digest, apply, all these qualities you need to be a top driver, he's got it. The thing is that his attitude is very, very positive, so he brings the best out of people around him as well, engineers, mechanics, everyone. That's a very important quality. Even when there's some less than ideal situation happens, the way he deals with it, he actually doesn't depress people, he actually motivates people to be able to solve the problem quicker. So that's a natural attribute he's got. We already enjoy working with him and, at the moment, I can't see the ceiling, so that's the exciting part.

Q: Thank you very much for that. Watanabe-san, thank you for waiting. It's been a tough start to the season for Honda. Please can you start by just outlining the main issues with your power unit?
Koji Watanabe: Well, we are starting a new season with Aston Martin Aramco and, as you know, we are struggling in on-track performance at this moment. I believe that there are several reasons. The first one is that, yes, of course, the new power regulation is quite challenging for us. The second one is that we stopped the Formula 1 activities at the end of 2021 and announced to return to Formula 1 in 2023, so there is some period that during that period our Formula 1 activity was quite limited. It also took a bit of time for us to rebuild the organization to restart Formula 1 development. But now we are working closely with Aston Martin Aramco, not only technical area but also overall area, how we can build a strong partnership together with them. So, Aston Martin Aramco and Honda is not only just F1 constructor and power manufacturer, but also, we are working closely as one team. Actually, in our facility in Japan, the engineers from Aston Martin Aramco are really working hard closely with our engineers in Sakura, working together. So, I think most important is that we can keep moving forward step by step.

Q: Looking specifically at performance, have you been able to make progress since China?
KW: Yes. At this moment we are focused on how we can improve the situation of vibration, mainly damage to battery area, but also this time for Suzuka we have improved energy management situation for more driving performance.

Q: Looking at the rest of the season, how will you quantify success between now and Abu Dhabi?
KW: Well, we have some recovery plan together with Aston Martin, but we cannot tell that today.

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