Parc Ferme Interviews - Conducted by Naomi Schiff
George, a big congratulations. It's pole position for you out here in Barcelona. Momentum hasn't been on your side lately, but you've come back to the European season and you're coming out swinging. So how does it feel?
George Russell: It's been a great weekend so far. I kind of feel like my old self again, where every lap I'm doing my job, always fighting those top positions. Obviously, for the last few races, for numerous reasons, haven't quite been on our side, but I came in this weekend with just a clean slate, felt good and, yeah, just great to be on pole.
It's obviously a very different track here. It's a traditional circuit. We've also got a step softer on the tyres this year. Tell us, how was your experience during qualifying there in the car?
GR: Yeah, I think it's going to be an interesting race tomorrow. Lewis did an amazing job to get up there. I think that was a real surprise. We thought a fight was between ourselves and McLaren but then Lewis has been really quick all this session. So, I'm sure there's going to be a fight on our hands. Obviously, Kimi has been doing an amazing job, so tomorrow is not going to be easy from every standpoint, but I'm feeling ready.
Thanks. Kimi, just coming over to you. Congratulations, it's P3 here. This is actually the first time this season you've qualified not on the front row, so that just goes to show how well your season's gone so far. But tell us how it was in the car for you out there.
Kimi Antonelli: Yeah, it's been a little bit of a difficult weekend so far for me. Didn't really have the feeling with the car but, yeah, long run was strong yesterday, so definitely that's a positive. But today I've been lacking a little bit but looking forward to tomorrow.
It's a long, hard race tomorrow, as I was just saying to George, but also one of the longest runs to Turn 1. So, do you think being in third might be of an advantage to tuck up behind the others and get a bit of a slipstream?
KA: Yeah, I mean, we'll try to get a good start and then, for sure, we'll try to make the best use of the tow. Also, without using, we won't use any SM, so definitely the slipstream is going to be even stronger. So, yeah, now obviously a lot of work to do in order to be ready for tomorrow.
Fantastic. Lewis, coming over to you. Congratulations, it's P2 for you. So front-row start, which just goes to continue another great run of form. So, tell us about how this weekend has gone so far for you and how it was out there for you in the car.
Lewis Hamilton: Are you speaking South African to me?
I mean English with a South African accent.
LH: I can't hear anything. No, I can't hear anything. We've got a great crowd here, by the way. Always, the weather's incredible out here in Barcelona, so gracias. It feels great to be up here with them. Honestly, this weekend's been so difficult. Missing P1... Normally it's OK to miss P1, but it had a huge offset. So, every time we went into P2, I was just over a second off and then we just didn't feel quite comfortable enough. And these tyres only last one lap, right? So, you only have two shots at it in each session. And even if you do a cool down lap and go again, the car balance is completely off, so it's not a good reference. So, then I went to P3 and again I was easily four tenths, five tenths off and I was thinking, "Jeez, where am I going to get that pace?" And I went and left the track between P3 and qualifying.
Where did you go?
LH: I went back to my motorhome. Came back and then Q1 I was first and so I knew that I had a good balance and I was really comfortable on that first session. Q2 was a little bit harder with traffic and everything, and then these guys did a great lap. Naturally, congrats to George, but we're in a good position to be able to fight for tomorrow, so we have a race.
Well, even though it hasn't been a very straightforward weekend, as you've just pointed out, you're on the front row, you're P2, and this is a track that we often say shows us exactly what the pecking order is, a traditional circuit, and we get a great balance of what the teams have. Would you say, even though we've seen you up here quite a few times lately, that this is the true position of where Ferrari is at, ready to take on Mercedes every time?
LH: But again, I think all weekend we've been kind of like four tenths off these guys. And so we really, even with the upgrade, we thought that maybe that's where we were. So, for us to be that close, less than a tenth between us, shows just it's a real showing of the hard work everyone at the factory has done to bring these upgrades to this track. So big, big thank you to everyone back in Maranello. And, yeah, we just got to keep pushing, keep pushing, keep developing, and I'm hoping tomorrow we can squeeze some more out of this and hopefully keep up with these guys for once.
Press Conference
George, many congratulations. What a session for you, what a statement in Q3. Just how good was that final lap?
GR: I've got to be honest, just really happy to be back in my groove over the course of the whole weekend. You know, it's been a difficult few races for me. Obviously bad luck, there have been some poor performances in there, but went back to an approach that I knew works for me this weekend, and more important than the pole position for me was just in sort of every lap of the whole weekend, you know, I was in the top two positions and I felt confident, I felt good. Just felt like my old self again. So that was, regardless of what happened in Q3, you know, Lewis did a really amazing job and also could have got the pole position as well, but regardless, that was the most important thing for me this weekend.
You say you went back to an approach that you knew worked. Was that from a driving point of view or from a car set-up point of view?
GR: Car set-up, mentality, just going back to basics really. And, you know, these cars are so complicated, the tyres are complicated, the power units are complicated, and it's challenging to get on top of things. And, you know, especially when I've got a guy like this next to me who's been performing so well, you know, you're trying to constantly improve, and I think that, you know, doing some copy-pasting probably really put me on the back foot. So, as I said, this weekend I've just gone in my own direction and that's what I've done in the past for the last few years, and really glad to see it paying off.
And is this the best you've felt in the car this year, including Melbourne, for example?
GR: It just feels back to what I felt at the start of the year during winter testing, you know, Barcelona here, Bahrain testing, Melbourne, China. I felt really comfortable in the car, really happy. And, you know, Miami was just the first weekend where everything felt pretty challenging, and that's where I think, I can accept, and with my direct group of engineers we can accept, we probably made some wrong decisions in these last three races. As I said, more than anything, more than this pole position, I'm just glad to feel myself again, feel at one with the car again, as I have done for the last few years.
What about tomorrow then, your 100th Grand Prix start for Mercedes. Twenty-five wins here have come from pole position. Just how confident are you feeling ahead of the race?
GR: I think we have a really great race car, to be honest. We showed really great pace on Friday. Of course, you know, Kimi is going to be a real threat, no doubt. But Lewis, I think, really surprised all of us with his strong pace today. We all thought the fight was going to be with the McLarens in qualifying. We made a step to McLaren, but then Lewis, you know, from lap one in Q1, it was, "Well, you know, where's this come from?" So maybe we'll have a surprise tomorrow as well.
Alright, very well done to you, George. Thank you. Lewis, if we could come to you now. George says you surprised everyone with your pace. Was it a surprise to you and Ferrari?
LH: Yeah, for sure. I mean, it's been a very tricky weekend for me, personally. Really struggled to get on pace after missing P1. I've never been so down before in a sense of the gap between Charles and I and to everybody else. It was half a second to eight tenths. I think it was one second in one session to the front row, so I needed to make a huge leap going into qualifying, and I knew where the time was. It was just having the confidence in the car, in the rear of the car. And I think we did a really good job, making adjustments. But this is really down to everyone back at the factory. They've been working so hard. We kind of know where our North Star is and for them to bring this upgrade here this weekend, I can't thank them enough for the hard work that they've put in to bring it, because it's a competition between all the teams to who can bring the most and it helps us close the gap. The car felt great in qualifying. Obviously, they're still so quick, the Mercedes, so still have work to do to fully close the gap or at least get ahead, but I'm really hoping that tomorrow we can. It would be nice for us to, for once, be able to hold on to them, but we'll see.
Check out our Saturday gallery from Barcelona here.
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