Laurent, if we could perhaps start with you and Isack Hadjar, who's had a very good week. Not only is he back in the cockpit here in Baku, he has also got a new contract for 2027 as well. Let's talk about the comeback first of all. What convinced you that Baku was the right place and the right time for him to get back behind the wheel?

Laurent Mekies: You know, we always follow a very simple principle. We wanted to get Isack back when he was 100%, and perhaps even more importantly than that, when we were sure that we would not be taking any risk for his future long-term recovery. So, this was not possible in Zandvoort, not possible in Monza and Madrid. He had his last scan on Sunday this week and we had him on the simulator on Monday, and we couldn't get him out of the simulator on Monday night. So, we felt it was a good enough test and he's fit, and so it's good to have him back. We are pretty convinced that he's going to be close to 100%.

Alright, let's throw it further forward now. That new contract, was it an easy decision for you?
LM: Yes, it was really easy, really. I think we discussed it a few times here through the season. He has done a very, very strong first part of the year. First with his natural speed, then with the way he has integrated with the team. Very quickly in the early weeks, he moved to the UK. He was pretty much every other week with us in Milton Keynes. And then, not less importantly, the way he has progressed through the races. We have really seen him doing something a bit better pretty much every race weekend. Therefore, it was a very, very easy decision to make.

He was quite amusing in the press conference yesterday because he couldn't tell us whether or not he had a multi-year deal. He said he didn't know. Can you shed any light on that for us?
LM: Isack has been with Red Bull for a very long time, and that means that, yes, we have a very long-term contract with him as part of him being part of our junior programme, and we have activated our options to secure him for 2027.

Final one from me. Can we talk about the performance of the car? Do you feel that you're on an upward trend at the moment?
LM: Let me put it this way. We had two strong weekends in Monza and in Madrid. Now, strong weekends mean you fight for the podium. I think we had five or six podiums in the last seven races, so that's a positive. Does it mean that we have had, in any of the races, the fastest car? No. So, we are close. We always knew the last one to three tenths would be the most difficult to cancel from the best competition. There are four teams that pretty much are within these two or three tenths, so you can slide very quickly from competing for pole to being on the fourth row. So we think, yes, we are getting closer. Whether or not it's going to be enough to get that last step that will give us the fastest car pace, for that we think we still have some work to do.

Okay, Laurent, thanks for that. Ayao, if we could come to you now. We're going to start by talking about drivers, or driver actually, Esteban in particular. He said yesterday, and I'm quoting him, "I'm definitely a free agent next year." Is that the case? How do you see his future at Haas?
Ayao Komatsu: Yes, we haven't made any decision yet. But like Laurent said, every driver has a, let's say, a closing certain point in the year to decide on the option. It just means that we haven't decided on that option yet, but that was quite a long time ago. So his situation hasn't really changed. We still are trying to finalise what we're going to do for next year.

So with him, it's still an option for him to be at the team?
AK: Yes. Like I said, we haven't made any decisions yet.

Okay. Can we talk in more general terms then about that seat alongside Ollie Bearman? What kind of driver are you looking for? Does it have to be an experienced driver, or would you go for youth if the right driver was available?
AK: Look, what we're looking for in the drivers, first and foremost, the guy needs to have speed. The guy needs to be fast. That's something, you know, that's their talent. We cannot teach them speed, so he needs to be fast, but really needs to be a team player, work closely with the team. And especially for a small team like us, those two drivers, the integration into the team, how they motivate the team, how they drive the team, is very, very important. It's got to be a personal character that is very important for us. But I think it's the same for any teams, but especially for teams like us. We are a small team, so it's very, very important.

Ayao, you've been busy with the TPC car recently. Can you put a timescale on this? When do you expect to make an announcement as to what's happening next year?
AK: Soon, within the next couple of weeks. We've done all the evaluations, so we're just waiting to summarise our findings, have a discussion internally, have a chat with Gene, and then we'll take the final decision.

Okay, thank you for that. Can we talk about the car now? You've introduced various upgrades over the last couple of races. How much of a step forward has it been?
AK: The one we introduced in Monza was a really good step forward. But just to put it in context, I mean, we started the season very well, but the one we did in Montreal, yes, that upped the performance in certain areas, but didn't deliver everything. And also, we later found out the direction really wasn't the direction we should have gone for. So, we made some mistakes there. Then again, for teams like us, it took us a long, long time to put those mistakes right. So finally, in Monza, we proved our hypothesis, assumption, and the work we've done addressed the issues in the correct way. So, not only put downforce on the car, but put downforce on the car that drivers can exploit. So that was really, really pleasing, and I think gives lots of confidence to everyone in the team. Identify the problem, solve it. But of course, in the future we try not to make the same mistake and also try to put that performance on the car quicker. So just trying to accelerate that process, that's a challenge for us.

Ayao, thank you for that as well. And Mattia, thank you for waiting. Let's come to you now, and why don't we start by talking about drivers as well. Tell us about the jobs that you think Nico and Gabi have done for you this year. Are you very happy with what they've done?
Mattia Binotto: Very happy, yes, I would think that's the answer. So, you need then to analyse. It's a different situation for both of them. You've got an experienced driver, Nico, more a junior driver with Gabi. Nico is consistently delivering. I think Nico, when he's come to, especially on the Sunday, the race, the consistency, being robust, very little mistakes, exploiting always the potential of the car, scoring points wherever there is a necessity or an opportunity. And I think that's Nico. And so far, he has delivered well. Whenever he had an opportunity, he exploited the maximum potential for our car. Gabi is being more junior. It's a learning phase, so it's more, I think, we need to look at him more in his development, the rate of development. And here again, I have to say I can see his confidence growing race after race. You can see that he is becoming faster and faster, having obviously more confidence himself. No big mistakes, maybe a couple, but that's part, again, of his learning phase. But overall, he is consistent as well. He is exploiting certainly the potential of the car. He is very fast in quali, on the single lap, when it matters. So overall, I have to say that I'm pretty pleased. So happy with the line-up, compared to both of them. I think our situation is even simpler. We have no discussion what's the plan for the next season. Our drivers were contracted, so we knew that it would have been no change. But on top of that, I think we are happy on the speed of them. So, we never announced really what would happen next year because there was no necessity. So, we have a line-up which is confirmed and on which we are happy with.

What about your junior driver, Freddie Slater, runner-up in F3, going up to F2 next year? Is he going to take on more F1 duties in 2027?
MB: Or maybe even earlier. So, certainly Freddie is part of our driver development programme. High potential, he's doing well. Just finished second in the championship. He was leading the championship before the last weekend in Madrid. Now finishing second. I think we discussed that with him. It can be as well a great lesson learned. Sometimes it's not that, and that will be forgotten very soon. More important what he will deliver in the future. F1 duties yes, because that's part of the development plan. F1 seat in the future, that will depend on how strong he will continue developing. But when you've got a driver in your academy, somehow the plans are for him, sooner or later, to be in your F1 seat. So again, happy with him, the way he has progressed. If you look at his F3 season since the start, where maybe he was abusing a bit too much on the tyres, he has become more balanced, managing better, getting experience and finishing very strong this season.

What about the car? Heavily upgraded here in Baku, I think 14 registered upgrades on the car. What did you learn in FP1? Is it doing everything you expected?
MB: FP1, first we had one car on the old package, the other one on the new package. It has been more gathering data, collecting data, and now we are going through all the analysis. I don't think there is a proper performance comparison which has been concluded yet. Yes, if you look at the first, let me say, impression of the data, the package is delivering as expected, which is good, which is our main focus, as a matter of fact, for the weekend. For us, upgrading, yes, it's important for the performance, it's important for our fight in the championship. But again, for us, what's more important is to make sure that the team is developing in terms of methodologies and capacity. So, from being brave when it comes in terms of mindset, to the type of aero concepts we may deliver, on the lead times, engineering, production, manufacturing, we raised the challenge. We raised the challenge, I think, with the upgrade we have brought here. It doesn't matter how much it will deliver in terms of lap time. I think what matters for us the most is having raised the challenge, having again pushed the system on whatever is mindset and lead times. And hopefully the correlation will be, that's the conclusion now of the exercise, hopefully we'll have a correlation which is right compared to the wind tunnel and the sim.

Check out our Thursday gallery from Baku here.