Team Quotes - Sunday 21 September

{b}Andrea Stella:{/b} "A difficult weekend at a circuit we knew would be tricky for us. It was confirmation once again that our competitors are not far from us and at some circuits are faster.

"For Oscar, it was a rare weekend with a few uncharacteristic mistakes, but he is already processing the weekend and taking all the learnings ahead of the next round. On Lando's side, we didn't give him a car that was in condition to overtake. He otherwise drove a solid race.

"A big thank you to team trackside for all of their work, especially rebuilding Oscar's car after Qualifying and to the team back in Woking for their great support. We will review our efforts and ensure we come back stronger in Singapore."

Laurent Mekies: "This win started with a Max masterclass in Qualifying yesterday. We didn't know what race pace would be like as nobody really got any long runs on Friday, but he just pulled away lap after lap, another Grand Chelem, Pole, in the lead from start to finish and setting the fastest lap. The win is down to everyone in Milton Keynes pushing so hard to make the car faster. There is no silver bullet, but no one has ever given up on this season in terms of understanding why we were not reaching the level we wanted and, little by little, the work that Max and Yuki have been doing with the whole Team has been paying off and at least, here and in Monza we were back in the game. We are not leaving any stone unturned in this 2025 campaign. We are fighting to get more and more learning, to unlock more and more understanding because even if the 2026 regulations are completely different there is always a lot we can carry over from this season. Yuki had a very strong race, keeping the McLaren and Ferrari behind him. He needed a clean weekend and he performed really well scoring important points for the Team in what is his best result of the season."

Lewis, starting on Hards, overtook Alonso on lap 1 and moved up to 10th place. On the same lap the Safety Car was deployed following Oscar Piastri's accident. At the restart, Charles, on Mediums, passed Lando Norris and then Isack Hadjar, for 7th position. On lap 7 Lewis passed Hadjar for ninth making good use of his DRS. On lap 20 Charles pitted for Hards to undercut Norris, and rejoined the race in 12th, after which he got stuck behind Lawson for a long time, also hampered slightly by a minor PU issue. On lap 37 Lewis pitted for Mediums and came out behind Charles. With 10 laps to go Norris overtook Charles who was eighth at that point, Charles and Lewis swapped position as Lewis had more in his tyres to go after Norris but he was unable to mount an attack so the team plan was to swap back on the last lap, however in the end there was insufficient time to do this and at the chequered flag, Lewis was eighth, with Charles right behind him in ninth.

Fred Vasseur, Team Principal: We cannot be satisfied with eighth and ninth. We started behind Norris and we finished behind him, which is the reality of this track. We had an issue with Charles' engine which we will now investigate and, even if it was marginal, it was enough to prevent him from being able to overtake in a straight line, which explains why we were stuck behind Lawson. The main regret is for yesterday, because we had the pace to do a much better job in qualifying and that's where the weekend got away from us. It's encouraging that the pace was there, but frustrating that we did not capitalise on it because you have two parts of the job: one is pure performance and the other is your execution. In terms of performance we made a step forward after Spa, but to be P10 and P12 yesterday was not what we expected. Now we need to understand what we could have done better, because we made some mistake, some poor choices. I know Charles is accepting the responsibility for qualifying, but we need to work on our execution to come back stronger.

George Russell finished second with Kimi Antonelli fourth in Sunday's Azerbaijan Grand Prix. That was George's seventh trip to the podium of the season and the team's eighth. The team opted to start each car on a different compound, with Kimi lining up P4 on the Medium tyre with George behind on the Hard in P5. Kimi held on to P4 in the early stages with George dropping down to P6. He fought back twice though on Yuki Tsunoda, on the opening circuit and then lap 10, to reclaim P5. Kimi stopped for the Hard tyre on lap 18 and, despite rejoining behind the VCARB of Liam Lawson, passed him shortly after to take what would ultimately be a net P4. George meanwhile extended on an impressive opening stint before stopping on lap 39 for the Medium compound, rejoining ahead of his team-mate and the Williams of Carlos Sainz in P2. Whilst George had a calm run to the flag, Kimi pushed hard to put pressure on Sainz in the battle for the podium but ultimately couldn't quite get close enough to attempt a pass. Sainz thus secured his, and our former colleague James Vowles', first podium for Williams in P3. With P2 and P4, the team moves back into second in the Constructors' Championship ahead of Ferrari and Red Bull with seven races remaining.

Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO: That was a strong weekend for us as a team, and we come away from Azerbaijan with a good result. It felt good to get back on the podium in P2 and for Kimi to bring home solid points in P4. Of course, we are always hoping to be on the top step of the podium, but this gives us some positive momentum after two difficult races after the summer break.

Congratulations to Carlos (Sainz), James (Vowles), and Williams on their P3 too. That was totally earned on merit. Kimi did what he could to get close enough to attack but their pace was a bit too strong. Kimi nevertheless did a great job to get past (Liam) Lawson; we saw how several cars such as the Ferrari of Leclerc and the Red Bull of Tsunoda were unable to do so when they were in DRS range. He will use this weekend to take momentum into the final seven races. George meanwhile drove a fantastic race; he's been suffering with illness all weekend and it was touch-and-go whether he'd even be able to drive on Friday and Saturday. It was a big push from him and to perform like this was mega.

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director: We've had a solid weekend throughout here in Azerbaijan and that continued into today. We executed the race well on both sides of the garage to get ourselves back on the podium and bring home good points in P4 too. We'd not run the medium or hard tyres in free practice, so it was good to see that the car was well balanced on both compounds. We elected to split the start tyre strategies with the lack of long run data and so many cars out of position. George used this to good effect in his first stint to build a gap that, with a perfectly executed pit stop by our mechanics, gave him P2 on track. It was an impressive performance, particularly given that he has not been feeling 100 per cent this weekend.

For Kimi, it was a solid weekend from start-to-finish. He looked after his Medium tyres early on and was then able to jump Lawson for P4 with a pass on track. He closed on Sainz in the closing stages, but the pace of the Williams and the difficult following meant he had to settle for a spot just off the podium. Nevertheless, he has shown what he is capable of after some tough weekends recently and we are sure he will build on this in the closing stages of the season.

Mike Krack, Chief Trackside Officer: "There were very few opportunities in the race and points were out of reach today. The majority of cars stopped only once - as we did - with the Medium tyres performing especially well with low degradation. That limited the strategy options and made for quite a straightforward race. Both drivers pushed hard, but ultimately we were missing outright pace. We will head back to Silverstone, regroup, and come back stronger in Singapore."

MoneyGram Haas F1 Team finished with Oliver Bearman 12th, and Esteban Ocon 14th, at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, held Sunday at the Baku City Circuit.

Bearman started from P15 on Pirelli P Zero White hard tires and maintained position on the opening lap, before settling into a rhythm during the first stint. The British rookie came in on lap 28 for Yellow medium tires, emerging towards the rear of the field, but gradually worked his way through to finish P12.

Ocon took the start from P20, also on hard tires, and was involved in contact on the opening lap with Nico Hulkenberg. The Frenchman pitted under the safety car on lap 1 for medium tires, before coming in again on lap 2 for hard tires, which he preserved through to the checkered flag of the 51-lap race. Ocon classified P14.

MoneyGram Haas F1 Team holds ninth position in the Constructors' Championship, on 44 points.

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal: "It was a tough race to recover from, starting P15 and P20, so when you start there and get into a DRS train, it's very difficult to overtake. For Esteban, I think the strategy was right, but in terms of balance limitation, it wasn't quite there for him to make further progress. On Ollie's side, we didn't maximize the start and safety car restart, and we lost positions. Unfortunately, the DRS train defined his race because we were stuck behind slower cars. You can see the potential in the second stint how quick Ollie was, so we know it's there. Again, it's frustrating because over a whole weekend you can make one mistake and that defines it - but unfortunately that's the nature of the game in Formula 1. We've got the car and the drivers, so it will happen."

James Vowles, Team Principal: The result is fantastic. I've been fortunate to have a few podiums in my career, but this is one I'll remember forever. We earned this together as a team - a team that, in recent years, has been at the back, fighting just to survive, and now has battled its way back into this position. Carlos delivered a phenomenal race — an exceptional drive from start to finish, and a joy to watch. You could see and hear just how much it meant to him. I believe in positive momentum, and this gives Carlos a real foundation to build on. With Alex, sometimes you just have those days. He absolutely had the pace — we've seen it all weekend — but after that early incident in Qualifying, it was always going to be difficult. Still, he fought back and finished close to the points. For now, I can't wait to get back to the factory on Monday with the trophy and feel the roof come off the place. This result is a reward for the incredible dedication of the entire workforce, who give so much of their lives to this team.

Max Verstappen was perfection personified in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Not only did the Red Bull driver win the race from pole position, he also led all 51 laps and set the race fastest lap, to secure his sixth Grand Slam. In this discipline, it puts him level with Lewis Hamilton in second place behind Jim Clark on eight. This was Max's second Baku win to add to the one in 2022, his fourth of the season, and the 67th overall. It was win number 126 for Red Bull Racing, its fifth at this track.

George Russell (Mercedes) finished second, to record the 22nd podium finish of his career, his sixth this season. Carlos Sainz was third, the Spaniard's first top-three result with Williams. The English team has not had a podium finish since the 2021 Belgian Grand Prix. It had previously finished third in Baku in 2017 courtesy of Lance Stroll.

For the start, the field was fairly evenly split between those opting for the Medium (11 drivers) and the Hard (9). The longest stint was down to Esteban Ocon (Haas) who drive 49 laps on the Hard. He had to stop on lap 1 to change a broken front wing, taking on Mediums, before pitting almost immediately again for another set of Hards, with the aim of going all the way to the flag with no more stops, which he did.

Lando Norris (McLaren) and Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) both drove the longest stints on the Medium, completing 37 laps.

Mario Isola: "On this track, a one-stop has always been an almost mandatory strategy and today was no exception, even though we brought a softer range of compounds than last year. Additionally, the fact it was cooler than usual helped the teams and drivers manage thermal degradation, particularly on the rear axle.

"As a result, it was a very straightforward race in terms of tyre behaviour. The Medium and Hard were very close in terms of performance and also in terms of degradation which was practically non-existent on both compounds. The C4 saw the most use (598 laps, 61.84%) and the Soft never put in an appearance. After last night's rain, the track surface reset itself a bit and therefore actually evolved significantly over the course of the race. Ahead of us we now have another 2026 tyre development test session. On Thursday 25th and Friday 26th September, Ferrari and Haas will support us for one day each at the Mugello circuit, working on a programme focussed on defining the hardest compounds in the range."