DRIVER GROUP 2 – Yuki TSUNODA (AlphaTauri), Lance STROLL (Aston Martin), Charles LECLERC (Ferrari), Lando NORRIS (McLaren), Alex ALBON (Williams)
Q: Alex, why don’t we start with you. Let’s talk about these last few races. You’ve scored points in two of the last four. How do you rate your chances here at Spa?
Alex ALBON: I think we have a good chance. I think car-wise we are in a good place. I feel like the last few races we’ve been able to get comfortable with the new upgrades. And, you know, Hungary was a circuit that shouldn’t normally suit us and we finished P11. So, feeling positive going into this weekend. But with the rain, I think there’s a little bit of a doubt over your performance, it becomes, not random, but a little bit more random. So let’s see.
Q: Alex, you mentioned your performance. You’ve been receiving a lot of praise, both in the media and from your team principal about the job you’ve been doing this year. Can you just tell us how much are you enjoying racing at the moment? And do you feel that you’re driving better than ever?
AA: I feel like it goes hand-in-hand. Of course, when the car gets quicker as well and you’re fighting for points, people talk about it a little bit more. I think we’re doing a great job, I feel, as a team. Driving-wise as well. I’m feeling comfortable and confident in the car, which is always important. And it’s just great going to every race weekend being able to fight for points, and being in that area where you feel like you go to every weekend knowing that, it just builds confidence and motivation for everyone in the in the team. So yeah, I would say we’re enjoying these moments, and hopefully we can we can score some more points.
Q: And have you enjoyed the whole of the first half of this season. Just give us your thoughts on how you feel everything’s gone?
AA: Yeah, honestly, I have to say it’s been a really good year for us so far. Don’t want say too much. But it feels like the way that we started in Bahrain and where we are right now, we’ve made great progress. Maybe not as much as the McLarens, but on our side, we are heading in the right direction. And as I said… I don’t know where we are, I think we are seventh right now, in the Constructors’, tied. If you had told me that at the start of the year, I think if you had told anyone from the team that at the start of the year, we would have bitten your arm off. So it is going well. Obviously, we just need to stay focused and keep going at it. But I’m sure, as a team, we can take the summer break off and enjoy it and come back refreshed.
Q: Alex, thank you and best of luck this weekend. Lando, coming to you. You’re a man on a roll after back-to-back podiums at Silverstone and the Hungaroring. What are your expectations here?
Lando NORRIS: I want to say the same. Spa is one of my favourite circuits of the season. (We have) conditions, which generally, we perform pretty well in, so there’s no reason why we shouldn’t continue where we’ve been. Yeah, I guess it’s another challenge for us in terms of circuit and layout and another opportunity for us to see where the car really stands. But the team have been doing a great job. I think we’ve been doing a great job with strategy and everything else we can do. So yeah, another weekend we can look forward to, to try and achieve similar things.
Q: Do you think the car will be quick here? I mean, you joked on Sunday about Turn 1 here at Spa not favouring the car, but on balance do you think you should be competitive?
LN: It’s very tough to say. I mean, we’ll see what the conditions are going to do first of all. Yeah, I think a couple years ago things were going very well in the wet until it all went horribly wrong. But the car is competitive, you know. We’ve clearly made a big, big step. Fighting cars we weren’t expecting to… Being ahead of cars we weren’t expecting to be ahead of and fighting for podiums, fighting for pole position. So, I’m not going to say no to the question, but it could be a trickier weekend than the last few.
Q: You say it’s been a big, big step. There have been reports this week, as much as a second a lap these upgrades.
LN: No. It’s a no. I don’t think it is. It’s a fact, it’s not a second. I think that the biggest thing is a lot of other teams that were competitive and start aren’t as competitive now. If you look at Aston Martin, if you look at Ferrari, they were a lot closer to the front than they are now and we just seem to have swapped positions for some reason. I don’t know if they’ve taken a step back or Red Bull have taken a step forward or what, but, yeah, we weren’t expecting at all to… We were expecting the upgrade to help us race against them and so far, at a lot of these races, we’ve been ahead of them. It’s definitely not one second. I think some of these tracks that we’ve been to, we’ve performed well at in the past, you know. Silverstone I was already P4 last year. Budapest already last year, we were P5 or P6 or something. They’re tracks we have performed well at in the past and now we’ve just taken another step forward. But like I said, there’s some tracks that I know we’re not going to be as competitive at and then it’s not going to look like we made a one-second step forward. So yeah, we’ll see. But the team have obviously done an extremely good job, and we’re continuing to try to make another step.
Q: It might not be a second, but can you just tell us how different is the car to drive now to the one that you first drove at the start of the year?
LN: I mean, my honest answer is it’s not a lot different. It’s just quicker.
Q: So, in terms of balance, it doesn’t feel that different?
LN: Nope. No. But it doesn’t matter, we’re still fighting for podiums and it’s a lot quicker. So that’s all I ask for, in a way. The car is still difficult to drive, it’s difficult to be consistent. I think we still need to do a better job with tyre management and so on. I think that was clear from last weekend. It was one of our weaker areas. But I think we can be more than happy with the step forward that we’ve made. I don’t think… as much as I’m always going to complain about certain things, because that’s what every driver does but for us to get from where we were, struggling to get out of Q1 in the first few races, to be fighting for pole I would say it’s one of the biggest turnarounds in Formula 1 for a very long time. And during the middle of middle of a season as well, so I’m very happy. There’s always things to improve on and that’s what we’re trying to do.
Q: Thank you and best of luck to you this weekend. Yuki, it’s early days but how are things going with your new team-mate?
Yuki TSUNODA: I think it’s good. Learning lots of things from him already. So it’s fun to do a couple of filming with him on a Thursday. Thursday became slightly more fun I think for the content, but other than that’s not much difference. Yeah it’s good.
Q: Is his feedback about the car different to Nyck’s?
YT: I think it’s similar. In the end what I’m saying and what Daniel is saying is quite similar. Obviously we just had one race and Hungary is a little bit different so it’s difficult to say. But so far it’s not much difference.
Q: What about the performance of the car? Do you feel you’re making progress?
YT: Hungary, yes. Unfortunately, I smashed my front wing in FP1. It’s my fault. But rear wing we definitely made a step. To be honest I don’t know (about the) new upgrade to the front wing I’ve because sadly it’s gone in FP1 for me. But I think other than just we made a step with the rear wing. I think performance was pretty good in terms of car in Hungary but I just couldn’t put it all together from my side. We made a bit of a step, but probably not as much as still we want, and I think Hungary is more towards more slow-speed corners where still you know, mechanical grip is required, which we are quite good at, like we saw in Azerbaijan, but I think still overall package we are still missing performance, a little bit, compared to where we want to.
Q: You made a step forward with the car in Hungary but what about the season as a whole so far? Have you made the step forward that you wanted to make in 2023 in terms of what you’re doing?
YT: Yeah I would say so. I was happy with the performance the first couple of races. Last three races it’s been a little bit messy, myself. Yeah, still there’s a couple of limitations like in the radio, where I want to focus and improve. Sometimes I rush to, kind of, overperform, you know, to be into Q3, Q2, whatever and sometimes mistakes started to happen more consistently rather than first couple of races. First couple of races, just discover how the car performance is, just see how it goes and not really rush to. We started to like, you know (inaudible) performance or like we’re slightly towards the back now compared to the first few races and rushed into like score points. But, you know, that kinds of rushing makes more consistent mistakes. So I just have to reset myself and yeah, just try to focus on what I can do. But I’m still happy with my progress, what I had in this year compared to last year so yeah, it’s good. And I think Daniel gives more information and more, I think, places that I have to improve, so yeah, I’m looking forward to it.
Q: Lance, let’s come to you now. You’re half-Belgian, so does this feel like another home Grand Prix for you?
Land STROLL: Well, I don’t spend much time here, but yeah, my Mom’s from Belgium, so it’s always nice to come back and have a waffle.
Q: Well, let’s talk about your racing car. On Sunday, team principal Mike Krack said that the grand prix had been a bit of a wake-up call for you guys. Where do you feel the performance of the car is at, at the moment?
LS: Yeah, not where we want to be. You know, we started the season very strong. You know, second, third fastest car, you know, some races, depending, you know, on the track, but the last few weekends have been more challenging for us. So, we definitely, you know, have a few things to work on to, you know, get back to where we want to be.
Q: What have been the challenges in these last few races? Where’s the pace gone?
LS: Well, you know, going around the corners faster and down the straights faster, that always helps. So no, I mean, I think it’s, you know, just a lot of little details, you know, and, yeah, I mean, just the usual stuff, you know, working around some of the limitations of the car, balance through the corner, and, you know, finding some more, you know, downforce and all that kind of stuff. But I think we have some ideas, so, yeah, I’m looking forward to the second half of the season.
Q: Well, before we get to the second half, we’ve got this grand prix at Spa. How do you fancy your chances? Do you think it’ll be… well, you’ve just talked about the strengths and weaknesses a bit… do you think this is going to be a challenging grand prix for Aston Martin?
LS: I think it’s going to be a challenging race for everyone. I mean, it’s a Sprint weekend: by the looks of it, the weather is going to be, you know, the biggest factor. One session and, you know, a wet track around here is always challenging. So yeah, I think it will be challenging but, you know, exciting at the same time, you know, great track to drive and, you know, conditions will be difficult, but it’s the same for everyone. So yeah, looking forward to the weekend.
Q: Charles, thank you for waiting. So back to the scene of your first grand prix victory, does Spa always bring the best out in you?
Charles LECLERC: I’m trying to do my best every single race weekend, then of course, it’s always special to come back to the place where you’ve won your first race. It was a very, I mean it is, a very special memory for me. It was a very special moment at the time, even though it was done in circumstances that was difficult to obviously enjoy the moment as we had lost Anthoine the day before, but it’s a special track, I think every driver really enjoys this track, and we can always expect some exciting weather and this weekend it looks like it’s going to be a pretty wet the whole weekend. So hopefully we’ll be competitive in those conditions.
Q: Well, do you welcome the wet weather? Do you think you will be competitive?
CL: Honestly, I think we’ve been quite good whenever it was full wet, or full dry. Or, at least we were maximising our package. I struggled personally a bit more in the half-wet, half-dry conditions. But we put quite a bit of work into it so I’m confident that if we find ourselves in those situations again, I’ll be back at the level I want to be.
Q: We’ve seen fluctuating fortunes for Ferrari in the last few races. Austria was great then two difficult races for the team. How can you explain what’s going on?
CL: Well, first of all teams are super close now, especially in Qualifying. You look at the Budapest Qualifying and we all we were all within seven-eight hundredths in Q3 apart from the top three but, where I was, everybody was so close. So, the smallest difference can have a big influence on your results. And, at the moment, that’s where we are as a car. Then, I think as a team at the track, we need to focus on every single detail because, now more than ever, it makes a big influence on your end results – in Qualifying especially. And in Budapest, we probably left a bit of performance here and there, which had a big consequence on our weekend. Then, the big picture is that we aren’t fast enough. And this, we know it, and we are putting in all the effort to be back at where we want to be as quickly as possible.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (David Croft, Sky Sports) Lando, great to see you back on the podium, you’ve had a smashing time up there last couple of races. Do the other drivers fancy joining Lando in those podium celebrations that he’s making his at the moment? And did you pick up the tab for the broken trophy yourself?
LN: I knew you’d bring it up. I mean, first of all, I do want to apologise for it: I obviously had no intention in ever doing such a thing. And I know how much it means to the Hungarians and part of their culture and so forth. So yeah, like, of course, I want to enjoy the time, it was never my intention to do such thing. And I did apologise to Max. I know, I obviously made a couple of jokes about it. Which maybe I shouldn’t, but I do feel bad for… if he did it to my trophy, I’d be annoyed, so I do apologise for it. And obviously the people who put the time and effort in and everything into making it, I really didn’t mean for it to happen. So, I’ll make sure I’m a lot more careful next time on, on celebrating. That’s all I’d say.
Q: Lando, are you going to change the way you celebrate on the podium? Or how you start the champagne spraying?
LN: I wouldn’t say… no, there’s no reason why I should. I’ll just take a little bit more care with obviously what I do. But yeah, I’ll just move the trophies aside and then continue.
Q: (Ian Parkes – New York Times) Obviously all you guys will be aware that we sadly lost a driver here to this track on July 1st, Dilano van’t Hoff, It’s not the first death here, of course. Given what were due to experience this weekend in terms of the weather conditions, given the advances with motor racing cars now, not just at Formula 1 level, but across many junior levels. Is it now time for the Spa-Francorchamps circuit to do something in terms of making changes to make it more safer? Are you happy with the way it is going forward? And let’s start with Charles and then if anybody else would like to follow on? Thank you.
CL: Yes, I think there are some changes that could make a difference. First of all, it’s the walls in the straights after Eau Rouge I think could be… we should have a bit more space on the left and right where, if you lose control of the car, I think the way it is done at the moment, you are bouncing on the walls, and you have very high chances of finding yourself in the way again, and I think this is probably a change that we should consider in the future. Then to change the layout of Eau Rouge, by example, I think we find ourselves in the season in those particular conditions being fast in a straight, that’s basically everywhere. And I think that’s going to be difficult to do anything else, other than that. You can always change the layout but I don’t think it’s fair to say that this is what should be done. Then the two biggest problems after that is visibility. Visibility is… it’s really difficult to put into words what we are seeing, apart from saying that we are seeing nothing. But we are not exaggerating, when we say we don’t see anything: we really don’t see anything when it’s raining. And this is a really big problem for Formula 1, for motor sport in general, any single-seaters. Now, we have quite a bit of downforce, there’s quite a lot of spray. And then this causes quite a lot of incidents, just because we cannot react to what there is in front. So easy to say that, much more difficult to find a solution for that. But I know that the FIA is on it, and is obviously trying to do the best on that. And then, the last thing is when can we actually… when is it safe to start a race, and this is another topic for the FIA to look closely, especially on a weekend like this, where seems we will have quite a lot of rain throughout the whole weekend, to not feel the pressure of starting a race just because we didn’t have any running. We could be in that situation this weekend. But at the end, obvious to say, but safety comes first. And this needs to be the priority and people, and first of all, us drivers, we shouldn’t complain if we don’t have any laps because it is not safe to do so, with everything that has happened.
Q: (Alex Kalinauckas – Autosport) Lance, we’re at the end of the first half of the season but if you rewind back to Bahrain, you were quite a different situation with regards to your fitness because of your injuries that had happened just before the test and race there. I just wondered, could you explain how did the recovery go in full? Was it as you and your doctors and trainers hoped? Or were there any sort-of lingering issues? Thanks.
LS: Well, I mean, driving Formula 1 cars, like, 12 days after breaking my bones was not what the doctors would have liked me to do, but did it anyways. I mean… being sarcastic… I mean, I think it was a very aggressive, you know, return but I knew we had a good car, and I wanted to get back in the car and I felt like I was ready to do it. And, you know, it sucked for the first few races. Definitely. You know, I was in a lot of pain, but I’m feeling much better now.
Q: (Silja Rulle – Bild) Question is for Charles. If you look back at the last around 18 months with the new regulations, and look just at your team Ferrari, how big of the progress would you think you are making?
CL: I mean, if I’m looking only at myself, we did some progress, but definitely not enough when you’re looking at the others. Last year, at this point, the target was to win races now. We are closer, much closer to the other teams and Red Bull is much further away now. So yeah, the progress we have done is definitely not enough. We are aware of it. But yes, with Fred, we are also speaking a lot. He shares his view of what we should do in the future, what are the plans for the future, and this gives me the confidence that we are going in the right direction. Then to tell you exactly when we’ll be in that position, again, to be fighting in the front is very difficult. But I know that the plan is there and that… yeah… and I am really confident that it’s going to make a difference.
Q: Charles, what are your hopes for the second half of this season?
CL: Well, I think a realistic target, first of all, should be to try and be second in the Constructors’, which is going to be a challenge. McLaren now is back in the fight; Mercedes is always strong. Aston Martin a bit less recently, but I have no doubt that they will come back. So yeah, this is this is our target. We have few upgrades coming a bit later on in the second part of the season, which hopefully will make a difference and will help us achieve these targets.
Q: (Christian Nimmervoll – Motorsport-total.com) Question to Lando. Lando, is there a sense of relief about the recent results and performances, given that you’re locked into a long term McLaren contract? And was there ever a point when you thought ‘man, I shouldn’t have done this last extension’?
LN: I guess there’s always a bit of relief, just going from any difficult situation to having such a big change around. Even if we took half the step we did take, I think we still would have seen that as a positive sign. But the step was even bigger than we were expecting. So, of course, it’s relief, but not just for myself, I think for the whole team. We kind of took quite a big step back over the winter to reassess everything that we’re doing, and the route we’re taking and that’s why we were quite delayed with putting the upgrades that we’ve had in place and onto the car. But we took our time and we had to stay patient. Of course there are some times when I wished we had a more competitive car and I wished that we could have started the year in a smoother way, especially because last year the start of the season was also very tough. It doesn’t give you a lot of hope in beginning of the year when you struggle as much as what we did. But I’m still always very happy to be with the team that I’m with, I still have a lot of faith that McLaren are able to achieve their goals and at the same time achieve my goals, which is to win races and to win Championships with them. And when you have upgrades and situations like this, then of course there’s relief: These are very positive signs that we can jump ahead of Aston, jump ahead of Ferrari, fight against Mercedes and not be far off a Red Bull from one upgrade, you know? Yeah, I guess relief, but at no point did I think… there’s frustrating times and just difficult times, but at no point did I think ‘this is not where I want to be.’
Q: (Jo Stijn – Panorama) Question for Charles. You started with a new team principal this year, Fred, how do you think he is adapting to the Ferrari culture, and is he already able to make a significant impact on the team in your opinion?
CL: He’s adapting really well. I mean, Ferrari is definitely a different beast to Alfa Romeo: many more people involved; a lot more pressure. But Fred straightaway understood what were the areas where we should work on and, yes, he definitely makes a difference in a way that he’s obviously working. I mean, everybody has his own way of working. I know Fred will work really well, because we worked together in the junior categories, in Alfa Romeo, and he’s slowly implementing these new mindsets, which I think is positive and will make a difference in the medium-long term. But it’s also his first season within the team, so we need to give him time in order to see these changes take form on track.
Q: (Norman Fischer – Motorsport-total.com) Question to all drivers, please. I know Spa is beloved track but racing in recent years hasn’t been that exciting. And the point is that overtaking may be too easy. We’ve seen Max last year getting from the back to the front in 15 laps. Is DRS really necessary on long straights like Kemmel or should we focus on the shorter straights?
AA: No I don’t think so. I think actually, if you look at the overtaking this year, we’ve had less than less. I know there’s… maybe other drivers don’t agree but I think… I mean, if you want the exciting overtaking, the side-by-side overtaking if that’s what you’re talking about, we’re kind of at the limit now, I think. Someone like Max overtaking is just because he qualified out-of-position – but he should never have needed to overtake those cars in the first place: he would have been up at the front anyway. So unfortunately, it’s more I think about the grid getting closer and closer, if you want it in that sense. I would almost say the focus should be on making… well, the cars are closing up now, that’s a great thing, and once the cars start to close-up, and more and more happens every year, then we might actually need to consider making the DRS zones even bigger, to then start to promote overtaking again – because I think it’s getting quite tough now to overtake cars. I think it’s getting harder and harder.
LN: I think when you’re behind the Williams, they should make the DRS a lot bigger everywhere! I think it’s tough. The competition is getting closer, so the closer the cars, the harder to overtake. I don’t think you can use a Red Bull or Max as an example. I think that’s… you just can’t. Even if they started last in every race, they’re going to come through, no matter if there’s the DRS or not. But I think the racing for the middle of the pack and so on is good. I think it’s exciting, I would say it’s going to get less and less. The more technical the cars get, generally, the worse the racing gets, even from this year to last year, the racing, I would say, is more difficult and worse than what it was just because the cars are evolving quite a bit. So yeah, two reasons why it’s getting trickier. And I think the answer is yes, we need DRS. Otherwise, you’re not going to want to watch the TV at all.