PART ONE – Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing), Isack HADJAR (Racing Bulls), Pierre GASLY (Alpine)
Q: Max, why don’t we start with you. You have an incredible record here at the Red Bull Ring – four wins so far. Just how confident are you of a fifth this weekend?
Max VERSTAPPEN: Is it four? Five.
Q: Going for five.
MV: It’s five.
Q: How confident are you of another one!
MV: Well, I mean, there are no guarantees. So, yeah, we’ll always, of course, try to do our best. In the past, yes, we’ve had a lot of great races here. I mean, some, I think, back then were also unexpected wins. So, in a way, maybe we come into this weekend again, not as favourites, for sure. But I know that myself and the team will always try to optimise everything that we can. It looks like quite a warm weekend as well, so it’s going to be tough to make the tyres last anyway. But I’m excited. I’m here to do the best I can, and of course I hope to be on the podium.
Q: You talk about optimisation. You’ve got some new parts on the car here in Austria. What are you expecting from them?
MV: Yeah, I mean, hopefully it gives us a bit more performance. The team has been working hard to get these parts. So, of course, I’m very happy that we have an upgrade here. And yeah, every little bit forward will help us be more competitive and hopefully close the gap a little bit. But at the same time, we also know that others are also bringing bits throughout the year. So, we just need to keep working hard, keep trying to close that gap down.
Q: Max, tell us a little bit about how you drive a lap here, because you stunned everybody last year with that pole lap that was 0.4 of a second faster than anyone else. What is the secret?
MV: Brake late or go early on throttle, smooth driving. I’ve always felt good here for whatever reason. I think there are always tracks that are naturally probably suiting you a bit better than others. And this one probably suits me a bit better than some others, naturally. I know, of course, it’s our home Grand Prix, but I don’t know. It’s just a flow of the track, maybe in Sector 2, Sector 3, faster corners. You need a car that performs around here. And I think for most years, our car has been pretty decent. Last year was a bit of a surprise, the gap in qualifying, but I think we really executed the performance well in qualifying with our tyre prep and everything, which on a short lap is not always the easiest. Because I think in the race, it was a proper battle.
Q: Max, final one from me, about Sebastian Vettel, who’s come out this week saying that he’s been in regular contact with Helmut Marko about maybe a position within Red Bull Racing. Can we get your thoughts on the prospects of Sebastian Vettel joining the team in some capacity?
MV: I mean, it’s more than normal that someone that has achieved so much with Red Bull, has been brought up by Red Bull, that, in a sense, there’s always a spot available, right? I think also, Seb always kept a really good relationship with Helmut anyway, even when he left. So, I didn’t know that they were talking, but I’m sure that there’s always a space for Seb in any kind of form.
Q: Isack, let’s come to you now. Can we throw it back to last time out, first of all? It was a slightly frustrating weekend for you and the team in Canada. Do you understand the cause of the issues that you had there?
Isack HAJAR: I mean, on one-lap pace, it seems like it was very hard to drive for us.
Our ride was quite terrible, but somehow we managed to be in Q3. But you can do those things on one lap; over 70 laps it’s much harder to be on the very maximum of what the car can do. And we are suffering a lot more compared to the other teams in terms of tyre degradation, especially on the Medium, with the graining. But again, it was a very fine margin with the other midfield cars. It’s just that we were on the wrong end of it, which usually we’re on the opposite side. So, we’ll try to turn this around.
Q: I mean, this is race 11. Just tell us a little bit more about the car. Is it actually a difficult one to dial in? In one race, it’ll be good, the next race, it’ll be bad – or are you feeling some consistency there with it?
IH: No. It’s been probably the most consistent car, performance-wise. We never had bad surprises. It’s just you don’t design your car around Montreal, that’s for sure. It’s a very specific one. And I think going back to a more traditional track, the European rounds, we’re going to be much more competitive just like we were in Barcelona.
Q: Tell us a little bit about this race track here in Austria. You finished on the podium in the past in Formula 2. It’s a short track. Qualifying has been a strength of yours so far this year, so do you feel that Saturday here is something that you can really get stuck into?
IH: It’s going to be the target. If the car is able to go to Q3, then I’ll go to the maximum I can, to top the midfield. But again, it’s a track I really enjoy. I’ve been competitive in the past. But every time you go in an F1 car on a track you’ve been in the past with Formula 2 or Formula 3, it becomes a different track, to be honest. It’s so much faster, obviously. But yeah, I enjoy this. Sector 1 is more like pure braking efficiency and very slow speed, and then you go into very high speed. So, the track is kind of split in two, which I really like.
Q: Pierre, let’s come to you now. Can we start with Canada as well? Difficult weekend. Tell us about the learnings that you’ve had from Montreal.
Pierre GASLY: Well, I think it was quite unfortunate. We had an unfortunate Q1 exit, which put us on the back foot, starting from the pit lane, in a DRS train for 40 laps. So, it was a very frustrating race. I think the pace was not too far off to challenge the last few points inside the top 10, but starting from the pit lane obviously was going to be tricky. We got some learnings. We knew going to Montreal it wasn’t going to suit our package too much. And looking at the gaps this year, how tight it is, you can easily swing one way or the other, and we would probably be on the wrong side of it in Montreal.
Q: Similar question to Isack – is the Alpine a difficult car to dial in? Easy one week, hard the next?
PG: I wouldn’t say it’s difficult. I wouldn’t say it’s easy. At the same time, I think we know our weaknesses and we know our strengths. And at the minute, it’s very much about maximising the strengths. A tenth at the moment can move you three or four positions up and down the grid, and that’s why we’ve got to focus on every single detail we can. The focus is going to be there. We know the car we have is going to be the car we love until the end of the year. The focus is on next year, and that’s our weapon and we’ll try to get it in the best position we can every single time.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Craig Slater – Sky Sports) A question for Max. Obviously, some good championship points and a strong second place in Canada. There was the team protest – not a driver protest – after the race. Toto Wolff described it as petty, maybe unnecessary. Did you think enough was going on there to make it a reasonable protest for the team to submit?
MV: I think everything has been said about Montreal. At least, I have nothing to add from that race.
Q: (Craig Slater – Sky Sports) Even the time it took to sort it all out?
MV: I have nothing to add. It doesn’t help anything to keep talking about it.
Q: (Nelson Valkenburg – Viaplay) For all three – we started off the day with the publication of stewarding guidelines. We’re at a track where racing is always tough. Are you completely confident that you know now, in situation A, it would always result in situation B or penalty B, like it’s set out in the guidelines?
PG: To me, it’s clear on how hard you can race and the limit of it. Obviously, as drivers, you always take it right up to the limit and try to use any grey area that you can. But I think step by step, we’re reducing these grey areas. And I think it’s, at least to me, it’s very clear on what you can do and can’t do.
IH: Yeah, clear.
MV: Has it changed? I’ve not seen anything. I’ve been busy.
Q: The FIA has published them.
MV: OK. Well then, it’s the same. We know that already.
Q: (Mariana Becker – TV Bandeirantes) Max, you’ve several times been pointed out as a driver very sensitive to any signs that come from the car. You understand the car in a way that is rare to see. Your fellow drivers have said that. Do you think that with this car, when you see the feedback your teammates have been giving to the team, is it a matter of being super sensitive or also experience that brings you this?
MV: Well, I think first of all, every driver is different. Every driver needs a different thing from the car. So what I need from the car might not work for someone else. That is quite normal. So, from my side, I just focus on what I need from the car, and just go off what I learned from a very young age – how I drive, how I adapt to car situations. For me, it’s a very natural process. It’s nothing really special from my side – how I do things. It’s just how I know how to operate, how to work. We just focus on if I have understeer, oversteer, how can I balance it out, how can I adapt my driving, and how do we move forward with the progress of the car? There’s no rocket science behind it. It’s just what I feel, what the team sees, and you communicate what you want to improve on. Every year you build a new car, and there are always things that can be done better. Then if things cannot be modified very quickly, how can I adapt as a driver? It is a constant process that you go through in Formula 1.
Q: (Leonid Kliuev – Grande Premio Brazil) Question for Max. Does the amount of penalty points change your approach this weekend?
MV: You’re joking? Is this like a trap? I’m getting this question every single time, every weekend.
Q: (Leonid Kliuev – Grande Premio Brazil) This is the last one.
MV: I have nothing to add.
Q: (Ian Parkes – RacingNews365) A question for you, Max. Are you aware initially of some comments that Sergio Pérez made on a podcast in Mexico this week? He refers specifically to the 2022 incidents between you and him in Monaco and Brazil. In the end, he turned around and said that you are someone who usually holds things in until you let them out, and that’s generally on the racetrack. Does that kind of comment from Checo disappoint you, bearing in mind you’ve had such a good relationship with him over the four seasons together?
MV: No. But I think also how you now worded it is not how he meant it. I have a great relationship with Checo. We’ve always been great team-mates. I have a lot of respect for him, he has a lot of respect for me. That’s it from my side. I’m looking forward to hopefully seeing him again soon in the paddock. I still need to give him a helmet of mine – I promised him that, because he gave me one of his with a very nice message on it. I promised him, yeah, hopefully around Mexico that I can give him mine. So, for me, whatever is written in the media, I know how Checo is and we have a great relationship.
Q: (Shanna Lutgert – F1Maximaal.nl) Max, you’re testing a GT3 car at Spa, probably to help your team for the 24 Hours of Spa. How do you help them – coming from Formula 1 – to prepare with the car and make the shift to endurance?
MV: Well, it was also more for myself. I had not really driven the Aston that much up until that point. It was very early in the season, so I just wanted to get a bit more experience for myself. The guys, of course, are racing it, preparing for the 24 Hours. But it’s more for me to get more of an understanding of what we can do with the car setup-wise and development.
That was the only day available before arriving here. It was a great day, nice and warm, and we did a lot of stuff, which I enjoyed – just to help my understanding of that particular car.
Q: Max, how different is Spa in a GT3 car compared to a Formula 1 car?
MV: It’s quite different, yeah. But it doesn’t matter – in any car, for me, Spa is amazing to drive.
Q: (Diletta Colombo – Automoto.it). A question for the three of you. Do you think that racing has become less natural with the way it’s regulated at the moment? That it feels less natural for you to interact with other drivers on track because you have to think a lot about what you need to do – because it’s over-regulated.
PG: No. To me personally, I don’t feel that way. I think you go hard racing and you know where the limit is. There is mutual respect with other drivers and that’s the limit of the environment, and you try to push it to the absolute limit. Sometimes you go slightly over it. Now, the way we penalize is another question – whether some of the penalties are too strong, not strong enough, etc. This is another conversation. But in the way that we go racing wheel-to-wheel, it feels natural.
IH: Yeah. I mean, all the fights I had this year, they’ve been clean and I enjoyed them.
I didn’t feel like I was reading a book when fighting them, so, following guidelines. It was really, really natural. At the moment it’s going well.
MV: I’m not going comment on that. I cannot risk a penalty point.
Q: (Christian Nimmervoll – Motorsport-Total.com) Question to Max as well. Alexander Albon, in an interview, once described that for him, driving the Red Bull felt a little bit like a computer mouse that you turn to maximum sensitivity – it has a very good peak, but it’s very hard to control. Is that something you can relate to or would agree with?
MV: The thing is that I don’t know any better, right? I’ve basically started with Red Bull, so I only know one car. And that’s how I drive. I adapt to it. Is it the best? Is it the fastest? Is it not? I don’t know. I just adapt to what I have – or just drive what I have under me. And, yeah, it’s been performing for many years very well. We, as a team, have done great things. And this year, last year, other teams have also stepped up. Now it’s up to us to try and find more performance. But every car, I guess, when you drive on the limit, is not easy.
Q: (Lawrence Edmondson – ESPN) Just to pick up on something Pierre said about the penalty points and how they’re given out – question to all three: Should penalty points only apply when it’s a truly dangerous move, rather than just mistakes? Because at the moment, it seems like you can pick up a lot of single penalty points that will add up to a potential race ban.
PG: You know you’re not going to get a long answer from Max, right? Yeah, I mean, personally I’m not a big fan of penalty points. I think the level we have in Formula 1 – we are professional in what we do. We obviously push things to the limits, but to have a race ban potentially… I was in that situation a couple of months ago, and I don’t think I was a dangerous driver on track. So, for me, it’s something that can be reviewed, and maybe there’s another way of applying some sort of penalties without getting into the risk of having a driver missing a race.
IH: Copy-paste from what he said. I mean, I don’t like having penalty points, that’s for sure, because then you don’t want to end up changing your approach. And, yeah, I think it’s very clean field, to be honest. So yeah, it’s not very needed.
MV: I’m not going to comment.
Q: (Zsolt Godina – F1Vilag.hu) Max, looking at the performances and the results this year, how important is it to find the right moment to shift focus to the development of the 2026 car? And do you have any preferences on this?
MV: No, I mean, of course, I think teams are already focusing also on ‘26. So you try to get more performance out of this car, which is already planned for a while – the steps that come. But at the same time, you know that ‘26 is a big opportunity to get it right as well.
So I think, from what I’ve seen, what I’ve heard, it’s been the right approach by the team.
Q: (Carlos Platella – Formula Passion.it) Max, in the past you shared your concerns about the next set of regulations. Do you think that after all the changes that have been made, the situation has improved or not? What do you think is going to be good? What are you concerned
about?
MV: I’m in the middle, you know. Maybe good, maybe bad – we’ll see. I’m very open-minded, honestly. I don’t even think about it too much – just enjoying the moment. When I sit in the car next year, we’ll figure it out. I’m not making the rules anyway. Even if I have my concerns, it’s not going to change anything. So I’ll just jump in and drive it, and then we’ll, along the way, get better at it, understand it better – like any regulation in the past. You keep optimising, keep improving, and then just go from there, really.
Q: (Nigel Chiu – Sky Sports) Question for Max. Max, something else Checo said in his podcast was that more problems at Red Bull started when Adrian Newey left last year. Is that a fair comment, do you think?
MV: I don’t need to go into that now.
Q: (Christian Nimmervoll – Motorsport-Total.com) Another question to Max. Are you going to be driving for Red Bull Racing next year?
MV: I’ve had that question before as well in my life!
Q: Here, last year.
MV: Yeah. I don’t think we need to talk about that. I don’t know, do you want me to repeat what I said last year? I don’t know. It’s the same answer. I don’t even remember what I said last year, really. But again, it’s not really on my mind. Just driving well, trying to push the performance, and then we focus on next year.
Q: (Adam Cooper – Adam Cooper F1) First of all for Max – have you seen the movie yet?
MV: Is it out? I haven’t seen it on Apple TV. I was on Apple TV yesterday. I haven’t seen it pop up.
Q: (Adam Cooper – Adam Cooper F1) For the other two – there’s no embargo on reviews now. Can you tell us what you really think – the things you like, the things that maybe were a bit unrealistic? And also, for Pierre – Brad’s singled you out as a potential future Hollywood star, so just wonder what you thought of that.
MV: Romantic comedies.
IH: Well, I didn’t learn much from the movie because we have one driver, so it’s not much we’re learning. I think it’s just good that it’s going to hopefully send our sport into another dimension again – make another step just like Netflix had this impact on the sport.
So hopefully this benefits us. I think it will.
PG: I just wanted to tell Max: they show you winning the race at some point, so you definitely should watch it. You’re going to enjoy that. Personally, I really, really enjoyed it. I think we’ve already made a lot of comments about the movie, so I don’t want to expand too much. But it’s cool and really looking forward to seeing what the people think about it.
Hopefully, as Pierre said, it just brings even more fans and people enjoying our world of Formula 1. And yeah – about Brad Pitt’s comment, I must say it clearly made my mom pretty happy. She was very pleased to be the first one in the family group chat to send it to all the family. So yeah, let’s see how the season goes, but hopefully we score a few more points. Otherwise, you might see me in Hollywood.
Q: Did you act as a child?
PG: Zero. I think it’s just the French side of me. I can play a French lover or something like that.
Q: (Ian Parkes – RacingNews365) Question for you, Isack. Either side of you, you’ve got the past and present of Red Bull Racing. Do you see yourself as the future of Red Bull Racing? And if so, what do you feel you have to do to become a Red Bull driver in the future from the position you’re in right now?
IH: I mean, when I got signed by Red Bull four years ago, that was definitely the target – to end up in the big team. I’m still on my way. At the moment I’m happy where I am, learning a lot. And yeah, that would be the natural progression – no need to hide it.