F1: FIA Thursday press conference – United States

PART ONE – Carlos SAINZ (Ferrari), Esteban OCON (Alpine), Kevin MAGNUSSEN (Haas)

Q: Carlos, why don’t we start with you? how was the break? I gather you’ve been comparing yourself on a bike to the world number one?

Carlos SAINZ: Comparing, I don’t think it’s the right word. I’ve been suffering next to the world number one, that by the way is in incredible form and an incredible moment for Tadej Pogacar, now that he’s killing it in cycling. And I had the brilliant idea to go on a recovery ride for him. For me, it was the toughest ride of my life. He was on recovery mode after winning the world champs. And yeah, his recovery ride is still my zone five heart rate, zone four, zone five. So it just shows the difference. I mean, we are athletes in our sport. Obviously what we do is special in terms of reflexes and car handling and skills, but what he does on top of a bike is just incredible. And anyone who’s been on a bike before, I cannot imagine how much this guy pushes on a bike.

Q: Sounds like you learned a lot. Tell us about the mood inside Ferrari as we come to Austin. Is the team confident that it can maintain the form that it’s shown on street tracks in recent races?

CS: I think the more tracks that we’ve done since Monza, the more confident we are that the upgrades that we brought to the car start to work pretty much everywhere. But for me, I always said, no, with the last three races, I said, until we don’t go to Austin and we try them in a normal track, we will not be able to measure how much we’ve actually improved in tracks like Zandvoort, Spa, where we last struggled a bit more. So I think this will be the most important test so far for us to see whether all these upgrades that we brought in the past are working in the right direction for more of a normal kind of truck like we see here in Austin.

Q: And can you just clarify, are there any new parts here or is it just consolidation of what you bought before?

CS: Nothing new here is what we brought in Monza. And I think we brought a small upgrade in the front wing for Singapore. But yeah, more than that it’s confirming whether our better pace in the last three races is coming more from going to three tracks that really suited us, like Monza, Baku, and Singapore. or whether it’s also the upgrades having a big effect on whether we were more competitive in those three tracks. And Austin will be able to tell us which one of the two it is.

Q: Carlos, how are you approaching these last six races with Ferrari? Are you all consumed with the challenge ahead at Williams, or are you still focused on what you’ve got to do with your current team?

CS: For me it’s two separate things. I’m really looking forward to next year and the challenge with Williams. First of all, it’s also good to see how much they’ve improved recently and how that car now can get to the points quite often in the last few races. So there’s encouragement, and looking forward to that, obviously. But there’s first a job to finish this year with six races left in a car that can potentially allow me to win a race or score a couple more podiums. And I want to maximise this opportunity to see if I can help the team also finish as far ahead as possible in the Constructors’ Championship and obviously give myself that big present of a nice podium or a win, which is what I’m looking for and what I’m focusing on with the last six races.

Q: Alright, well, good luck with that. Thank you. Esteban, let’s come to you now. First of all, how was the break? Are you feeling refreshed? Any cycling for you?

Esteban OCON: It was good, thank you. Cycling, not as hard probably as Carlos, but, yeah, trained well, rested well, spent time with family and friends and, yeah, ready to go again. I mean, it can sound silly, but, you know, it makes a difference to how ready and how much energy all the team have coming into these last races and we’ll see hopefully how that goes for us.

Q: Well, on track, you’ve had a tough time of it since the summer break. You could do with a change of luck. How do you think it’s going to go this weekend? Do you think Alpine and COTA will be well matched?

EO: Yeah, I mean, it’s been obviously a difficult run of races with the performance of the car. That is very clear. Unfortunately, we maximised the potential in Singapore, but, you know, that wasn’t enough for us to be points scorers. You know, Pierre will have upgrades. I will run the old car this weekend and we should hopefully have the upgrades for the next races onwards. So, yeah, we’re excited to see what that’s going to bring to the performance of the team and hopefully it will be a better position for us to end this season.

Q: Can we throw it even further forward now to next year? Your team for next year, Haas, have recently announced a technical collaboration with Toyota. Can we get your reaction to that news? It must feel like a good time to be joining the team.

EO: Yeah, for sure. Back then, Ayao convinced me with the plan he had. He didn’t specifically talk about that, but he really told me what his plan was to take this team to the next level and help on the things that the team have the chance to improve on. He convinced me back then and it reinforces me to clearly trust him for the future. I think it’s exciting times for the teams ahead.

Q: Esteban, thank you. Kevin, let’s come to you now. How was your break?

Kevin MAGNUSSEN: It was good, thank you.

Q: What did you get up to? Anything you can share?

KM: Not a whole lot, you know, just kind of spent my time at home with the family and lived a normal life for a while. So that was nice. Yeah, refreshing myself for the last few races here.

Q: Well, and you said a moment ago, just off camera, that you’ve done one race in the last seven weeks. So you must be hungry to get back on track?

KM: Yeah, it’s not been a lot of races recently because I had that race ban. So it’s just been that one race in Singapore since Monza. So it feels like a quiet time that I’ve had recently.

Q: Now, Haas has new parts here this weekend. It seems that medium downforce tracks suit your car as well. So do you enter this weekend with quite a lot of confidence?

KM: I think this year we’ve been pretty strong at most circuits. There has been a little bit more of a competitive edge at medium downforce tracks. This one is kind of close to high downforce, so we’re not so sure what we’re going to run. It’s not a bad track for us, I think. There’s some upgrades on the car and we’re excited to see if they’re going to be good again. I think this year we’ve brought a few upgrades that have been working, so that’s been a really good trend. We’re in a tight fight with RB for P6 in the Constructors’ and we’re very motivated to take that battle to them and see if we can. If we can beat them, you know, Williams are not that far behind us as well. So there’s, you know, we’re focused both in front and behind. So it’s pretty interesting.

Q: Who do you think has the faster car, you or VCARB? Because as you say, you are only three points behind them in the Constructors’ Championship.

KM: Recently, we’ve had a slightly faster car, at least in the races. And, you know, maybe they’ve been a bit faster in qualifying. We’ve been a bit stronger in the races. So, yeah, with the upgrades this week, hopefully we can take a small step there and be that much faster in qualifying as well. Yeah, I hope so.

Q: Kevin, final one from me. I was talking to Esteban about the technical collaboration with Toyota. It comes in with immediate effect, so do you think you’re going to see the positives from that before the end of this season?

KM: I don’t think so. I think it’s a longer-term thing, but I do think it’s very positive for Haas and I think a very good way to expand the operation and a very needed step, I think. I think what Haas has achieved in those years already has been quite impressive. If you actually know the operation and how small it is, it’s kind of impressive what we have been able to achieve. But there has always been a feeling of potential for more. I think this is a good step to move further into that direction. I think it’s going to be interesting to see where they go.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (David Croft – Sky Sports F1) A question to all three drivers. Whilst you can’t always compete for a race win on the track, you can always compete for a fastest lap and an extra point if you finish in the top ten. that goes with it. But it seems the fun sponges have decided we’re not going to have an extra point in the future and they’ve taken that away. Do you, as drivers, agree with that or would you have liked an extra point for a fastest lap to have remained as part of your weekend tally should you get it?

CS: I always was of the opinion that it was a not-needed point in the points system of Formula 1, mainly because of how it is achieved. Right now, that point goes to the one that has a free pit stop one lap to the end of the race. So it’s not showing who is the fastest guy in the race, and he deserves one point for being the fastest guy. It’s a point that goes to the guy that by chance or by luck or by race situation has a free pit stop at some point of the race. It’s not always the case. Not always, but in a lot of occasions, most of the times.

Q: Would you like to see a point awarded for something else? Maybe pole position?

CS: Yeah, I agree. Pole position is something that, at least in Formula 1, is given a lot of value. Qualifying is something that media people keep a lot of importance to know. And obviously as drivers in qualifying, we like being the fastest because it shows you’ve maybe have done the cleanest lap. You’ve taken maybe more risks. You’ve put everything on the line to go on pole. And a point for that in a tight field makes sense. In a field where only one car is going to get all the pole positions makes less sense. But in the ideal scenario of a tight field and one guy going for it in qualifying and getting that pole position, I think it could make more sense than the fastest lap of the race.

EO: I join Carlos. I think for us drivers, being on pole is something very important to us and I think to all of you guys. it’s something that we put a lot of effort on and that is very rewarding. On the race, we race to win. You don’t necessarily race to be fastest on one lap. I never thought that this is a good thing, to have one point, for the race. But for pole position, it would be much more rewarding and that’s something I would prefer.

KM: Not a whole lot to add from the perspective of a midfield team. I think it’s something that very rarely is on our mind. If we’re in top 10, even if you’re P6, P7, it’s very rare that you will have a pit stop gap to go with what Carly says. For us, it’s never been relevant.

Q: (Mara Sangiorgio – Sky Sport Italy) Carlos, you said that the goal for Ferrari here is to maximise the package you brought already, but do you think that we will see changes in terms of value with the updated packages from now on, considering everyone? And sincerely, how much do you believe in the Constructors’ for your team?

CS: I think a lot of our belief in the Constructors’ title will come over the next couple of races because I think if from here to the end all the races would be Singapores, Bakus and Monzas, we would believe that we can do it. If in Austin, Mexico, Brazil that are more standard tracks, we see ourselves falling back a bit and being not so performing, like we were in Zandvoort or Spa, then obviously our belief goes down. So it’s a lot trying to assess. We are coming back to normal tracks with long, combined corners, high-speed corners. Let’s see where we are now in these kind of tracks and see if we can still fight like we did in Singapore and Baku and Monza. I think the others have taken this three-week break opportunity to bring upgrades to the car. Obviously, we haven’t stood still and we still try to improve every single area, but it sounds like there’s going to be a couple of teams maybe bringing the last upgrade and it could change a bit the pecking order. That’s why I think it’s important to reassess from now on.

Q: (Roldan Rodriguez – DAZN Spain) A question to Carlos. As we arrive into the last six races of the championship and the last six races for you in Ferrari, do you feel something special inside to try to win these last races? As we know, in Williams it’s going to be more difficult?

CS: Nothing special, apart from obviously a lot of motivation to try to achieve it. Nothing would make me happier than achieving something like that before the end of the year. I’m going to give it my absolute best. If it comes, great, and I’ll be for sure celebrating. And if it doesn’t, you know, I don’t believe it will be my last chance of fighting for wins or podiums in Formula 1, so I’ll remain working hard to try to get myself in a position, even if it’s with Williams or future ahead, to put myself in a position to win another race because that’s what I’m hungry for and that’s what I believe I can do and that’s what I’ve proven that I can do in Ferrari. So, yeah, it doesn’t end there.

Q: (Diego Mejia – Fox Sports Mexico) Question for Esteban. You’ve had a long career with Team Renault, before Lotus, and now with Alpine. They won’t be carrying on with their own engine programme in the future. What do you think about that, and what message does it send for the future of Alpine?

EO: Yeah, as a driver for the team, it’s difficult to comment about this. But as a French fan of the sport and as a French driver, everything I can say is that it’s a sad situation. It’s very sad for French motorsport. But yeah, there’s nothing more I can say.

Q: (Albert Fabrega – ESPN Latam) Carlos, before signing with Williams, you said you talked a lot with James about the plans of the team, the upgrades they were planning to bring to every single race by the end of the season. They brought significant and relevant upgrades, and they are performing and becoming Q3 and points during every single race. How important is it for you to see that, taking into account that next year you will be driving for them?

CS: On one side, it’s very important because obviously during those conversations with James, we did talk a lot about this year, how much they were going to improve and which position they were going to be on for 2025. And so far, he’s been a man of his word and his kind of expectations, which with upgrades in Formula 1, you never know. But because you saw it clearly this year that bringing three tenths to the car doesn’t always mean three tenths on paper. Yeah, he’s been a man of his word in this sense, and the team seems to be taking their steps in the right direction. At the same time, this news that I was receiving from him and these promises, because they were not promises, they were expectations of the car getting quicker through the season and into next year, didn’t affect that much my decision. As I said, my decision was a lot more based on the people and the feeling that I was getting from talking to the management, talking to the owners and the feeling that I was getting from the whole organisation and not so much about the short-term performance gains that they were getting. And definitely what convinced me more than the downforce they were going to add or where the team was going to be in six months, one year time, was the people and the professionalism and the vision of the project that they had. And this was the main differentiator to me.

Q: (Tim Hauraney – TSN) Question for Carlos. Could you just explain a little bit more how that ride came about with Pogacar? And did he drop you at all on your ride?

CS: So it came along because we’re neighbours in Monaco. And we’ve gone a couple of times In Monaco, we call them coffee rides, which is an easy ride. We just get the bike, do 30, 40 k’s to a coffee place, have a coffee and come back. And that is normally the ride where the day doesn’t push. So that’s when cycling losers like me, that we think we’re fit and we think we’re strong, can join him, potentially join him to go for a coffee ride. But the reality is that during that coffee ride or that recovery ride, you’re also dying by trying to follow him. or stay on his wheel. He does the favour of not dropping you because he doesn’t want to… We’re having conversation, even though a conversation at 170, 180 beats per minute, while he’s at 110, is not the most exciting conversation because you cannot talk much. And I think he can tell.

Q: (Panagiotis Seitanidis – Antenna TV Greece) I don’t know if we have time for all three to answer, but whoever you want. You weren’t racing back then, but from the six cars of Indy 2005, now we have three races in the US, huge audience. Do you feel that Formula 1 has conquered the United States? And how important is that for the sport, for your teams, for your sponsors, and for you as drivers to be so popular in US?

KM: Well, I think for us as an American team, it’s been quite significant. Having the sport grow so much in the US the last couple of years has helped us. But I think it’s helped everyone in the whole sport. It’s a very important demographic for any sport to break through. And I think Formula 1 has done that. A big thanks to Netflix, I think. That was kind of how a big part of those US new fans got into it, I think, with COVID hitting and F1 being the first live sport or the first sport to go live during COVID and Drive to Survive, the first season coming out at the same time and everything was like the perfect storm. So I think it’s something that is noticeable for us and something very good for the sport.

EO: Yeah, I remember coming here in 2016 and not seeing, obviously, the grandstand being full, seeing some holes at the hill in Turn 1. Now it’s very, very different. It’s insane the amount of support that we receive when we come to the States. You know, it’s quite special to me because I always wanted, in a way, to be able to visit the States as a kid. And, you know, being able to go now to Miami, Las Vegas, coming here in Texas for that many years, it’s honestly really, really cool. So, yeah, I think it’s a big, big difference compared to when I started in F1. And, yeah, looking forward to see how it’s going to evolve in a couple of years.

Q: (Alex Kalinauckas – Autosport) Question to Kevin, please. Slightly random considering your current setting here in America, but just looking ahead seven days, the race in Mexico, I just wondered if you could please explain the challenge of racing there. It’s quite a unique setting, way higher in terms of altitude than anywhere else, and that can considerably affect how F1 cars perform. You obviously had quite a considerable accident as a result of brakes overheating last year. So yeah, how hard is that challenge, please?

KM: It’s a big challenge in terms of cooling the car. It’s an odd race because we run with basically the most downforce we can, and the cars have about the same downforce as we do in Mansa, despite the big wings. And cooling the brakes and the engine and the gearbox is very tricky there, so it’s a pretty inefficient race aerodynamically for the cars and things are harder to control. As a consequence I had that rear suspension failure because of hot rear brakes last year. I think physically you feel it too, it’s just thin air, you’re breathing more and you do notice it. It’s not really a huge issue as such, it’s just something you notice. It’s not a very physical race and it’s very rarely hot up there, so for a driver it’s not really a big challenge, more for the cars.

Q: (Luke Smith – The Athletic) For Esteban and Carlos, Fernando is about to approach 400 races in Formula 1, which is a big landmark. Esteban, you worked with him. Carlos obviously know him very well. What makes Fernando so good and just so able to continue his career so long? And could either of you see yourselves doing another 200, 250 Grand Prix and reaching that kind of landmark?

EO: Yeah, what an impressive career. That’s all I can say. Fernando breathes racing, eats racing, wakes up racing. When he has free time, he just goes go-karting. He just wants to drive and race all the time. I’ve talked about it for him, what motivates him. He just says he doesn’t know really what else to do. It’s been his life and he just enjoys racing all the time. He has nothing to prove anymore to anyone. He’s one of the best ever, clearly. He’s won in most of the categories that he’s done. I really had a lot of learning when I was racing alongside him on a lot of different topics, inside the track, outside the track, how he raced, how he thinks outside the box. And that’s clearly the things that I remember the most how he’s aware strategy-wise of how things are turning out for him and where he needs to go while he’s racing. That’s not an easy thing to do. And yeah, well done on that 400 races. If I will be doing that many races, to be fair, I don’t think so. I don’t think any drivers anytime soon are going to be reaching that many races ever because he’s still going and he’s going to be still going for many years, I think. But yeah, what a career.

CS: Yeah, well, first of all, only words of admiration towards Fernando and what he has achieved. It is crazy to me to think when I was growing up, nine, ten years old, he was already in F1. And now that I turned 30 myself, he’s still in Formula 1. So, yeah. Quite crazy. and obviously he’s still here because he wants it and he has so much talent and speed still at his age that he can allow himself to keep choosing about what to do with his future and with his life, which in a competitive field of 19 other very hungry younger drivers, that says a lot from him. From my side, I have a very good example at home with my dad, still winning Dakars at 61, 62, so I know what it takes to have at home someone that is still hungry and very motivated about what he does and my dad is a perfect example. So I can see why Fernando has a very similar approach to things because you can tell they are made of racing. They cannot live without racing. My dad wakes up every day thinking about his dampers in the Dakar and his tyres and his team, he calls his engineer every single day. And he’s 62. He could be at home chilling, playing golf with me. He still decides to catch three planes to get to Morocco in the middle of the night, to test, for 24 hours, a car in the middle of the desert, and staying in not very good hotels, you know, and he still loves it. And so, yeah, I will see how I feel. I think Formula 1 calendars now are very demanding and this is going to be a very hot topic for the drivers to decide on their future, especially if you want to have kind of a stable family life when you turn 35, 40 and you start thinking about kids, etc. And this will be the main deciding factor in individual people choosing whether to take the 24 to 25 race calendar or not. So it will also depend a lot on that factor. Whether I’m there or not, I have no clue right now. But I do see myself, after 200 races in 10 years, racing for another 200, another 10 years. This I can say yes. But I don’t know how it will plan out.