Race - 2018 Japanese GP team quotes

Haas F1

Haas F1 Team gained three more points on fourth-place Renault in the constructors’ standings as driver Romain Grosjean delivered an eighth-place result in the Japanese Grand Prix Sunday at Suzuka Circuit. Teammate Kevin Magnussen finished 20th after a flat left-rear tire at the start of the race damaged his racecar too much to continue.

The American squad remains fifth in the constructors’ ranks, but cut the gap to Renault to eight points after Grosjean secured his fifth points-paying drive in this year’s FIA Formula One World Championship. Haas F1 Team also extended its advantage over sixth-place McLaren to 26 points.

Grosjean began the 53-lap race around the 5.807-kilometer (3.608-mile), 18-turn track that first opened in 1962 as a testing venue for Honda from fifth in the 20-car field. A clean start allowed Grosjean to hold his position until Sebastian Vettel wheeled his Ferrari around Grosjean at the kink in turn 12, between the hairpin and Spoon corners.

Grosjean returned to the top-five on lap eight when a charging Vettel clashed with the Red Bull of Max Verstappen, sending Vettel into a spin. Fifth place was short-lived, however, as the other Red Bull piloted by Daniel Ricciardo, passed Grosjean for fifth in the turn-16 chicane.

Grosjean continued to pinball between fifth and sixth as Kimi Räikkönen pitted his Ferrari on lap 17, allowing Grosjean to retake fifth. But as soon as Räikkönen emerged from the pit lane, he filled the mirrors of Grosjean’s Haas VF-18. Räikkönen eventually passed Grosjean for position on lap 23, sending him back to sixth.

With the Pirelli P Zero Yellow soft tires Grosjean started the race with thoroughly used up, Grosjean pitted on lap 29, switching to a new set of White medium tires that would carry him to the finish. He lost only one spot, emerging from the pit lane and back onto the racetrack just ahead of the Force India of Sergio Perez.

Grosjean retook sixth place when Carlos Sainz Jr. pitted his Renault on lap 32, but in a case of déjà vu, it didn’t last long as a resurgent Vettel grabbed sixth when the duo entered Spoon, jettisoning Grosjean to seventh.

A brief Virtual Safety Car period came on lap 41, but racing resumed on the following lap, whereupon Perez quickly challenged Grosjean. Perez made his move in the chicane to take seventh. Shortly thereafter, Perez’s Force India teammate, Esteban Ocon, was eyeing Grosjean for eighth. Grosjean was able to hold him off to secure Haas F1 Team’s 11th points-paying performance of 2018.

The four points earned by Grosjean in the Japanese Grand Prix gave him 31 on the season, the most he has scored in his three years with Haas F1 Team. Grosjean scored all 29 points in the team’s inaugural 2016 season and 28 points last year.

Lewis Hamilton won the 30th Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka from the pole to earn his 71st career Formula One victory, his series-leading ninth this season and his fourth in a row. Hamilton beat his Mercedes teammate and second-place starter, Valtteri Bottas, by 12.919 seconds to take his fourth victory at Suzuka and maintain Mercedes’ recent dominance at the track, as no other team has won the Japanese Grand Prix since 2013. Hamilton also won in 2014, 2015 and 2017 while former teammate Nico Rosberg won in 2016.

Hamilton’s win, combined with Vettel’s sixth-place finish, allowed Hamilton to extend his lead in the championship standings to 67 points over Vettel, with the Scuderia Ferrari driver being Hamilton’s closest pursuer in this year’s title chase.

Magnussen is eighth in the driver’s championship with 53 points and Grosjean is 13th with the aforementioned 31 points.

Only four races remain, with the next event being the United States Grand Prix Oct. 21 at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.

Romain Grosjean

“We need to analyze what happened with the Virtual Safety Car restart. I was right on my delta time and Perez, when the gap was 2.4 seconds before, overtook me straight away. We need to check and see if there is not a problem in the system there. I thought I had done the job on my side. We did our best. We had a few technical issues on the car, which didn’t make our life easy. I think without those, we clearly had the pace to be in front of all those guys. Onto the next one.”

Kevin Magnussen

“Well, I passed Charles (Leclerc) around the outside of 130R, then through the last chicane he kept close and slipstreamed down the main straight. I went to the right, I think he followed for a bit and then went back to the left and clipped my left-rear tire, causing the puncture. It’s unfortunate, but that’s what happens sometimes. The tire delaminated and ripped all the floor. It damaged the rear wing, the brake ducts, etc., so we had to retire.”

Günther Steiner

“Not the best of our days. The incident with Kevin, where Leclerc ran straight into him, took him out of the race, so we were one car down. Grosjean had a few issues with the car, with the telemetry, and with the handling of it. The car was pulling on the straights. At one point we thought he had a puncture, but luckily we didn’t. Then we had the incident with Perez overtaking us at the Virtual Safety Car, which we still need to look into. The good side is we closed the gap to Renault by three points, and I hope we make the rest up in the next four races.”

Williams

— Sergey Sirotkin finished 16th and Lance Stroll 17th in the Japanese Grand Prix
— Both cars started the race on the soft Pirelli tyre, with Lance 14th and Sergey 17th
— On the opening lap, both cars lost positions, while Lance made contact with Alonso which resulted in both receiving a five-second time penalty – Lance for causing a collision and Alonso for gaining an advantage
— The Safety Car was deployed on lap four when Magnussen left debris across the track, prompting Sergey to pit for the medium tyre, with Lance waiting until lap 14
— Both cars struggled to make progress during the race, and pitted again for the supersoft tyre, with Sergey coming in on lap 38 and Lance on lap 39

Paddy Lowe, Chief Technical Officer

A disappointing day. We had the pace and grid positions to beat some cars today, but we didn’t manage to do so overall not the result we hoped for. We had good reliability with both cars coming home. Lance received a penalty for an incident at turn 16, and on top of that in his second stint, which needed to be a good, long stint, he flat spotted one of his tyres, so effectively that ruined his opportunity today. On Sergey’s side, he lost quite a few places in the opening laps, therefore, we chose to gamble with an earlier stop, but for various reasons that didn’t work out, so we had to make a second stop.

Sergey Sirotkin

Today was a difficult day. We had to turn our strategy around to a two-stop, which in the end looked like it could be the quickest strategy to the flag. However, with traffic and other things happening on the track, we didn’t really get chance to fully exploit it, so it was a difficult race. We were able to avoid some of the trouble on the track and gain some positions here and there, so it’s been good in these terms, but at the end of the day we didn’t finish as high as we probably wanted. A very difficult race but I think we as a team did the absolute maximum from what we could today. With our situation, none of us could do any better, so with this in mind I’m very proud of all the boys effort.

Lance Stroll

With Fernando, I just went around the outside of 130R, I got on the grass and then back on the racing line, we made some contact and then he just went straight on, so we both got penalties. It was just a typical first lap racing incident when things get heated. I just wanted to say to him I didn’t push him intentionally or anything like that. After that, the race was quite bad. Nothing went our way today, as races go, it was just a really bad one.

Racing Point FI

Racing Point Force India scored eight points in today’s Japanese Grand Prix with Sergio Perez racing to seventh place ahead of Esteban Ocon in ninth.

SERGIO PEREZ

“Today we had a good result: the best I could realistically hope to achieve. After yesterday’s poor qualifying we made up a lot of positions and I feel we really got the maximum from the race. Our pace was strong and the team delivered a great strategy. We knew we had to be aggressive to beat the Haas and we nearly managed to undercut Grosjean at the pit-stop, but I lost a bit of time battling with Leclerc and I just fell short. At the VSC restart I managed to get really close to Grosjean and when I saw an opportunity I went for it. I am so excited about our performance today. We had to push hard and make some good overtakes: it was a fantastic race.”

ESTEBAN OCON

“The team scored some good points today, but I’m not totally happy because our final result was dictated by the penalty yesterday. We have shown great speed all weekend – as the fourth quickest team – but if we don’t start higher up it’s difficult to show it in the race. There were some fun moments today and I had to make a lot of overtaking moves. When you had fresh tyres there was a big pace advantage and our strategy paid off in the end. I was close to catching Grosjean during the final few laps, but there wasn’t a chance to make a move.”

OTMAR SZAFNAUER, TEAM PRINCIPAL & CEO

“I think we made the most of our opportunities this afternoon. We had to fight all the way to the flag to score eight important points. Our strategy required both cars to pull off various overtaking moves to come back through the field, but it worked out well. Sergio made a fantastic move on Grosjean to finish as the ‘best of the rest’. Considering our starting positions, we recovered well today and the team did an excellent job with the strategy calls. We have unlocked some significant performance recently and we just need to keep up this points-scoring momentum in the final few races.”

Red Bull

MAX VERSTAPPEN

“After the penalty and incident with Seb I’m really happy to come away with another podium in Japan. The car felt good and we were able to compete at the front for the entire race, which at this track makes it even better. Judging by a few mistakes he made it looked like Bottas was pushing hard on the last few laps. It’s hard to follow anyway so I just did my best hoping he would make another fault and I could be in a position to take advantage. I felt a little hard done by with the penalty I got while defending against Kimi. I was trying my best to get back onto the track as quickly as possible instead of just cutting the corner, perhaps next time I will just cut the track. The incident with Sebastian was a very similar mistake to mine in China earlier this year, I think he could have passed easier if he had waited. It shows that even the most experienced drivers can make errors when under pressure. I’m now very excited to get to Austin, we have good performance and it’s a great place to visit.”

DANIEL RICCIARDO

“Surprisingly, I was able to come through the field and overtake quite easily. That’s not because I thought I couldn’t personally overtake, it’s just not that easy on this track, but I was able to make good use of the downforce we had on the soft tyre. I knew we would be quite vulnerable on the straights as we ran very high downforce this weekend, but I could stay close enough in the corners that I could latch onto the tow of the cars ahead on the straights. It was a good set-up and the first part of the race was a lot of fun. We went on to the mediums to try and cover Kimi and fourth place was kind of written after that. I would have loved a podium and I was kinda of hoping for something to happen up front, but I feel I earned at least a fourth today. It was good to come through the field and on the grid Helmut actually said that he thought fourth place was a little optimistic and possibly out of reach today. So, fourth is like a little victory from the back on this track and it was good to see our strong pace against Ferrari. A podium would have been even sweeter but I can’t complain with the result and I’m pleased for the Team. All that’s left to say is, arigatooooo Japan.”

CHRISTIAN HORNER, Team Principal

“Today was a good day for both drivers and the Team. For Max to achieve a podium despite incurring a five second penalty following contact with Kimi on the opening lap was a great performance. He had a busy afternoon, with a racing incident between him and Seb on lap seven resulting in damage. Despite that, he was still able to close down Valtteri in the final stages and put him under pressure to try and claim second place and secure his third consecutive Suzuka podium. Daniel also drove a very strong Grand Prix, progressing through the field with some great overtakes and with strong pace he was able to finish fourth from fifteenth on the grid. All round, it has been a positive day getting two cars to the finish and taking home a good haul of points for the Team.”

McLaren

On the high-speed and challenging Suzuka Circuit, Fernando and Stoffel finished line astern in 14th and 15th respectively. Both drivers managed their tyres well which allowed the team to execute a one-stop strategy and jump in front of a couple of cars ahead.

Stoffel had a difficult first stint on his initial set of tyres, but by the final stages of the race was rapidly closing on the pack of four cars ahead, although he ran out of laps to be able to make a move stick.

Fernando made a great start and was up to 15th position by the end of the first lap. He made it as high as 12th before the half-way point, before being handed a five-second pit-stop penalty after an incident with another car. This pushed him down the order to 19th and last position, but he was able to make it way back up to finish 14th after pit-stops.

Fernando Alonso

“In spite of the poor result, I did enjoy driving around this track today. The first lap was quite good and intense, and in the Esses especially we were overtaking each other inside and outside and we recovered a few places. In the last couple of laps there was also a good battle with the Williams and [Marcus] Ericsson who were struggling on old tyres, so we had to fight a little bit.

“Even though we were too slow all weekend, in the end it was an enjoyable race.

“Unfortunately, the five-second penalty I received in the first part of the race dropped me down several positions. It wasn’t a big drama, because we were out of the points anyway, but it’s difficult to understand the stewards’ decision as I had nowhere to go but off the track when Lance [Stroll] came across not having seen me, as he said.”

Stoffel Vandoorne

“It wasn’t a great race for us. It was pretty difficult at the beginning, and there wasn’t really any possibility to resist the quicker cars. We were more or less passengers on the straights.

“At least the race turned out a little bit better towards the end, and we managed to beat a few cars on pace. With the tyre degradation, we were able to make them last and make a one-stop work, catch up with some cars and hold some other cars behind us.

“I think that was more or less the maximum possible today.”

Gil de Ferran

“Despite our lowly starting position, Fernando’s penalty and the fact that we come away with no points, it’s fair to say that today was still positive.

“Stoffel struggled a little in the first stint, but finished quite strongly to elevate himself to the fight immediately ahead.

“Fernando had a brilliant first lap, and strong pace throughout the race, showing his customary inimitable race-craft. We sit here wondering what could have been, nevertheless we go home with a better feeling, given that we genuinely beat cars that started ahead of us. In addition, our race pace once again proved to be stronger than qualifying.

“On a cheerful note, I’m glad the great Japanese fans were rewarded with a very exciting Japanese Grand Prix that was full of overtakes. I can’t wait to return to Suzuka in 2019.”

Toro Rosso

Pierre Gasly

“It was a good start as I managed to overtake Brendon and the first stint was great. I felt good with the car behind Romain and I was pretty close to him, but then we went too long on the first stint as we didn’t want to pit into traffic but then several cars undercut us. We put the Soft tyres on during the pit stop and I enjoyed the battles and overtakes on the first few laps, but then I started to have massive blisters on the rear tyres and I was trying to survive at the end. It could have been better today so we need to analyse more deeply what happened. We probably didn’t make the best decisions, but that happens sometimes, it’s easy to say in hindsight that we could have made different choices. It’s just a shame after such a good Qualifying yesterday, it would have been great to reward the team and Honda here in Japan for their home race with some points today.”

Brendon Hartley

“I don’t feel like I did too much wrong at the start of the race, but I just couldn’t get the power down. For the whole first stint I didn’t have much grip and poor traction cost me a lot of time. Then on the second set I found myself in traffic, I made a couple of overtakes on both of the Williams but in the end I got stuck behind Marcus. It’s a real shame that both cars are outside the points after such a promising result in Qualifying yesterday.”

Toyoharu Tanabe (Honda F1 Technical Director)

“Today’s result was disappointing, given our excellent showing in qualifying yesterday. Pierre ran in the points for much of the race, so it was unfortunate that he was unable to fight off Sainz in the closing stages and dropped down to eleventh. Since we arrived in Suzuka, we have had fantastic support from the Toro Rosso Honda fans, which was a great boost for all of us. So it was a shame that we were unable to repay them with a point or two. However, the frustration we all feel at the lack of points will be turned into motivation as we carry on working for the final four races and, at this point of the year, even looking to 2019.”

Renault F1

Renault Sport Formula One Team returned to the points as Carlos Sainz fought through to finish the Japanese Grand Prix in tenth place at Suzuka. Carlos executed a long first stint – matched with a slick pit-stop - to capitalise on fresh tyres towards the end of the race, before clinching the final point with three laps remaining.

Nico Hülkenberg retired from the race on lap 37 with a rear end issue. The team remain in fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship, eight points ahead of their nearest rival.

— Nico started from P16 on new Pirelli Medium (white) tyres, pitting on lap 30 for a new set of Soft (yellow) tyres.
— Carlos started from P13 on new Soft tyres, pitting on lap 32 for a new set of Medium tyres.

Nico Hülkenberg

“We tried a different strategy today, starting from sixteenth on the Medium tyre. We were able to show respectable pace relative to the others on softer tyres, but it was always going to be a tough battle starting from where we did. We thought we could make the Medium last a little bit longer than it did, and then it was unfortunate that I had to retire the car as something didn’t feel right at the rear after the pit stop. Whilst there were no points for me today, Carlos and the team had a great race so it was a good effort at a crucial time in the championship battle. We know we have a lot of hard work ahead of us until the end of the season, but we’re still fighting hard.”

Carlos Sainz

“It was good fun out there today and a very positive race from the team. We made a decent start to be on the brink of the points and then we had to do some overtaking at the end. For us, a point here is the best we could achieve starting from P13, so that’s a very strong result for us. The team executed everything very well; the strategy, the pit-stop, it all worked. We knew we were up against it this weekend, so it’s great value to score and now we need to build on this in the final four races.”

Cyril Abiteboul, Team Principal

“Today is an important result for the team. After Sochi, it is further evidence that our race pace is competitive at this stage of our development. We’ve also shown that the Power Unit is capable of doing great things in race conditions at high-power sensitive circuits, like Suzuka, with Red Bull Racing fighting for second place in these track conditions. Carlos drove strongly throughout and never relented for that final point, whilst Nico unfortunately had to retire. It’s clear what needs to be fixed and that’s improving our qualifying pace. We’ve seen that small differences can play a huge role in starting between seventh or fourteenth. We absolutely need to get on top of this and get the car back where it belongs at circuits which should be better for us.”

Ferrari

FIfth and sixth places for Kimi and Seb respectively for Scuderia Ferrari in Japan. It was probably the most we could do after the problems in qualifying, both cars being damaged as a result of collisions in the race, which meant Sebastian had to fight his way back up the field.

FILM OF THE RACE

Kimi and Seb were on Supersoft tyres for the start, fourth and eighth respectively on the grid. It was hot, with an air temperature of almost 30 degrees and track temp at 37. Kimi maintained his position, while Seb hugged the right hand side and immediately made up two places. He then got past Grosjean with a miracle move around the outside of Spoon. At the end of the opening lap, Verstappen went straight on at the chicane and as he rejoined he nearly took out Kimi, who had to slow, which meant Seb moved up to fourth. The incident was investigated by the Stewards, who gave Max a 5 second penalty, while Ferrari Number 7 had some damage from then on.

Lap 3 and the Safety Car came out as bits of Magnussen’s tyre were all over the track. The race was on again on lap 7 without any changes to the order. On the next lap, Seb gave it a go, attacking Verstappen on the inside of Spoon, but they touched and the Ferrari spun. Sebastian rejoined in 18th place and began fighting his way up the order, passing Ericsson. The move was investigated but no action was required.

On lap 18, Kimi pitted taking on Mediums, before passing Ocon to go eighth. Seb meanwhile worked his way up to twelfth. Verstappen pitted and took his penalty. Kimi closed on him but lost time behind Gasly and could not pass. His lap times were affected by the earlier damage and he found himself fifth behind Ricciardo after the pit stop.

Vettel made his stop after 27 laps and fitted the yellow-banded Softs. It was showtime and he was straight back in the points, as high as seventh when he set a fastest race lap on lap 33. He then gained another place before his pace matched Kimi’s who was too far ahead to be caught. But in the end, Vettel at least had the satisfaction of the fastest lap of the afternoon in 1’32”318. “The car was strong,” commented Seb. Despite everything.

Maurizio Arrivabene

”After what happened in qualifying, today the team and the drivers fought back well. The podium could have been within our grasp, but unfortunately, damage on both cars, as a result of collisions in the race, affected the final result. Regardless of what is now a very difficult situation in terms of the championship, we will tackle the coming races giving them our best shot, maintaining concentration and determination.”

Kimi Raikkonen

”After the contact with Max I saw some parts flying off my car; it was damaged pretty badly on the left hand side. Obviously, this affected negatively the rest of my race. What happened is unfortunate and after that it was pretty difficult to drive on. I had lost a lot of downforce, but there was not much I could do. It’s impossible to know what our performance would have been without that accident at the chicane; we had improved the car over the weekend, it was getting better and better, but unfortunately this is what we have got today. It’s been a difficult and poor weekend overall, the result is not ideal. Now we need to look deeply on everything and hopefully we’ll come back at the next race on a more normal situation where we’ll be able to fight.”

Sebastian Vettel

”Today, I found it quite inspirational walking through the garage and watching the guys work! All the team is fired up and that certainly helps, as the last couple of weeks haven’t been that easy. The spirit is unbroken despite everything. Races like this are a bit of a hand-over and we know it is difficult from where we are in the point standings, but we don’t have much to lose. We have given everything so far and I believe there’s still something we can learn and understand from the car. So we keep fighting and resisting and we’ll see what the other races bring. As for the collision with Max, I was obviously pushing to pass, I knew he had a penalty, but I also felt that we were fast. I could see that his battery was clipping, while I had saved some energy from mine. I saw a gap and went for it on the inside, he obviously tried to defend and I couldn’t go anywhere, so we touched. However, this is part of racing.”

Sauber

Spectators and teams watched a hectic Grand Prix unfold at the epic Suzuka Circuit, with an eventful start of the race making an impact on Charles Leclerc’s race outcome. Starting from 10th on the grid, Charles Leclerc made a good start and was fighting his way to gain positions when an incident with Kevin Magnussen on lap two caused damage to his car and compromised his race. Shortly after that, Leclerc came in for an early pitstop during the safety car period where the team changed the nose of his car. He then consistently worked his way into the upper midfield. Unfortunately, a mechanical issue on Charles Leclerc’s car saw him retire from the race on lap 39. Marcus Ericsson also had a good start and made a strong recovery from the back of the grid, fighting in the midfield. He crossed the finish line in P12 after delivering a good performance at the 2018 FIA Formula One Japanese Grand Prix.

The Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team looks forward to the next Grand Prix, which will take place in the United States, eager to fight for good results there.

Marcus Ericsson

“We knew that it would be a difficult race, but taking our starting position P20 into consideration, finishing in P12 is a result we can be satisfied with. We had a good pace and the car also felt quite good. I drove on the same set of tyres for the majority of the race, which required a lot of management from my side. It is a bit of a shame not to have started the race from a better position, because points could have been possible. Nevertheless, it was a positive day, and I look forward to our next chance in Austin.”

Charles Leclerc

“It was a fun race, despite not ending the way we would have liked it to. The start was busy – I was fighting with some of the cars around me but eventually had to back off. I lost some places there but fought hard to recover them later on during the race. On the second lap, I was involved in an incident. We made a pit stop shortly after that and changed the nose on my car. We knew that it was not ideal to pit so early, but we had to do that to have a chance to fight for points. After that, it went quite well. I was able to recover some positions, but, unfortunately, I had to retire from the race because of a mechanical problem on my car. It is a shame not to finish the race, but I look forward to the next one where I hope to fight for some points again.”

Frédéric Vasseur, Team Principal

“It was a tough day. Charles’ race was compromised by the incident with Kevin Magnussen. It was a very dangerous move on his part and Charles’ car was quite damaged after that. We had to change the nose during the pitstop. He did a good job recovering positions, but in the end, he had to retire from the race because of a mechanical issue. Marcus gave a good performance. Finishing in P12 after starting in P20 is a solid job done and he managed the tyres well. We can see that we have a good pace overall, and look forward to the next opportunity for points in the United States.”

Mercedes

Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport score a 1-2 victory in Suzuka

— Lewis took his 71st career victory today – his 50th with Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, ninth of the 2018 season and fourth at the Suzuka International Racing Circuit
— Valtteri came in second to complete the second 1-2 for the team in a row – his first podium at the Japanese Grand Prix and 30th podium finish in Formula One
— Today’s result marks the fifth consecutive win in Suzuka for Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport and tenth win at the Japanese Grand Prix for Mercedes-Benz Power
— Lewis (331 points) leads the Drivers’ Championship by 67 points from Sebastian Vettel (264 points) with Valtteri (207 points) in P3 and with 100 points left to be scored in the season
— Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport (538 points) lead Ferrari (460 points) by 78 points in the Constructors’ Championship with 172 points remaining to be scored in the 2018 season
— Matt Deane, Chief Mechanic, accepted the Constructors’ trophy on behalf of the team

Lewis Hamilton

I was having so much fun driving this track. I was really able to just embrace the moment and enjoy every single lap, every single corner and the feel of the car. Suzuka is such a unique circuit, you go down a hill into Turn 1, then up-hill, you go underneath the track – it’s one of my favourite circuits. The pace was really great and this is definitely the best weekend I’ve had here and the best feeling I’ve had here balance-wise, it was really lovely. Everyone at the track and back home in the factories deserves a huge thank you for their continued efforts, they just continue to push and deliver, weekend after weekend. This result was really the best way to repay all their hard work. There’s still 100 points available, so we have to try and focus and never be complacent. The team has done such an amazing job the last few weekends, we need to bring the same focus and performance and keep pushing. The harmony in the team and the performance of every single individual in the team is the best it’s ever been. But we’ve always got areas that we can improve on, collectively and for me personally, so we will keep pushing and keep raising the bar.

Valtteri Bottas

This is a perfect result for the team and a great reward for an amazing performance from the entire team this weekend. I’m happy that we could bring it home like this after qualifying on the front row yesterday. This was my first podium here in Suzuka which was great; I get a lot of support from the local fans, I can really feel it and it means a lot to me. My race was pretty straightforward, we actually had a bit of margin to save the engine. It probably looked much closer on TV than it actually was. I had one lockup going into the last chicane where Max got a bit closer, but otherwise I was just managing and it was all under control. The first stint on the Soft tyres was a little better than the second one on the Mediums, where blistering was a bit of an issue, but no drama. Overall, this was a great weekend for the team.

Toto Wolff

That was a very tense Grand Prix for us. It might have looked pretty smooth from outside but within the team we were managing blisters in the tyres, some driveability issues with Lewis’ power unit and very competitive Red Bulls behind us. So to take a 1-2 for the second race in a row is pretty special – not just for the trackside team here after a tough back-to-back, but for everybody back in Brackley and Brixworth who have poured their efforts into developing this car and power unit. There hasn’t been a single silver bullet – just a lot of hard work, creativity and a mind set to channel the pressure of the competition and keep pushing hard to achieve our objectives. The approach will remain the same in the coming races: we will not let up one single bit when it comes to bringing more performance to the car, and keep taking everything day by day. It has been an important week for the team and we have come out of the challenges we faced even stronger than before. From here, every race is like a mini-championship and we need to keep aligning our race weekends in the same way we achieved in Sochi and Suzuka.

Andrew Shovlin

A great result and overall a really strong weekend for the team and drivers. The car has been fast and reliable which is just what we have needed over the last few races. We didn’t really know what to expect going into the race as we’d not had a chance to practice in hot conditions, so in the first stint we were getting the drivers to go easy on the tyres as we weren’t sure how long we were going to have to take them. The race behind us seemed to be fairly entertaining with Max and the Ferraris and after the penalty and there was a period where we weren’t sure whether it would be Seb or Max would presenting the biggest threat. We were able to stay out longer than the other runners and cover off the safety car threat before coming in for the medium with both our cars. The soft seemed like the best tyre, which helped us in the first stint but allowed Max to put Valtteri under a bit of pressure in the final stint, although Valtteri seemed pretty relaxed about it after the race. This has probably been the closest we have come to perfect weekend all year, in terms of reliability, car performance the drivers and how we’ve worked as a team. We are taking it one race at a time at the moment and just trying to do the best job we can in each weekend so hopefully we can carry this momentum into Austin.