F1 Race Press Conference - Austrian GP — George Russell, Max Verstappen, Kimi Antonelli

[0:01] a very warm welcome to the top three finishes of the fia formula one austrian grand prix in third [0:11] place kimmy antonelli in second place max verstappen and taking his seventh career win and [0:17] his second here at the red bull ring our winner george russell very well done george melbourne [0:23] feels like a long time ago what does this victory mean to you it feels like a long time ago to be [0:30] honest um it's been a tough couple of months with some really tricky races you know with with races [0:39] that felt like everything was going against me then some races with some tough performances you [0:45] know obviously i've got a really incredible teammate next to me who week in week out is delivering some [0:51] pretty spectacular performances so for me you know going into canada going into barcelona from quite [0:59] a low point it was um i need a lot of resilience to be able to get back and and deliver some strong [1:09] performances so to get the last two poles to get the win here this weekend especially on a track which [1:16] i don't think is so suited to me i'm really really proud about toto wolf has described this win as a [1:22] cold-blooded one by you is that how it felt it didn't quite feel like that to be honest it felt [1:29] a really calm and controlled race i think if we took max out of the picture it was um you'd say [1:35] a really strong performance from mercedes you know 20 seconds ahead of mclaren more ahead of ferrari but [1:42] with the upgrades and on the red bull you know max was in the fight for pole yesterday really great [1:48] race pace from him today he he pressured me in the middle stint and forced me to stop with 28 laps remaining [1:53] which uh was quite uncomfortable but i had a really strong first 20 laps of that stint which [2:00] allowed me just to bring it home in the final eight how crucial was yesterday's pole position to this win [2:07] yeah for sure it was it was crucial um you know everything got hooked up i still think [2:13] we'd have been in the fight uh regardless of what happened yesterday but for sure starting from pole [2:18] position everything is made easier so you retake second in the championship ahead of your home [2:26] race at silverstone just how much confidence do you have going into the british grand prix i have [2:33] a lot of confidence in myself knowing i can do it i have less confidence in being able to get [2:41] everything aligned with the car the setup and the tires um because it's just been so up and down [2:49] for me and even you know this weekend at points i was six times behind kimmy and then come q3 i was [2:55] two times ahead and i don't honestly have a major answer for that but those times where i've managed [3:04] to deliver you know the pole laps the car and the tires have felt more akin to last year when i could [3:10] deliver those performances you know every lap throughout a weekend uh so i'll be working hard with my team to [3:16] try and you know emulate that you've said already that the red bull ring isn't a track that necessarily [3:22] suits your style is silverstone more akin to a george russell track i think so i i think so a track where [3:29] you lean in more on the front tires uh ordinarily more of a front deck track rather than a rear deck track [3:35] we should be seeing some more normal temperatures you know it was 60 degrees track temp at one point [3:41] today but this season has has thrown so many unknowns you know we may both go to silverstone [3:48] have a great weekend we may go there and max be on top so um i'm just going in with an open mind [3:54] all right well very well done today thank you george max let's come to you many congratulations [4:00] as well your ninth podium here at the red bull ring what's the most satisfying aspect of this p2 for [4:07] you i'll use this one hello i'll stay with this one um i think what was satisfying is that this was [4:30] the first time i felt like actually i could fight for the win um i do think that the first half of the [4:36] the race we were more competitive because for whatever reason on the second half something felt off [4:41] on the rear of the car where everything was just extremely difficult from bumps curbs traction it [4:48] was just completely gone so that's something that we need to understand again what went wrong there [4:53] um but yeah the first half i felt really good i mean i was closing the gap even after you know the [4:58] battles that i had with lewis you know that it was cool but it made us of course lose quite a bit of [5:02] time um so yeah every time catching up but then on the middle of the was it the second stint something [5:11] happened with the car in the rear axle which made me lose space and i just stayed there uh till the [5:17] end so that's a bit of a shame but still to be that close to um to a win i think is yeah great effort [5:24] from the team they have worked really hard you know to get these upgrades on the car here and uh this is [5:30] the first time i think in the race where i felt like really competitive uh yeah and and i could push a [5:36] bit more so that that is definitely the positive i think of of this weekend you say you could push a bit [5:41] more but just in what areas of performance is the car better with these upgrades it's just a bit [5:47] more grip yeah it just uh it goes a bit faster around the corner yeah but you mentioned the second [5:54] stint um do you wish you'd stopped a bit earlier for that second stop it's always easy now to look [6:00] back at it i i do think i had the deck over george but um i also knew that of course it was going to be [6:08] a very long stint to the end uh but we'll look at it again i mean i felt i personally felt like [6:16] the laps that i stayed out i probably lost a little bit too much compared to what i gained back [6:21] of those extra laps or new tires but it's easy to say now i mean we still had a very good uh good [6:27] race to be honest you know it's been a a pretty long road you know to be here and actually yeah to [6:33] to sit here on in the top three and and have a real shot at it that that is i think already very [6:40] positive and do you think it's track specific or do you think you can be quick everywhere now and [6:44] let's throw it forward to to silverstone while we're talking yeah let's take it race by race i [6:48] mean silverstone i mean i love the track but yeah i did a few laps on the simulator i just started [6:55] laughing it was just uh yeah it felt like a different track to be honest you barely have a battery [7:02] around the lap it's just constantly flat so uh yeah it's gonna it's gonna feel very different [7:07] compared to what we what we are used to around silverstone uh because of the layout of the track [7:12] here you have long straights then big braking zone so you can charge the battery there you have long [7:16] straights but then a fast corner for example so you can't really charge the batteries and then the next [7:20] straight you know you don't have a lot to spend it's gonna be uh gonna be a tough one well done today [7:27] thank you max and and kimmy very well done to you as well we didn't get to see what you could do in [7:33] quali yesterday just how do you reflect on on the weekend as a whole first of all yeah it was a weekend [7:40] where i started very strong and i think because of that i kind of lowered the the intensity a bit too much [7:49] and uh coming to qualifying um i just felt a bit tense uh driving wise uh we're still up there but i [7:58] felt like i wasn't driving uh that well and not as free and of course the last lap it went like that but [8:07] i was a tense behind george so it probably would have been uh p2 uh very close but p2 [8:15] um but of course it went like that and obviously starting from p4 uh first to lap first to lap [8:23] were really bad for me and then i really struggled with breaks and i just lost lost a lot of time [8:29] because i started to do mistakes and um but yeah then second steam was a bit better and then third steam [8:35] was uh really really strong uh the pace was uh just there and uh but of course felt a bit short are there any [8:44] moments in the race where you think could have been different could have maybe got you challenging [8:49] george for the win well the the whole first thing i think at the end of the first thing that did a [8:56] couple of mistake and i lost probably one one second one and a half second uh each lapse uh because [9:04] one time i went off almost went off in turn four one lap i went off in turn three so lost a lot of time [9:11] but of course it's i think you know um easy to say now uh the mistakes were made and uh definitely [9:19] um you know without them probably could have had the chance to to fight for p2 or even p1 but [9:26] of course easy to say now and need to make sure they don't happen again kimmy thank you for that let's [9:31] now open this to the floor please name and publication who's first please yep joel godina [9:39] f1 will update you max uh you say that uh red bull upgrades moved the car in the right direction [9:47] but in the race you still ended up chasing a mercedes that had the the margin control the final stint [9:53] what do you think where exactly uh is the remaining deficit now in terms of general performance uh well [10:01] i mean i started fifth i was closing the gap constantly every stint so i don't know it's hard [10:08] i mean i was catching george kimmy was catching me um yeah i mean it was close i mean we we still have [10:15] some uh some areas of course that we want to work on within the car like i said half of the race i i [10:20] ran a car that was not in top shape plus my brakes today were not really functioning well compared to [10:27] the rest of the weekend so that's something that of course you manage you learn how to drive with it [10:32] but it's not ideal so it's stuff that we'll look back at and try to understand um but for us this [10:39] has already been a very big step forward compared to the previous races i mean look at the last race [10:43] you know in the race we i was just by myself really not really challenging anything so it's been uh on a [10:49] track that you know the ties are digging that's a that's a good sign thanks mike's next lauren [10:57] simpson espian a question for george you said it's been a tough couple of months you need resilience so [11:02] how important was it to get this win at this stage of the season and do you think it can be a reset [11:06] point on which you can then kind of build and get back to the performance you want for sure i think [11:15] the team have done a really incredible job to sort of put some some real answers down why the [11:24] performances were not good you know it wasn't like i came away from my monaco and montreal were two really [11:30] tough races for me and i didn't leave either of them looking at the data thinking where is the [11:37] issue it was clear what the problem was and it was clear how we could maybe solve that and when we [11:44] perhaps looked through some historical data there were some trends of this and it's all just been [11:49] exacerbated with this new car so coming into this race weekend um i think maybe my previous approach [11:58] it would have really really hurt me on a track like this and i i i drove the race very different and [12:07] quite abnormally to be honest um to manage the tyres and it worked quite well so you know i need to get [12:15] this further understanding um you know last year we were eight years into that or four years into the [12:24] those tyres that we were running with and i think i really knew in my locker how to handle the tyres [12:30] hot tracks cold tracks smooth surface rough surfaces and this year i i don't to be honest so i'm rebuilding [12:39] that um but yeah the team have done a great job to sort of steer me in in the right direction thank you [12:47] george next i guess just picking up on that george you must feel like for the first time in a little [12:53] while that this is sort of championship um back on and you know you can put a bit of bit of pressure [12:58] on kimmy perhaps i mean he's every laugh he does he's he's in the top two of the leaderboard um that [13:10] was me at the start of the year and and there hasn't been recently and you know barcelona was was a real [13:17] breeze for me um because it was just clicking every single lap but here it was a real fight but you know [13:25] get in that that pole position get in the win today like i know i am capable of doing it um and [13:34] i always believe that in the years gone by but as i said this year i never doubted my ability i just [13:41] doubted maybe the process and and i needed to get on top of that and i've just seen it so clearly [13:48] you know looking at how lewis has bounced back this year looking at you know leclerc who's one of the [13:53] best qualifiers on the grid how he struggled so much this year you know we haven't just forgotten [13:59] how to drive or relearn how to drive it's just us understanding and getting on top of of the package [14:07] and i definitely feel every every lap every race i'm doing i'm i'm making some really good gains [14:14] in that regard so yeah i'm i'm feeling good okay thanks next rodrigo franca car magazine brazil [14:23] question to george congratulations on your win what would be the best scenario for you mercedes [14:28] keeping dominance and you and kimmy only fighting for wins or it would be better to verstappen ferrari [14:34] drivers to steal some points as you are p2 in the championship i'd love a big fight to be honest you [14:41] know you want to have the best drivers with the best teams all fighting and of course you know max is [14:47] it's very much one of the best and and lewis charles lando oscar you know you want them to be in that [14:54] fight you know unfortunately the midfield and back backfield teams are not not there but um [15:01] more the merrier and it feels like when we all race go-karting you were never in a one-on-one [15:06] battle with anybody there was always normally at least three drivers in the fight for a championship [15:13] when i raced f2 f3 f4 you know there are three four five drivers all fighting and um yeah that's [15:24] that's how it should be thank you next laurine schlingeland new.nl a question for max um just [15:32] some counting the difference with kimmy is now 98 points uh last year it was uh even more so with that [15:39] just in mind what do you think is possible for the title race well uh i think there are more races left [15:47] right than last year but uh it's a very big gap i think for us um we we have very good pace but i [15:59] think to fight for a title we need to be more all around i think we still have too many issues if that's [16:03] from a start to just procedural issues in the background that even i think you guys don't know [16:10] about but i know about um i think we just need to be a little bit more all around still it's not a [16:16] uh big criticism or whatever i think everyone is aware we just want to be uh you know we always [16:21] want to be better we chase to be the best um so we just need to focus on all of those things and [16:27] then um yeah if you're a bit more let's say rock solid and we've shown that in the past then of [16:32] course it's a different story but um yeah hopefully hopefully it doesn't take too long but uh [16:39] we have still a little bit of work to do thank you max anymore no we will leave it there very well done to all three of you [16:47] the formule 1 of sky was presented [16:49] the formule 1 of sky was presented [16:49] the formule 1