FIA post-Qualifying press conference – Brazil

1. Lando NORRIS (McLaren), 2. Kimi ANTONELLI (Mercedes) , 3. Charles LECLERC (Ferrari)

PARC FERMÉ INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Romain Grosjean)

Q: Lando, congratulations. What a day for you. Not an easy day with the conditions, but congrats on that pole. How did it feel?

Lando NORRIS: Thank you. Again, tough out there with the conditions. Just slippery, inconsistent, but good fun. It's always a pleasure around this track, you know. I felt good. I was under a bit of pressure because I locked up on my first lap, so a little bit more stressful than what I would have liked but I stayed calm and put it all together when it mattered. So, very happy.

Q: It's an amazing track, as you know, and an amazing day for you. Just impressed by the momentum you're building right now in terms of speed and race craft.

LN: Yeah, thanks. Yes, I mean, we've been on very good form. The team are good at giving me a great car, of course. So, I've always got to thank the team, but I didn't make it easy for them or for myself then. I'm still having to push, Q3, run one, just locking up in Turn 1, it puts unnecessary pressure on myself, and the others are doing a good job. But I think when I'm in a good rhythm, when I can stay calm, when I can just put it all together, then I'll be on top.

Q: Kimi, talking of pressure on Lando, you're the man this weekend. Yesterday in Sprint Qualifying, this morning in the race, congrats on a good qualifying. What can you do to try to get one more spot?

Kimi ANTONELLI: Yeah, to be fair, I'm a bit annoyed I'm again behind him. I mean, we're so close this morning in the Sprint as well but it was a very tricky session with the wind. Very tricky to put a lap together but still managed in the last run to put a decent lap, and yeah, happy with that. Starting P2 tomorrow. Of course, they're very fast, so it's going to be important to get a good start and try to set a good pace.

Q: Charles, congrats on almost not making it out of Q1 to being third on the grid. How did you do that?

Charles LECLERC: I mean, very good laps in Q2 and in Q3. Everything is so close that it goes from being a disaster of a weekend to a really good weekend in a matter of a few hundredths. So, yeah, I'm happy I could put everything together in Q2 and Q3. That was crucial for us because it was very on the limit. And then P3, I'm satisfied with that. It's been a difficult weekend for us.

Q: Lando, last one for you. What's the game plan tomorrow? What have you learned from this morning that you can put into the race?

LN: I learned that they're pretty quick. And I learned that Kimi pushes all the way to the very end. So, in some ways looking forward to it, some ways I'm not. I think it's going to be a big challenge tomorrow. We have to see what the weather's going to do again, but so far this weekend's been clean. So, I'm hoping they don't ruin it.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Lando, what a final lap of Q3. The pressure was on, and you delivered.

LN: Yeah, thanks. It was for sure more stressful than I would have liked, especially because we've been very quick all weekend. Just didn’t need that. I don't really know how it happened. I looked at the data after, quickly, between the two runs, and I braked earlier with less pressure, and still somehow locked up. So yeah, a bit weird. Maybe a bit of wind or something. But yeah, that certainly put a little bit more pressure on my final lap, and I saw the others improving — but not a lot. It was just difficult again, just with the track conditions, the wind, everything — hard to get a nice feeling out there. So again, I didn’t know if I was up or down on my delta, so I was a bit stressed. But when I went over the line and saw the lap, I was pretty happy. And when I saw no one running quicker, even happier.

Q: How close to the perfect lap was that second run?

LN: You never know around here. My Turn 1 wasn’t amazing. I think Kimi was purple in Sector 1 by a thousandth, so maybe a thousandth more there. There were little bits, but it's so difficult with the wind. Every lap, it changes — three kilometres per hour, four kilometres per hour, you don’t really notice it probably when you're standing there, but it can easily make you go a tenth quicker in a corner or half a tenth here and there, and that can be a lot at the end of the day. That can be positions, it can be pole and not pole, those kinds of things. So, difficult. And sometimes you do the same thing — you repeat, like my Turn 1 — but you just make a mistake for no apparent reason, no obvious reason why, in the car. So yeah, difficult as it was for everyone today, but definitely not a perfect lap — but good enough.

Q: Lando, it's been a good day for you. You've won the Sprint. You were fastest in every segment of qualifying. How confident are you feeling in this car now?

LN: It depends. I mean, confident in what? I think in our race pace tomorrow — not the most I’ve had. I was certainly more confident in Mexico. I think after this morning, with the Mercedes pace and Kimi's pace, it certainly lowered my confidence level altogether. But we’re still quick. We’ve still got that little advantage in qualifying, and I really hope that we can continue that into the race tomorrow. But the weather is going to change again — I think it’s meant to be even colder, which might suit them even more. And the wind is meant to change also. So it's difficult. Every track is so different. The feeling I have on one track is different to the next and those kinds of things. But I just feel like I’m doing a good job. I'm driving well. Before, earlier in the season, I would just have weaknesses, and I feel like I’ve, let’s say, I’ve maybe still got some here and there, but I’ve lessened them, they’re not like one tenth now — it’s two hundredths. So when I can put together the good parts and have those not-so-bad parts, things go very well.

Q: Pirelli have brought harder dry compounds to this race this year. Do you think it’ll be a complicated strategic race tomorrow if it’s dry?

LN: We’ll have to wait and see. That’s what tonight’s for, honestly. I don’t look too much into strategy until Saturday night. So, we’ll see. I think everyone has the same in common. The Soft certainly doesn’t feel like, you know, a Medium-to-Soft step. The Soft certainly doesn’t handle like what the Medium did last year. So it’s interesting. There are still some differences, and again, conditions can change everything. So we’ll just do, as always, our work tonight and prepare the best way possible.

Q: Lando, very well done. Thank you for that. Kimi, many congratulations. Another day, another front-row start for you here at Interlagos. Just how good was the session and that final lap of Q3?

KA: Yeah, it was a very tricky session. To be honest the wind was not the best today — it was a bit more of a pain in the ass around the lap, to be fair. But still, the last lap in Q3 was quite decent. I locked up a little bit the rear in the last corner, but despite that little mistake, I don’t think it would have been — Lando would have still been fastest. So yeah, just not the perfect lap, but still good for P2 and we have a good opportunity tomorrow.

Q: Can we talk about tomorrow? You put pressure on Lando at the end of the Sprint today. Just how confident are you going into the 71 laps tomorrow?

KA: Yeah, definitely. The pace this morning was really strong. It was also quite cold and tomorrow should be kind of the same. So maybe that can help us a little bit more. But, you know, running in dirty air is never easy. Hopefully, we can have a strong pace and put pressure on them and hopefully we can fight for the win.

Q: You say running in dirty air is not easy. So is it all about the start tomorrow?

KA: Well, we’ve seen many races so far this season that the start and track position can play a massive role for the rest of the race. Of course, Lando has been starting very strong recently, so we need something exceptional. But on my side, I just try to do a normal start, not try to do too much, and then at least hold position. Then we’ll see from there.

Q: Very well done. Good luck with that and thank you, Kimi. And Charles, let's come to you now. It feels like Ferrari have done a bit of a turnaround this weekend. Just how much better was the car in qualifying today compared to Sprint Qualifying yesterday?

CL: I don’t want to over-exaggerate the turnaround that we've had, because we're only speaking about a tenth and a half maybe. But the thing is that this weekend, a tenth and a half means out of Q1 or inside Q3. I think where we did a really good job is by executing everything perfectly from Q1 to Q3, because we knew that we were… I mean, it’s been a very difficult weekend since FP1, and we knew that we would struggle to get to Q2 and then Q3. But we did everything perfect. So I'm very happy about that. We changed the car a little bit from this morning, and that helped us to do a step forward as well. So yeah, altogether, to start P3 — I think we should be really satisfied with that because I don’t think anybody of us expected that after such a difficult beginning of the weekend.

Q: Charles, this is your third consecutive top-three start. Do you feel like you're getting some consistency with this car now?

CL: I felt it in Austin and Mexico. Maybe this weekend a little bit less. This weekend has been a very, very challenging weekend, and I think that hides a little bit the struggles that we’ve had this weekend. But in race pace, we seem to be pretty strong. We were stuck behind Fernando, but I think the pace was pretty good on the one lap I had in clear air. So I'm looking forward to tomorrow.

Q: Well, you've never finished on the podium here at Interlagos. Do you think this is your best opportunity yet?

CL: I’ve had years where the car felt a little bit better than this year. But we’re starting in a good position, so yeah, if we manage to stay P3 or P2 or P1 after the start, then that will help us.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Fred Ferret – l’Equipe) Question to Lando and Kimi. How much did you change the car between the Sprint race and qualifying?

KA: So much. We went also to Monza — no, I’m joking. To be honest, we didn’t change it, if I have to be fair, because tomorrow the way the wind is going to change again — it's going to go back to what it was on Friday. So, yeah, to be fair, we didn’t change anything. LN: They didn’t need to, because they were quicker. We changed a good amount, I would say. I don't know what is a lot and what is not nowadays, you know, but like, we never change that much — you’re talking a little bit of ride height, a little bit of roll bars or something. So you’re talking always quite small, but let’s say probably more than I think we've changed in the past between a Friday-Saturday Sprint weekend.

Q: (Ticiano Figueiredo – Diário do Rio Claro) Two questions. First one to Kimi — we spoke in Miami during the remembrance of Ayrton’s passing. Now we are speaking again here in Brazil. How do you feel about what has happened here — the Brazilian crowd, along with Gabriel’s supporters, is cheering with every lap you turn. Does this moment carry something special for your career? And how are you managing the emotional side of racing in Ayrton’s homeland? Then to Charles and Lando — you're right here, and you see someone who, just like you both years ago, was seen as the future of Formula 1. Today, you both are great leaders. You're not the future, you're the present. What advice would you both give to him? Lando, what advice can you give him on the first corner?

KA: To stay behind, probably!

Q: Let’s just start with Kimi and the Brazilian crowd.

KA: Yeah, I mean, racing in Brazil has been incredible so far. The support has been incredible from the Brazilian fans and definitely that gave me a little bit of extra energy every time I go on track. It's been amazing. Also this track, to be honest, it's really special, really fun to drive, and yeah, I’m happy with it. Now we’re looking forward to tomorrow’s race because it would be good to finish the weekend on a high and bring home good points.

Q: Okay. And Lando and Charles — advice?

LN: None. Yeah, sometimes it's good to not take risks, and sometimes it’s just good to play it safe, bank some good points, and defend to everyone else behind you. Yeah. I’ve always got told you have to be nice to people older than you, so Kimi — be nice.

KA: OK.

LN: And what else? I don't know. I guess everyone is unique in the way they think, but you've got to find your own way. It’s the same as me for the last few years. A lot of people tell you: you’ve got to be like this, you have to do that, you need to think like this, that’s wrong, this is right. No one's right when it comes to those things. It's always good to listen to people, to take advice, but at the end of the day you’ve only got to listen really to the people around you that you trust and who trust you. And yeah, find your own way of doing things and not think, “This guy did it three years ago or 20 years ago, that’s how I’ve got to do it,” because it's not how it works.

CL: Yeah, I mean, nothing to add. I agree 100% with Lando. I think everybody has their weaknesses, their strengths, and you’ve got to work around them. Be honest with yourself. But if anything today, I think it's Kimi who has to give me advice, because he will be starting in front of me tomorrow. So, not much to add.

Q: (Jake Boxall-Legge – Autosport) This one’s to Kimi, please. Kimi, this is a little bit more of a boring question. George did his final lap on the Medium tyre there — was this something that you were reasonably tempted to try? Was there something about the Mercedes package overall that was not perhaps blending with the Soft so well, or were you absolutely fine on that run? Thank you.

KA: No, we definitely thought about putting the Medium in qualifying because even yesterday, the Medium felt basically the same as the Soft. The jump from Medium to Soft was very little. Also today in the Sprint, the Medium felt better than the Soft — even in the first few laps, the grip just felt better, the tyre felt more robust, especially throughout the whole lap. So definitely, we had a thought about it because we thought that there was not much of a gap. But I thought as well that because I felt good on the Soft, I thought it would be better to keep it for tomorrow. Obviously, we have the new tyres, so that’s good — especially for the start. So I think that was the right choice in the end.

Q: (Maria Clara Castro – Car Magazine Brazil) Question to Kimi. We’re all talking about how important tomorrow’s race is, especially for Lando, regarding Drivers’ Championship-wise. But in terms of Constructors’ — I mean, apart from McLaren, of course — but with the Ferrari and Mercedes fight, it’s an amazing opportunity for Mercedes. We could see today how much you were looking for a great result in qualifying — especially with Toto’s reaction. Yeah, he was like “what?!” after your lap. And, I mean, we’ve got Charles right in the front, Lewis back. Could you please expand more on how much you’re looking forward, regarding the meaning of this race — especially having in mind that Las Vegas is a race where it’s expected Mercedes could have good performance. So maybe it’s an opportunity for you guys to have good results in two rounds straight?

KA: Well, the funny thing is that in all the tracks where we were meant to be good this year, we were not so good. And in the tracks where we weren’t expected to be good, we were good. So it’s unexpected. You see, there’s some weekends where the VCARB or the Haas, they’re extremely quick, so you never know. But of course in Vegas, with the cold temperature, definitely it should help the car. We saw also this year that usually with cold temperature the car behaves better than with hot temperature. So hopefully, we can have the same pace in Vegas. Definitely as a team, we’ll try to do everything that they did last year in order to have a better opportunity to achieve the same performance somehow. Tomorrow, yeah, definitely it’s a massive opportunity. I think it’s going to be important to try and finish ahead of the Ferrari, to outscore them, because obviously the fight is very tight. And also, on Red Bull we can score big, big points. So definitely that’s the goal. That’s why tomorrow is going to be important to set a good pace, to try and put pressure — but at the same time, to try and achieve the best result possible that is possible in the moment. So definitely a massive opportunity, and that’s why as a team we’ll try to do our best in order to do so