Friday Team Quotes

McLaren Formula 1 Team

Lando Norris (1st, 1:09.243): "A good start to the weekend today. The team did a good job to get us in a decent position, and some nice laps were enough to secure the Sprint Pole. There’s still a little bit of work for us to do ahead of Qualifying tomorrow to get us even more comfortable in the car, but we’re in a good spot. We’ll focus first on the Sprint tomorrow, which could be interesting given the weather, but we’ll just go out and focus on having the best Sprint we can before turning our attention to Quali.”

Oscar Piastri (3rd, 1:09.428): "P3, a decent session and day overall. The car was a little bit tricky in Sprint Quali, but I feel much happier today than I have over the last couple of weeks, which is good. Just some things to tidy up to put us in the best position for tomorrow, but ultimately, I am happy."

Andrea Stella, Team Principal: “A good start to the weekend. Lando and Oscar were very competitive and very close to each other today, which is a solid starting point for the rest of the event. That said, there is a threat from Mercedes and Red Bull being very competitive, not to mention Alonso, who was equally fast throughout SQ. We know that the weather conditions are very uncertain tomorrow: we will have to be perfect in every operation, both on the track and in the garage, to score as many points as possible.”

Scuderia Ferrari HP

Charles Leclerc (8th, 1:09.725): "It was a tricky qualifying for us today, from SQ1 to SQ3. The car felt alright, but we didn’t have the performance we needed, so we have some work to do and improvements to make going forward. I don’t think that we are off in terms of set-up, so we will see how things go. We will be back for the Sprint and try to turn things around tomorrow."

Lewis Hamilton (11th, 1:09.811): "Despite everyone’s best efforts, today obviously didn’t work out as planned due to events that were ultimately out of our control. We’ve made good progress in recent races and built solid momentum, so it was a shame not to see that reflected in today’s results, but I’m confident we’ll recover. The focus now is learning from the day, and coming back stronger for the rest of the weekend."

Oracle Red Bull Racing

Max Verstappen (6th, 1:09.580): "Tomorrow is a new day and you never know what a change in weather could bring. Today has not been our day both this morning during FP1 and this afternoon for the Sprint Quali. I had a lot of vibration in the car and general ride problems which really isn't what we want, I wouldn't say that it is any worse than yesterday but we are definitely suffering with a lack of grip. Our middle sector wasn't great either and I struggled to get the car to turn but at the same time I also couldn't really rely on the rears, so the overall performance is quite poor I would say. We are slightly lacking something and I don't expect that it will be miles better in the wet but lets see, tomorrow is a new day and you never know what a change in weather could bring."

Yuki Tsunoda (18th, 1:10.692): "What we got out of FP1 in the end was good, I got time in both the long and short runs. The lap itself actually felt okay and I couldn't see a mistake in it, so it's a shame to not go beyond SQ1. I struggled with the grip throughout the lap and in practice also, which has been challenge for us to get on top of so far. Of course, we lost a little bit of time in practice which didn't help but it didn't make a major difference to the performance in SQ1. Actually, what we got out of FP1 in the end was good, I got time in both the long and short runs which we'll take into tomorrow. We'll have to see what the weather brings, it could be mixed conditions and I don't have a preference either way."

Pierre Waché, Technical Director: "We are looking into a lot of things overnight to see if we have to change something. It was a difficult day today. To be honest the Sprint format always throws up difficulties across the weekend. The car isn’t behaving as we expected here, especially on the Soft tyre. On that compound the car looks like something is wrong with it and is not performing. We are looking into a lot things overnight to see if we have to change something. We are investigating what the issue is, it’s across both cars and we are aiming to have the car in a better window for the rest of the weekend. This is all a good learning for tomorrow, for Qualifying and then for the race. Finally, a well done to the Team in the garage who did a very good job to repair Yuki’s car so quickly in FP1, to give him the chance to get back out there and collect important learnings."

Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team

Andrea Kimi Antonelli (2nd, 1:09.340): "Today's Sprint Qualifying session was really good. SQ1 was a little bit more stressful than expected, as we finished it in P15, but the car felt good and I was confident my lap was going to be good enough to get through. I was able to build from there and find a good rhythm for SQ2 and SQ3. My first push lap in SQ3 was looking really strong but a mistake at turn 10 likely cost me pole position for tomorrow's Sprint. Many other drivers had moments though, so the conditions clearly weren't easy; it's a difficult track too but very enjoyable to drive. P2 is a good position to start from tomorrow and I want to thank the team, both in Brackley and Brixworth, for giving us the car to perform as we did today."

George Russell (4th, 1:09.495): "P2 and P4 are good positions for us to be starting from tomorrow. We had strong pace across the whole of Sprint Qualifying and the car balance felt good. That is encouraging for us given how close the fight for P2 in the Constructor's Championship is. Hopefully we can carry that speed and momentum into the rest of the weekend. The weather forecast for tomorrow shows that we may have rain on the way. Even if that is the case, I am confident that we will have the car underneath us to fight with our rivals and to score important points in the Sprint. From there, it is onwards to Qualifying where we will be aiming for a similar performance as we've put together today."

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director: "Today was a very solid effort by the team and drivers. Considering Kimi hasn't driven here before, a front row position after one hour of practice is very impressive. George also backed that up with yet another decent performance to put both cars in the top five. FP1 was a relatively smooth session but we knew we had work to do. Our performance looked solid on the Hard compound in the early running, but we struggled on the Medium tyre. The engineers did a good job to put the car in the right window for Sprint Qualifying and whilst it's not perfect, it was clearly an improvement. We saw how difficult it was for every driver to put the lap together in SQ3. George had a moment in turn six on his first push lap; that put a fair bit of temperature into the tyres which ultimately led to a slide in turn 10 and cost him a shot at the front row. Kimi looked set to improve on his final run but locked a wheel into turn 10 which cost him time and led to a messy final turn. All the weekend's points still lie ahead of us so whilst we're off to a decent start, we will be taking nothing for granted. We will likely see some challenging conditions over the next two days so we will need to be at our best and ensure we maximise each of the remaining three sessions over Saturday and Sunday."

Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team

Fernando Alonso (5th, 1:09.496): "It feels great to be back here at Interlagos. This circuit has always been very special to me. The car felt good in FP1, and to reach SQ3 this afternoon and finish P5 is a strong result. Today was a good boost for the team and a positive way to start the race weekend. Hopefully we can keep this level of performance tomorrow, but you never know what can happen here."

Lance Stroll (7th, 1:09.671): "I love coming back to this track. There is so much passion for the sport in Brazil and the fans are amazing. It's just a lot of fun to drive here and we got some nice laps in today. The car was feeling good and we will be starting the Sprint tomorrow morning from P7. It's still early in the weekend and we will see how the rest of the weekend goes. Hopefully we can fight for some points tomorrow and there could be some rain so anything is possible."

BWT Alpine F1 Team

Pierre Gasly (13th, 1:09.852): “On one side, I am very happy, on the other I am very frustrated with the end result in Sprint Qualifying. Today's pace and overall performance was good and the car was feeling a lot better than it has for quite a long time. That is positive and gives us some things to look at and try to understand. We definitely had the pace for the top ten today. In SQ1 we were fast, then SQ2 we were improving before a yellow flag for the Ferrari ruined our last push lap. It's a bit frustrating as it's the first time for a few months that I have had a good feeling in the car and the potential to put it in the top ten. We will focus on tomorrow and take the positives. We have the speed for Qualifying, in the dry, and probably in the wet, if it rains. I feel we can be in the mix so we will give it another go and really push for a better result.”

Franco Colapinto (16th, 1:10.441): “Firstly, it was nice to see so many fans in the grandstands today. As drivers, we can really feel and feed off the support, especially after the positive news earlier today about continuing for next season with the team. After that, though, focus and attention quickly switched to what's happening on track and trying to maximise the performance this weekend. It was super tight out there with fine margins throughout the leaderboard, which is to be expected with the short nature of this track. I feel like there is more in myself and the package and that we're looking more competitive here this weekend, at least from today's running. The forecast tomorrow looks mixed, so it could be a lot of fun and we'll be prepared whatever the weather.”

MoneyGram Haas F1 Team

Oliver Bearman (15th, 1:09.946): “My first lap in SQ2 was okay. I lost a bit of time at Turn 4, so going into my second lap I was actually quite confident because I had a really good feeling in the car. On my second lap, I lost a tenth and a half, and we know how tight the margins are around here, so it’s a shame. I think there’s a lot of potential in the car, so we just need to fine-tune things tomorrow.”

Esteban Ocon (19th, 1:10.872): “I had the wrong track position for a lot of it. My first run wasn’t very clean, and there was traffic in places, but on my second run, I’ve never overtaken that many cars before – it must’ve been like 10 or 12. There is a lot more pace in the car, so it’s been a disappointing session, and we need to review. The weekend is far from over, though, so we’ll bounce back tomorrow.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal: “That was a very disappointing Sprint Qualifying. After FP1, even though it didn’t look great on the timesheets, driver feedback was actually okay, but we knew SQ1 was going to be tight. We don’t quite understand what happened with Esteban’s second run, he had traffic from Turn 8 onwards, but he hadn’t made any improvement up to that point either. Ollie did a very good job in SQ1 to finish P6. In SQ2, his first lap – other than Turn 4 – would’ve been enough to get into SQ3, but sadly in Turn 4, he carried a bit too much speed and got on the kerb, losing two and a half tenths, which is a shame. I think the good thing is that the car seems to be able to get into the top 10 in terms of potential, so we can fight for points in the main race on Sunday. Starting P15 and P19 for the Sprint will be difficult, but with wet weather expected, there’s an opportunity as well.”

Visa Cash App Racing Bulls F1 Team

Isack Hadjar (9th, 1:09.775): “We had quite a good Sprint Qualifying and everything went well before SQ3, where we committed to only one final lap on the Soft tyre. It was a bit of a learning lap as it was the first time we tried this tyre here. Normally, you just expect more grip on a softer compound but it seemed like it was hard to finish a lap on it, so overall I felt more comfortable on the Mediums. Tomorrow in the Sprint we start just one place away from points, so we’ll try our best to gain a few places.”

Liam Lawson (17th, 1:10.666): “We'll of course review what happened and learn from it as a team, however it's going to be tough starting from so far behind. The car has been very quick today, however we didn't complete a second lap in SQ1. We came out of the garage for the second run and everyone was slowing down at the pit exit, meaning I ran out of time. We'll of course review what happened and learn from it as a team, however it's going to be tough starting from so far behind. That being said, it's important to take the positives from having a quick car ahead of Qualifying tomorrow."

Mattia Spini, Chief Race Engineer: “Interlagos may be a short track, but it puts constant stress on drivers and tyres, with the majority of the lap spent cornering, even at full throttle. Both drivers came up to speed quickly in FP1 on the Hard compound, adapting well to the steep track evolution. The later runs on Medium tyres were within the expected performance window by the end of the session. We made some setup tuning before Sprint Qualifying but unfortunately, we did not give Liam a clean SQ1; we will make sure to revise what we could have done better for the future. Isack was immediately comfortable with the car balance on the Medium compound, progressing confidently through the sessions to reach SQ3, he struggled a bit more on the Soft compound, but still ended up in a strong P9.”

Williams Racing

Alexander Albon (12th, 1:09.813): "I think we knew we were going to struggle a bit at this circuit. There's a lot of lap time just in getting the balance of the car right, but I don't know if it's totally achievable. I don't know if it's a little bit more fundamental in the car, however we'll try and fix it between the Sprint and qualifying tomorrow. It was tricky but I don't think we're in a bad place. The positives are that we improved the car a lot from practice to Sprint qualifying, and we're heading in the right direction."

Carlos Sainz (20th, 1:11.120): "We simply didn’t do a good Sprint qualifying today. My first run was messy with traffic and getting the tyres up to temperature but the second run we made our life more difficult and almost didn’t get two laps in. Ultimately, I finish this session not knowing the limit or performance of the car, so it’s not ideal. Looking at FP1, I know there was more in it, so we’ll learn from today and hopefully execute a better session tomorrow."

Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber

Nico Hulkenberg (10th, 1:09.935): “Overall, it was a clean session. Shootouts can always be tense, and this place isn’t the easiest to navigate in terms of traffic, but I think we got the most out of it today. We’ve been working hard behind the scenes to unlock more performance, and hopefully that carries through into tomorrow. Points are the goal, as always. The midfield is incredibly tight this season, so every opportunity really counts.”

Gabriel Bortoleto (14th, 1:09.923): “Q1 was quite good: we managed to do a clean lap, and I was happy with how everything came together. In Q2, I just lacked a bit in sector one on my first push, and while the second lap felt better, my tyres were not quite there anymore. That’s on me – I should’ve tried to get more out of that first push. Still, it’s my first time driving on this track and I’m really enjoying it. The atmosphere here is amazing: the fans have been giving so much support, it’s incredible. I wanted to give them a bit more today, but we’ll keep pushing and look to deliver tomorrow and on Sunday.”

Jonathan Wheatley, Team Principal: “We had a very smooth run through the day, and the team executed the program cleanly in FP1, which set us up well for sprint qualifying. It’s worth remembering that this is Gabi’s first time at Interlagos, so with just one session to prepare, he handled it exceptionally well. With a bit more track experience, he might have reached SQ3, but P14 is still a rock-solid result. Nico also delivered a composed session, bringing the car into P10 for the Sprint. Both drivers managed the pressure brilliantly, and Gabi in particular showed great composure and maturity at his first home Grand Prix. He didn’t let the moment get to him and drove beautifully. The weather looks unpredictable for tomorrow, so it promises to be an exciting Sprint. Racing in Interlagos is never boring and always good for some surprises.”