Saturday Team Quotes

McLaren Formula 1 Team

Oscar Piastri (3rd, 1:29.132): "A good Qualifying session today, it was nice to be in the top three and closer to the leading team, so overall we can be pretty happy with this afternoon’s result. All weekend, I think we’ve looked reasonably good, and the team has executed every session well, getting things right for the moment across each day, which is pleasing. We clearly don’t have the pace or the grip to match Mercedes still, but we’re getting closer and that’s the most important point in our on-track performance. There are plenty of positives today, and it was good to be able to qualify ahead of Ferrari too. We’ll now continue to work hard to make important further gains as a team overnight, working on power management and exploiting maximum performance in preparation for the race tomorrow."

Lando Norris (5th, 1:29.409): "I have to be happy with P5. Considering the number of issues we've had throughout the weekend and the laps we've missed. It’s a good result and a credit to the team for the underlying pace in the car, and for their hard work in fixing the various issues we’ve had. It’s been a difficult weekend, constantly playing catch up and never really getting into a comfortable rhythm. We’ve definitely taken a step forward and seem closer to our competitors here, which is a positive sign, but the lack of running has certainly hurt my preparation. Heading into the race, I'm on the back foot. With no high-fuel running, it’s tricky to know how the car is going to behave or how to manage the tyres and battery over a race distance. I'm not as confident as I'd like to be, but the car is quick, and Oscar did a great job to get P3, so it shows what's possible. I'll do my homework tonight to learn as much as I can, but a lot of it will be learning on the go. It’s not ideal, but we're in a good position to fight."

Andrea Stella, Team Principal: "Today was a positive step for us, with clear indications of progress in competitiveness. Oscar has been fast all season and showed it again, and Lando delivered strongly despite issues in every Practice session. Our improved collaboration with the Mercedes HPP engineers is helping us unlock more from this power unit, and combined with better setup work on the MCL40, we’ve been able to cash in some lap time. A Qualifying result of P3 and P5 today reflects where we realistically are right now, fighting with Ferrari, while recognising that Mercedes remains a step ahead on pure pace. We know Ferrari tend to gain relative pace in the race, so podium contention will be hard fought, but we’ll be there to take opportunities. We’re not blind to the areas we must improve. Reliability, particularly the recurring issues on the battery module supplied by Mercedes HPP – today's one that forced us to fit a third energy store unit in Free Practice 3 - is something we’re working to stabilise as we assess whether the second battery can be recovered. I’d like to recognise the hard work by the team in getting the car back on track for FP3, at one point it didn’t look like that would be possible. Above all, we need to bring upgrades, which is the plan for the next race, so we can fight more steadily for podiums and, later in the season, for wins."

Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team

Andrea Kimi Antonelli (1st, 1:28.778): "It feels great to take pole position today here at Suzuka. I've been having a lot of fun driving around such a brilliant circuit and pushing to the limit in qualifying. The car was a little snappier than it had been in FP3, so it wasn't straightforward. We had some tyre overheating which we were dealing with too, but we were able to put together two solid laps in Q3. Thankfully our pace was strong enough to take P1. I am looking forward to tomorrow. The start will be key, but we are just focused on ourselves and what we can do to make sure we hold the lead into turn one. We will be working on that with Bono and my other engineers this evening so we are as ready as possible. Hopefully we can do that, get the car in some clear air, and utilise the long run pace that we showed on Friday. Let's see what we can do."

George Russell (2nd, 1:29.076): "That was not a straightforward qualifying session on my side of the garage. We made a small and standard set-up adjustment after FP3 to balance out the car but it made it a lot more difficult to drive. I was struggling with oversteer and tyre overheating and was having to adjust my driving around that to find the lap time. We also had to take a good chunk of front-wing flap out of the car too which wasn't ideal. These cars are so new that the set-up adjustment may have had a much more dramatic impact than we thought. With that challenge, ending the session P2 is not a bad result. Given how difficult overtaking usually is here at Suzuka, the start will be important. We've been working hard to improve how we get off the line and will be aiming to make sure we are the leading cars into turn one. That said, it will be a long race so there will be plenty of options."

Toto Wolff, Team Principal: "That was another solid qualifying session to start the season. Kimi continues to grow in confidence, and it was pleasing to see him put two strong laps together in Q3. It's not only about setting one fast lap but starting with a banker lap and going from there; today, his first lap was still good enough for pole position though as the track didn't seem to improve for many. On George's side, we made a set-up tweak ahead of the session which we expected to have less of an impact than it did. It gave him a car that was much more on the nose, and he was dealing with a lot of oversteer, particularly in Q1 and Q2. It made it very difficult for him, and he did a good job to put the car on the front-row alongside Kimi. We're pleased to have taken another front-row lockout, but points are scored on Sunday. It will be a long race tomorrow and we know that lots can happen around a track as challenging as Suzuka. As a team, we are focused on doing the job tomorrow and heading into this mini break in the calendar in as strong a position as we possibly can."

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director: "Well done to Kimi on his second career pole position and George for a battling effort to lockout the front-row. It's great to get another 1-2 to begin the season on Saturdays but this was far from straight forward. FP3 went to plan although our initial pace wasn't particularly impressive. As the session went on though, we found our feet and began to look stronger. Some of that may have been down to the run plans of others as the gap looked too big, but in terms of balance, the car was working nicely. Kimi left his car relatively unchanged for qualifying; George made some normal adjustments, but his car seemed to have become more difficult with the rear moving around a lot more. That tipped his balance into a lot of oversteer which he was able to balance out to some degree but, by the time he'd stabilised the entry, the car was not turning as well. He worked with the tools at his disposal to put together a solid lap though and take P2. Kimi meanwhile had a much cleaner session. All his new tyre times were competitive, and he did a great lap at the start of Q3 to secure the pole position. Starting at the front of the field is where you want to be but there are plenty of things we will need to overcome if we are to convert that into victory tomorrow. Our long run pace on Friday was strong though and hopefully we can deliver that on Sunday."

Oracle Red Bull Racing

Isack Hadjar (8th, 1:29.978): “P8 was towards the ceiling of what I could've done today. We knew that getting into Q3 was going to be difficult given the pace we've shown all weekend, so P8 was towards the ceiling of what I could've done today. We made changes going into Qualifying that made us faster but they also made the car feel very different, so that was something that I had to manage and adapt too. On my last run I lost the car on what was a good lap, but I don't think it would have taken us much further up the grid. We aren't expecting high tyre degradation tomorrow, so we can have a go at it and with these cars you can overtake, so there could be some good racing. Points is the target but our end goal is to leave this weekend with a better understanding of how to make the car faster.”

Max Verstappen (11th, 1:30.262): “Let’s see how tomorrow goes, there is a lot to analyse overnight. We have had quite a few issues the whole weekend, so we need to understand why Qualifying felt quite bad to drive. We were having difficulty with sliding and when we turn the car mid-corner and experienced quite a lot of understeer in particular. So, there are quite a few things we need to look at ahead of tomorrow. FP3 was a little bit better but we struggled again in Qualifying. Sometimes it is a little more predictable and sometimes not and that makes it quite tricky to understand. It is something that we need to evaluate in the debrief. Let’s see how tomorrow goes, there is a lot to analyse overnight but let’s see what we can do.”

Laurent Mekies, Team Principal: "We have a lot of work to do and are far away from where we want to be. It has been difficult for both drivers. It has been a battle for them around this track and some of the difficulties that we are facing are not too different to some of the issues that we had in China. Thank you to everyone back at the factory who is working hard at understanding the root causes of our limitations and working to find the right solutions for it. It might take a bit of time but the route forward is to take a deep dive, understand what is limiting us and come back stronger. For tomorrow, the focus for us is to continue to learn. We’ll use all the data we can get and come up with more development. We will have some time after this weekend to work on and adjust further development on the car."

Scuderia Ferrari HP

Charles Leclerc (4th, 1:29.405): "I don’t think there was much more in that final lap, even though I lost some time with the snap in sector two. Q1 and Q2 looked quite good, but our competitors seem to make an extra step in Q3 and we have to investigate what they are doing differently, in order to close the gap. If we have a strong start, it’s a positive, then we have to focus on staying in front, which will be tough because we will have to keep battling with our opponents from start to finish. I will give it my all."

Lewis Hamilton (6th, 1:29.567): "Qualifying was okay today. It wasn’t where I’d hope to be but the car felt decent at times and there were some encouraging signs. There’s still a lot of performance to unlock, we’ve made progress, and I’m hopeful we can fight forward tomorrow, but we know there’s still a significant gap to the cars ahead and plenty of work to do."

Frédéric Vasseur, Team Principal: "At the moment, we are still going through the learning process regarding how to approach qualifying and how to improve from Q1 to Q3, without being too aggressive. It’s not just about energy management or about pure performance: it’s about how to extract the best from the car. That can sometimes be counterintuitive for the driver, and we will have to fully understand why we had a better Q2 than Q3. Tonight, we will focus on tomorrow’s race as it is Sunday when the points are given out. So, let’s hope we get a good start, choose the right strategy and then see what we can do. So far, our race pace has been solid, let’s see how many points we can score tomorrow."

Atlassian Williams F1 Team

Carlos Sainz (16th, 1:31.033): “Getting into Q2 was our best case scenario and we achieved it so I am happy with that. As a team we did everything we could and my laps were solid. We made some progress compared to China but at the same time we need to make sure we keep adding performance. P16 isn't where we want to be. I really enjoy driving around Suzuka and I’ll do my absolute best to maximise tomorrow’s race and see where we finish.”

Alexander Albon (17th, 1:31.088): “Today was frustrating because the car feels like it's behaving well and I felt the most in tune with the car this year so far and the rhythm was good. We've fixed some issues in the car from Melbourne and China but there's a separate one that we're being a little bit hampered by. It's nothing we can't fix, but as a team we need to understand where it's coming from. I'm happy with my driving and we're good in the corners so we'll have a look at the data overnight and see where we can look to gain a little performance.”

James Vowles, Team Principal: “That was all the car had in it today. Well done to Carlos, who was able to put us through to Q2. We're making small steps every week, which is what's important right now, and we will continue to do so. There's a long road ahead of us, but I'm confident in our programme for the five-week break and the remainder of the year to put us back into a sensible position against our competitors. We know we don't have the car underneath us that we want today, but we'll still give everything tomorrow and fight for points if they become available to us.”

Visa Cash App Racing Bulls Formula One Team

Arvid Lindblad (10th, 1:30.319): "I think we've done a brilliant job today. Yesterday I missed the whole of FP2 as well as part of today's FP3, so we definitely didn't expect to put the car on the limit as we did in Qualifying, which feels great. I'm really proud of the team for giving me a strong car today which enabled me to give everything I had during my last Q2 lap before progressing through to Q3. Due to the track time we missed, we weren't able to do any long runs in preparation for the race, so it's tricky to know what we can expect. It's not a track where you can easily overtake, so it will be important to nail all the procedures and have a good start. I'm looking forward to pushing for points tomorrow."

Liam Lawson (14th, 1:30.495): "We have had a strong car this weekend and a solid run through all the Free Practice sessions, so it’s frustrating to be out in Q2. A broken front wing was our biggest issue today, and Qualifying overall wasn’t as smooth as we’d hoped. During Q1, we struggled with the balance at first, but it came together by the end. Unfortunately, we had a front wing issue on the first run in Q2. After changing it, the balance felt quite different to what I’d had in the car all weekend, which is a shame because I think we had the potential to reach Q3. Overtaking here is difficult and managing energy will be a big challenge, however we’ll keep pushing to move forward tomorrow."

Tim Goss, Chief Technical Officer: “It was another really tight Qualifying session for the team, with some mixed emotions. We have been working hard on the optimisation of the cars' set-up over the Practice Sessions; looking for the best balance between the pace in the high-speed Sector 1, low speed of Turn 11 and the chicane at the end of the lap. By the time we arrived at Qualifying, we were confident that we had found the sweet spot. Both drivers progressed through Q1 without too many difficulties and we used two sets of new soft tyres to prepare for our main battleground in Q2. Unfortunately, Liam picked up some front wing damage which cost the car significant downforce during his first run in Q2, creating disruption for his second run. Without these issues, there was definitely more pace in the car. Arvid had an excellent Qualifying Session. Suzuka was all new to him and unfortunately the loss of any running in FP2 meant he was effectively starting on the backfoot. Despite this, Arvid kept his calm, building session by session throughout Saturday to culminate in a top ten Qualifying finish. The car is working well here and we now shift our focus to Sunday's race. We're looking forward to doing our best to put both cars into points scoring positions."

Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team

Fernando Alonso (21st, 1:32.646): “A tough Qualifying for us today here in Suzuka. This circuit exposes our current limitations, and that was clear on track. Despite the Q1 exit, we have still been able to build mileage across the sessions, which is important for gathering data and understanding the car better. I always enjoy driving here, so tomorrow we will try to maximise everything and see what’s possible.”

Lance Stroll (22nd, 1:32.920): “I had some energy management issues on the last run in Q1 and lost a couple of tenths there so will start the race tomorrow from the back. The goal for the race is to see the chequered flag and get over the finish line, so our focus remains on reliability until we sort out our current issues. We have a good idea of the areas we need to work on during the next couple of months and we know that’s not going to be an overnight fix and will take time.”

Mike Krack: “We know that our performance is not where it needs to be right now and this was always going to be a challenging weekend. Nonetheless, both Lance and Fernando pushed hard in today’s Qualifying session as they each completed three runs in Q1. Although we could not progress to Q2, we have made some incremental improvements, and we are in better shape compared to Friday. The focus now is to complete a race distance and build on the reliability we have shown leading up to the race.”

TGR Haas F1 Team

Esteban Ocon (12th, 1:30.309): "I'm pretty happy with the job that we've done on our side, I think it's pretty positive the way that we've built through the weekend and the way the car felt around the lap. That last lap was pretty solid, there wasn't much more in there, but we’ve a little bit more to work on. I think overall we did the maximum we could today and it's been a while since that happened so I'm pretty pleased that we've managed to do that. Hopefully we'll have a good start tomorrow, the aim is to move forwards and navigate ourselves into the points."

Oliver Bearman (18th, 1:31.090): "In the first run, we had a switch issue on the car and we lost time on the straights. On run two, I didn’t find any pace, so I need to understand whether there was still a small issue with the car or if it was fixed, but there are very tight margins out there and it wasn’t enough to get through today. It’s a shame about qualifying, but there’s still going to be plenty of opportunities in the race, I’m optimistic. If it was 12 months ago, I’d be much less so, however there’s going to be a lot of overtaking."

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal: "A bit of a disappointing qualifying because we had one car out in Q1 and the other car couldn't quite make it into Q3. The margin was tighter than we expected it to be, I feel like we should have had both cars in Q2 for sure. I feel like we definitely left some performance on the table with Ollie in Q1, so that’s disappointing. In Q2, I think in today's condition, that was as close to the maximum as we had. Both drivers were happier yesterday in terms of the car performance, so we need to understand why we lost it. It's mainly on the higher speed section, the low speed looks pretty good. Looking ahead to tomorrow, I think we just need to focus on our good parts – which is the race start and strong long-run pace from FP1 and FP2. We’re still trying to get Esteban from P12 to the points, but even with Ollie in P18, I think anything can happen. It's still pretty early in the season with the brand-new regulations so we'll try to have a clean execution tomorrow."

BWT Alpine Formula One Team

Pierre Gasly (7th, 1:29.691): “I am very happy with P7 in Qualifying today. The team did a very good job to find a lot more performance in the car so big thanks to everyone for their hard work overnight in finding those improvements. Yesterday I was not feeling too happy in the car and I could not drive the way I wanted so we definitely had a lot to analyse. We made good changes overnight and it felt much better in Free Practice 3 and we made a few further tweaks ahead of Qualifying where the car felt the best it has been all weekend, so that's really pleasing. I think P7 is the best we could have realistically achieved today given where the top three teams are, so to be quite close to a Ferrari is a good effort from everyone. Tomorrow we will have a challenge on our hands to stay in P7 with some quick cars behind. That is our aim, though, to capitalise on our good starting spot and be on it at the start and any potential restarts. Our high fuel running looked reasonable on Friday so hopefully we can have the pace to compete for good points again.”

Franco Colapinto (15th, 1:30.627): “It was not the result we were hoping for today coming into Qualifying. This weekend in general, we have really been struggling for pace on low fuel. The car feels and performs much better on high fuel, which hopefully bodes well for tomorrow. In Q1, it was better but in Q2 we didn't take the step we needed in order to give ourselves a shot of making it into Q3. As we saw from what Pierre did, we didn't maximise the full potential of the car. With these cars you really need to be in the right operating window with every little detail to extract the most from it and we weren't. I need to work with the team to understand a few more things and how we can improve. It's my first time driving here, it's an enjoyable track but also a very technical one, so definitely some places where we still need to find improvements. From yesterday, the race pace felt more competitive, so if we can carry that over, we can hopefully fight our way forward in the Grand Prix tomorrow.”

Steve Nielsen, Managing Director: “We're still learning so much about these new cars that we came into the weekend off the back of the positive result in China with our feet firmly on the ground. Suzuka is a completely different prospect to Shanghai, or even what we saw in Melbourne, so we were cautious about how we'd fare and wanted to wait for Qualifying for confirmation. What's really promising to see is that with Pierre we were able to replicate the same result from the Qualifying sessions at the previous event in P7. There's no points for Qualifying, but it reaffirms and give us confidence that we have a package that can perform on a variety of circuits. Pierre again put in an incredibly strong performance and showed that he has adapted quickly to these often very challenging new cars. On Franco's side, he didn't make the same step up in performance between sessions and exited in Q2. As a team, we will work hard and give everything Franco needs to better understand why the pace wasn't there and help close that gap. We saw from the high fuel running on Friday that the pace was competitive, so we're hopeful of being in the mix for points again tomorrow with both cars. We know it's a long race and reliability is still a factor early in the season, so we will stay fully focused on the job at hand and hopefully add to our points tally before the spring break.”

Audi Revolut F1 Team

Gabriel Bortoleto (9th, 1:30.274): "I'm very happy with today's qualifying, and with what the team has provided me in terms of overall package. We built confidence throughout Q1 and Q2, and put together some really solid laps. Of course, there is still some work to do in order to improve even further, some fine tuning to do, but it's a great feeling to be starting from the top ten tomorrow and be in the fight for a points finish. Tomorrow is a different day, clearly, but I am confident we can be in the mix. We have a couple of cars ahead that we know we can fight with on pace, and we’ll give it our best.”

Nico Hulkenberg (13th, 1:30.387): “Qualifying always bunches up the field and today was no different - the margins are very fine. On my side, Q2 wasn’t clean enough across both runs, so we missed out on Q3. The car itself felt decent and I think we’re right in the mix. It looks like we’ll be fighting around the edge of the top ten with a few other teams, so it should be an interesting race. The goal now is to stay clean, execute well and try to move forward tomorrow.”

Cadillac Formula 1 Team

Sergio Perez (19th, 1:32.206): “Today’s result and position is positive for the team, but there is still more potential to come from us. We have had some issues with energy deployment. I hope that for tomorrow we can optimize it as there is a lot of time to be gained. Another finish is clearly the aim, and I hope tomorrow we can be in the mix.”

Valtteri Bottas (20th, 1:32.330): “We had a pretty straightforward Qualifying getting the most out of the session. The midfield is still a bit too far away for us, but we have two cars behind us. We've learned a lot already this weekend. Everything is getting more efficient as we continue to take steps forward. The car feels better as we’ve gained a bit of load, but still not enough, so we just need to keep working to bring more upgrades. Tomorrow should be an interesting race with some good battles, so let's see as anything can happen at this stage of the season.”

Graeme Lowdon, Team Chief: “As a team we have taken a step forward this weekend in both pace and reliability and we can be pleased with that Qualifying result. We were able to execute a very solid day with Valtteri, which allowed us to fully integrate the upgrades we’ve brought to Japan. Checo demonstrated really good pace and we know there is even more to come from the whole package if we can optimize every element. Now we want to convert this potential into pace in the race, and also get two cars to the finish yet again.”