Saturday Team Quotes

Oracle Red Bull Racing

Max Verstappen (2nd, 1:32.361): "We have been strong in the weekend so far and it was great to win the Sprint race. It was unfortunate not to be able to finish the final lap in Q3. During my first lap I made a mistake at turn 19 and on my second lap, we were purple in the first sector but unfortunately there was a yellow flag. This happens sometimes in racing and you can't control these things. I was still really happy with our performance and we were really there to fight for pole which was very positive! We brought upgrades to the car this week which has made it faster and better to drive so hopefully this all works for tomorrow. We have been strong in the weekend so far and it was great to win the Sprint race. We learnt a lot from this and if we can replicate what we did in the Sprint I will be very confident for tomorrow. There are small gaps between teams so I expect that it will be very competitive and I need a good result tomorrow. The most important thing is that we are competitive again and the car is feeling better and hopefully we will be able to fight for the win tomorrow."

Sergio Perez (10th, No Time): "We saved the new tyre until the end of Q3 and with the yellow flag we were not able to get the lap in. We were lacking a bit of pace in the Sprint, so we will review things to see where we can improve for the race tomorrow. We made some changes to the car ahead of qualifying to improve the balance and it felt in a lot better window. We found a lot of pace and rhythm, and everything was going in the right direction. I went P5 in Q2 and things were coming back to us, but it was just then very unfortunate. We saved the new tyre until the end of Q3 and with the yellow flag we were not able to get the lap in, it had looked so promising, so it was a real shame. It is going to be a tricky one tomorrow with all the traffic ahead but if I am able to move quickly through, I think we should be able to fight the cars ahead early enough to do something."

Christian Horner, Sporting Director: "It's just one of those things, we are still on the front row and hopefully can fight for the win tomorrow. The Sprint was a good up lift for the Team, our first win since June. Max managed the race beautifully, he just went out and did his thing. Max rode that wave into qualifying and we were quick today. It wasn't his cleanest lap on the first run in Q3 but the second lap was up, much better and I think he would have been away and got the job done had the the yellow flag not come. It's just one of those things, we are still on the front row and hopefully can fight for the win tomorrow. It's been a positive couple of days so far. Checo had a bit of a struggle today, he ran wide at turn eight on his scrub tyre in Q3 and had the lap deleted, which then put all the pressure on the last run on the fresh tyre. Unfortunately he was then further back the in queue when the yellow flag came out and wasn't able to post a time. All in all though it was a great performance today and sets us up well for tomorrow."

Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team

George Russell (6th, 1:32.974): "Yesterday we were in the fight for P1 in Sprint Qualifying but today we were really struggling. It is confusing how our fortunes have changed so drastically from one day to another. It is clear that when we find the sweet spot of this car, we are capable of fighting for pole positions and race wins. When we don't, we are at the back of the front pack. In the Sprint, I lost a position off the start and was pushing hard early on to regain that. Unfortunately, we then started to struggle with the tyres, and I went backwards. It was difficult to understand as our pace on Friday, particularly on the long run, was strong. We continued to struggle in Qualifying, although my final lap was looking strong before I locked up into turn 12. I was perhaps over-pushing into turn 19 to make up for that time and I lost the rear of the car. I am disappointed in the damage I caused to the car and the work that will have to go on overnight now to repair it."

Lewis Hamilton (19th, 2:34.154): "That was a tough day. The Sprint was a difficult session for us with the car not feeling as strong as it did yesterday. The temperature was warmer than on Friday and that didn't seem to suit us. We made some changes ahead of Qualifying to counteract that and try to push us in a direction that could get the car closer to how it felt on Friday, but we continued to struggle. Tomorrow will be difficult for us starting P19. It will be hard to come across opportunities, but I will be giving it my all to move forward. The car today suffered from an inconsistent balance and a lack of grip so hopefully it will be in a better place on Sunday."

Toto Wolff, Team Principal: "A disappointing and frustrating day. After a strong Friday, we were hopeful of a good showing and it quickly became clear in the Sprint that we didn't have the pace of our nearest competitors, falling back to finish a distant P5 and P6. Added to that, the handling balance both drivers had enjoyed the day before was missing and they were struggling with tyre overheating - Lewis on the rear axle, George on the front. We made some set-up changes to tackle this ahead of Qualifying, but we continued to struggle and couldn't unlock the same level of performance we had seen on Friday, with Lewis finishing P19 and George P6 but unable to complete his final flying lap. Tomorrow's race will therefore be an uphill battle: there is a major repair job ahead for George after the Q3 crash. With Lewis starting P19, it will be a case of damage limitation in the race: fighting for meaningful points will be tough and we need things to fall in our favour to do so."

Andrew Shovlin: "After a promising Friday, this was a tough Saturday. It became apparent early in the Sprint that we didn't have the speed of our competitors. We were pushing hard to keep up with those ahead and that put extra energy through the tyres. That overheating bit us hard in the second half of the race and we could only manage P5 and P6. We also found a broken part on Lewis' front suspension post Sprint and that definitely impacted the overall balance. In an effort to get the car back to the sweet spot we had on Friday, we made some set-up adjustments ahead of Qualifying. Sadly these didn't have the desired effect. A consistent balance continued to elude Lewis although he was unfortunate to be knocked out in Q1 having been impacted by traffic in sector one. George fared slightly better and was on a strong lap in Q3 but came unstuck at turn 12 with a lock up and then finally turn 19 with his off. We have a lot of work to do to get George's car ready for the race. The team will be working hard through the evening in order to do that. We know tomorrow will likely be a tough fight but we will continue to work diligently and hard, looking to take advantage of any opportunities that come our way."

Scuderia Ferrari

Carlos Sainz (3rd, 1:32.652): "Overall it's been a positive Saturday: we started out with a strong Sprint in which the car behaved very well and I was able to attack and move up three places. Then we switched to qualifying in which we knew after yesterday we had to work a lot on tyre preparation. The first attempt in Q3 was good and the second one was even better as I was improving my time and potentially could have finished a bit further up. In any case P3 gives us the chance to fight with the guys ahead for tomorrow. It will be a very interesting and tactical race and we are ready for it."

Charles Leclerc (4th, 1:32.740): "There was quite a lot of action in the Sprint this morning. Carlos and I had different approaches. While he pushed at the start, I saved my tyres to be able to push more at the end. It paid off for him and we learned a lot about our race pace, and that of our competitors, in preparation for the main race tomorrow. Qualifying went as expected, we knew we would struggle, especially in sector 1, as we didn't change much since Sprint Qualifying. We have a good car for the race and our competitors all seem to have a similar race pace to ours, so it should be an exciting battle at the front."

Frédéric Vasseur, Team Principal: "The result overall is a good one, especially as we look in better shape over a long run, which will be useful in the race when you can overtake and when tyre degradation will be significant. We will start from third and fourth and will try to do what we did this morning, moving up the order. It's good to have both cars on the second row, but there is of course a bit of frustration because our drivers were both improving on their final lap before the yellow flags and of course that was the same for Max (Verstappen) and Lando (Norris), but we have clearly improved significantly. In this morning's race, we were very consistent, with good tyre management and we were on the pace which is encouraging, scoring plenty of points. I don't want to make any predictions for tomorrow, but looking at the way we caught Lando this morning and got closer to Max, we can be confident, but we must wait and see."

McLaren Formula 1 Team

Lando Norris (1st, 1:32.330): "It was a beautiful lap. I wasn't going to go much quicker than I did. You know when you do a lap and think, it's going to be tough to beat that. I put everything on the line, it's what we needed to do. We've been on the back foot for much of the weekend. We've not had the pace of the Ferraris or the Red Bulls. So, I had to put in a special lap, and I did that. Overall, a cool lap and a nice place to start the race tomorrow."

Oscar Piastri (5th, 1:32.950): "It's been a tricky Qualifying. I felt uncomfortable the whole session, so we probably got the most out of Quali. Obviously not ideal, but still an OK place to race from. We'll work hard overnight and see what we can do tomorrow."

Andrea Stella, Team Principal: "We've had a strong Qualifying session at COTA, with Lando and Oscar delivering good laps, going comfortably through Q1 and Q2, and then securing P1 and P5 on the grid. Those are good starting positions from which to bring home some important points tomorrow. We made some adjustments to the car this afternoon, based on what we learned in the Sprint. Lando maximised the performance of the car, while Oscar has some potential that we aim to realise tomorrow in the race. We've got work to do overnight, understanding tyre management for tomorrow. It's going to be a tight, interesting race, in which there will be very little between ourselves, Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull."

Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team

Fernando Alonso (8th, 1:33.309): "It's a good result for us to finish in eighth position in today's Qualifying. We've not been comfortable with the car and have made set-up changes. I think the changes we made after the Sprint have helped and we found more performance which is encouraging. It's still challenging to drive the car, but this result hopefully allows us to score some points tomorrow. There are some fast cars starting behind us so the top ten will be a good battle tomorrow."

Lance Stroll (14th, 1:33.759): "It was a difficult Qualifying session - we're struggling to get on top of the car this weekend. We made a few set-up changes between the Sprint and Qualifying, but it will be tomorrow when we'll get a better idea of how that's impacted the overall pace of the car. The aim has to be to score points, but we know that's going to be a challenge given the tight midfield."

Mike Krack, Chief Operating Officer: "It is good to be back on track here in Austin. Our disappointing Sprint Qualifying performance yesterday compromised our opportunities to score points, so we switched our focus and used the Sprint to learn more about optimising the set-up of our updated package for the race.

BWT Alpine F1 Team

Pierre Gasly (7th, 1:33.018): "I'm very happy with our performance today. It has been a while since we reached Q3, and we achieved the equal best Qualifying result of the season. The car was very enjoyable to drive today. We made some changes after the Sprint race this morning and although we are still exploring this new package, we look to be finding the right direction with it and have good potential going forward. We also have some indication on our race potential from today's Sprint race. We're starting from seventh on the grid for tomorrow's race and we aim to capitalise and score some points, as it's been a while since we've been in the top ten. It would be a nice reward for the team after bringing this package to the car this weekend."

Esteban Ocon (13th, 1:33.597): "In this morning's Sprint race, I had fun and some good overtakes. Unfortunately, we didn't have the pace for more, nonetheless it was a decent race considering also that I have the old spec car this weekend. The car was a bit trickier to drive this afternoon. However, on a positive side, we can see that the upgrades brought here this weekend seem to be working and came alive in this Qualifying session and that is positive going forward. On my side, the car was also more competitive than what we've seen and finishing in 13th position is a step up considering that cars around me had upgrades. We start the race in front of some of the cars we were battling with in the Sprint race earlier today, so we'll hope for a good race start and a good strategy for tomorrow's race."

Oliver Oakes, Team Principal: "The team did a great job today to improve the car and find performance between sessions. Particularly trying to extract the most from the new parts we brought to the track this weekend, which is never easy during a Sprint weekend with limited running. We weren't as competitive in the Sprint in the morning, we showed much better pace over a single lap this afternoon. Pierre did a really good job to progress to the final part of Qualifying, and Esteban also narrowly missed out on Q3. Our joint best Qualifying result of the season, which is credit to all the hard work that's been going on at the factory. We must try to carry this over into the Grand Prix tomorrow."

Williams Racing

Alexander Albon (16th, 1:34.051): "Obviously, we've been trying to recover from yesterday. I had the opportunity during the Sprint to practice and test different setups for a race run with varying levels of downforce, but I didn't really like it. Ahead of Qualifying, we kept some of the changes while reverting to part of the original setup. Regarding Qualifying, it was honestly quite surprising. The biggest issue we faced was that I came out of the pit lane maybe a lap earlier than everyone else, so when we started our push lap, about nine cars had just come out. I was overtaking a car almost every corner, and there was a lot of dirty air, which makes a big difference here. I've been struggling with the car and don't feel in rhythm with it, and the solutions we've tried aren't working, so we need to dig deeper to figure out what's going on. Tomorrow, we'll see what we can do with our strategy and hope for the best."

Franco Colapinto (17th, 1:34.062): "A tough Qualifying session for the team. We maybe went in the wrong direction with the change we made to the car for Qualifying. I thought we were going to be better, but I had a lot of bouncing in the high-speed and lost the rear very aggressively on my second push lap. We'll try to understand what happened today and recover for tomorrow's race."

Sven Smeets, Racing Director: "It's not the result we wanted today with both cars out in Q1. Both drivers struggled this afternoon with the balance of the car and weren't very happy with the behaviour on the Soft tyre. On top of that, Alex had a lot of traffic on his last push lap which cost him a few tenths and Franco made a mistake in his last lap so couldn't improve. We have some work to do at home to try to understand the reasons behind the lack of performance but will now concentrate on the race tomorrow. Our long runs on Friday and our stint on the Medium tyre in the Sprint Race looked competitive, so we'll see what the race brings tomorrow."

Visa Cash App RB Formula One

Yuki Tsunoda (11th, 1:33.506): "It's been an up-and-down weekend until now, we learned some things between today's sessions and there's also some learning for the future. It was a good team effort today. This morning was a tough Sprint; I surely enjoyed a hectic battle out there and had some fun, but unfortunately, we didn't have much pace and I had to fight hard with the other cars to try and minimize the damage. I was pretty frustrated going backward throughout the race, as we started close to the points zone and maybe there was an opportunity to score points today. Unluckily, this afternoon we didn't make it into Q3, it's a shame because in the end we were pretty close to getting P10, but overall, we're still in a good place to start the race tomorrow. Thanks to Liam for giving me the slipstream, he did a good job and helped me during my laps. We made a lot of changes after the Sprint, so for sure we got some good data to look at, given we also had some differences across the cars. It's been an up-and-down weekend until now, we learned some things between today's sessions and there's also some learning for the future. I'm sure it's going to be a tough race tomorrow, but we'll do our best to try and score points gaining some positions after the start."

Liam Lawson (15th, No Time): "Anything is possible and there's lots of positives to take into tomorrow, but it's going to be tough to get points. Q1 pace was very strong for us, we made some positive changes to the car from yesterday and it's great to have that performance. The focus was to get through to Q1 and then help get Yuki into Q3, slip streaming him down the straights. The second lap worked quite well, but it just wasn't enough, which was a shame because he was so close. It's probably going to be a tricky race, it's difficult to overtake despite the long DRS zones, you need a clear pace advantage, especially if it's a DRS train. Anything is possible and there's lots of positives to take into tomorrow, but it's going to be tough to get points. I'm very happy but very gutted to have a car that strong and have to take the penalty but we're going to have to try and make the most of it and just take away as much as we can for the next few races."

Jody Egginton, Technical Director: "We believe we have taken a step forward with the car today in qualifying and tomorrow's race will enable us to see how well this has translated into race pace. After struggling a bit on both sides of the garage in the Sprint race the team worked very hard to analyse the data and make a range of set-up changes ahead of qualifying and there are some signs from the limited running that it's a step in the right direction. The balance of the car is improved and better optimised to the new floor. Yuki put a solid qualifying together but unfortunately just missed out on a place in Q3. Liam delivered a fantastic Q1 with his best lap time being good enough to make Q3 but with his PU penalty meaning he will start from the back, it was decided to use him to help Yuki in Q2 which together with his engineer he managed to achieve very well indeed across the two runs in Q2. We believe we have taken a step forward with the car today in qualifying and tomorrow's race will enable us to see how well this has translated into race pace in what we expect to be another tight battle in the midfield."

Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber

Valtteri Bottas (18th, 1:34.152): "First of all, I want to thank the mechanics who worked really hard to get the car ready in time for qualifying. We experienced an issue with the brakes in the final laps of the Sprint, and fixing that kept the crew busy, so to be even in the session was an achievement. Qualifying was challenging, as we worked to maximise the learnings from the sprint race. We made some positive setup changes that seem to have brought us closer to the competition in terms of single-lap performance. I'm feeling optimistic that these setup improvements will translate to better race pace tomorrow compared to what we saw today. Overall, it's been an important learning experience, and I'm hopeful we can build on these learnings to deliver a stronger performance tomorrow."

Guanyu Zhou (20th, 1:34.228): "Today's sprint race was quite a clean race for me, but we still don't have the pace needed to be closer in the mix. The qualifying session was difficult, but it's reassuring to see that, even without the updates, we were able to get closer to the rest of field in terms of lap time, and Q2 was not as far off as in previous events. While it has not been an easy weekend so far, Austin is a track I have always felt comfortable, and we'll keep up the effort. It's a long race tomorrow and we will give all we have to make some progress."

Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Team Representative: "Today, in both the sprint race and qualifying, we were unable to improve our overall performance enough to stay closer to our direct competitors. While we saw a small improvement with the new front wing on Valtteri's car, the gap in laptime, though marginal, represents a significant performance gap. Our drivers struggled in sector one and the high-speed corners, which is a characteristic of our car that we are working to improve. We are still investigating a brake issue on the rear axle of Valtteri's car during the Sprint race. For tomorrow, we can only focus on fighting lap by lap to show our strong determination to improve the current situation."

MoneyGram Haas F1 Team

Kevin Magnussen (9th, 1:33.481): "This was an important one for us. We were three points behind RB and now we're on par with them, and because Nico scored P6 twice earlier in the year, we're actually ahead of them. We need to keep this going as you never know when you're going to be this competitive again; we hope to be over the next races, but we have to make the most of it and we certainly did in the Sprint today. Due to the yellow flag my qualifying time is from a used soft. I had a fantastic lap on the new, but in the last sector with the yellow flag we had to abort it although I was three or four tenths up with still two corners to go. The times that we see from Piastri aren't impossible, so annoyed with that of course, but that's how it goes sometimes. It's great to be able to bolt the upgrade on the car and have it work, I think that's a really big positive, and I'm looking forward to racing it tomorrow."

Nico Hulkenberg (12th, 1:33.544): "I got a poor start, and also being on the inside didn't help, so I lost two positions. Afterwards, we were racing and spent quite a bit of time behind Yuki, so I lost a bit of my tire there but nonetheless we did alright in the end. All in all it was a great team performance; it's three points and It's great to get them on Saturday. The car felt okay in qualifying but unfortunately my laps in Q2 were not great, not clean and both times I got caught off guard at Turn 1. It's a nasty one when you start sliding there as you lose a lot of time, so that's the cause of why I got knocked out in Q2. I think the performance is there, that's not the issue, so that's very promising and tomorrow we just need to stay clean and do a good job."

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal: "It was a really good day in terms of the Sprint, I think P7 and P8 was the maximum we could achieve, and we delivered that. We updated Kevin's car for qualifying and to be fair, Kevin adapted to it very well, as he went straight into it with a different car so to speak. But he dealt with it well, he built up and was very unlucky in Q3 to have the yellow flag. He definitely would've had P8 in the bag, maybe more, but it was good. Nico had so much potential, especially looking at sector three it was very strong, but he locked up twice into Turn 1, so that was his issue. Our race pace is good, so tomorrow the focus is getting both cars into the points."