Friday Team Quotes

McLaren Formula 1 Team

Lando Norris (2nd, 1:32.214): "Pretty happy with that. Of course, I would have liked to be on Pole, but it's not a big surprise to be P2. There are a couple of little things here and there that I could have improved on, but that's just the difficulty of this track. Otherwise, all good and we're in a good position for tomorrow."

Oscar Piastri (3rd, 1:32.523): "P3 for the Sprint tomorrow. It wasn't my best lap in SQ3 as it was a little scrappy in places, but I'm relatively happy with the position, and we have really good pace in the car. I know where I need to tidy it up for Qualifying tomorrow, so we'll aim to have a good Sprint in the morning and then fine-tune for the afternoon."

Andrea Stella, Team Principal: "A positive start to the weekend in Austin with a relatively comprehensive representation of the field. Today's sessions confirm that our main competitor has improved their car and continues to provide close competition at the different types of circuits we face. During Free Practice, we were able to work through our run plan despite the disturbance caused by the Red Flag. Lando and Oscar collected plenty of important data from their laps, which we were then able to carry into Sprint Qualifying. Overall, a good result but not the one we wanted. We are here for Pole positions, however, we can still take the positives from today's running. Our car looks competitive compared to some recent circuits, and we have a good foundation to fine-tune some areas of performance before we head into tomorrow's Sprint and Qualifying. We look forward to the Sprint race, the conditions are very hot, and alongside the factor of increased tyre degradation, we should have an entertaining and competitive Saturday for the fans."

Scuderia Ferrari HP

Lewis Hamilton (8th, 1:33.035): "We'll need to review today's session, as the car showed promising pace and I was generally satisfied with its balance in FP1 and SQ1. However, for the rest of Sprint Qualifying, I found it challenging to maintain that pace. We'll regroup tonight to discuss the best approach for tomorrow's race given our starting position."

Charles Leclerc (10th, 1:33.104): "My lap in SQ3 was clean and I didn't leave anything on the table. Maybe we could have fine tuned the car a bit more if we had done some more runs on the Medium compound this morning, but the maximum we could have gained there would be a tenth. We will give everything to find something more for tomorrow, but for now it seems that this is the potential of our car this weekend."

Oracle Red Bull Racing

Max Verstappen (1st, 1:32.143): "To be first was good, it was close and I expect it to also be close tomorrow. It was nice to finish on Pole for the Sprint. In practice, we were fine tuning the car and understanding the track. The track got even bumpier which made it more difficult to drive so we kept making some little adjustments to the car. In Sprint Qualifying it was a little bit better. Of course, we went through the compounds and onto the Soft tyre on the final run and we only had one go with it and it paid off. The grip actually improved quite a bit on the Soft tyre compared to the Medium tyre. For us it was all about putting it together and the wind was also changing around quite a bit. To be first was good, it was close and I expect it to also be close tomorrow. We know that in the race the McLarens step it up so it will be tough."

Yuki Tsunoda (18th, 1:35.259): "It is something we will have to look into because we should have been here talking about a much more successful Friday. I ran out of time to get my final lap in and it is something we will have to look into because we should have been here talking about a much more successful Friday. It was a bit of a messy session, I don't know exactly what happened because we weren't close to getting the lap in, something went wrong and we lost our opportunity, it's a real shame. It's very frustrating because sometimes these things are out of your control. We need to make sure the rest of the weekend goes better and we get the best out of the car and are where we can and should be in the order."

Pierre Waché, Technical Director: "It was a very good performance extraction from Max today and he really put it all together to get Pole. During any Qualifying session we are trying to maximise the performance of the car by trying to go as low as possible on set-up. During FP1 we tested two types of set-up across the two cars and we realised that Yuki's set-up was a little bit better. It helped the high-speed bottoming that we have in the corners here and it achieved performance in the car without losing out in the low speed. It was a very good performance extraction from Max today and he really put it all together to get Pole. Unfortunately, Yuki didn't have a chance to do more than one lap and clearly, we have to review on our side how to make sure he gets the chance to use the car, because with a second lap I think he would have been in SQ2 for sure."

Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team

George Russell (5th, 1:32.888): "That wasn't the maximum we could have achieved today but it's fair to say that we were never in the fight for Sprint pole. Nico (Hulkenberg) put in an amazing lap to take P4; having a Kick Sauber ahead of us wasn't what we expected but well done to him and his team. As we've been saying all year, on our good days we're in the battle for the win and on our bad days we are P5. We just got P5 today; hopefully we have a better race car than a qualifying one though. We also know it can be tricky to hit the ground running on Sprint weekends so we will do what we can in the Sprint race itself and then look to improve the car for qualifying and Sunday's race."

Andrea Kimi Antonelli (11th, 1:34.018): "It is disappointing to get knocked out in SQ2 and by such a small margin too. I felt good in the car in SQ1 and only needed the one lap to get through. I had two big lock-ups on my final lap in SQ2 though and that ultimately cost me. We definitely had the pace to get into SQ3 and fight for the top five, so it is frustrating. We will reset overnight though, push as hard as we can in the Sprint and then try to have a better qualifying tomorrow afternoon. Our long run pace in FP1 was more encouraging than our single lap work. Hopefully that bodes well for Sunday. We know that we won't be able to show that though if we don't start near the front of the field. We will work hard to improve the car ahead of qualifying, using the Sprint to build our learning, and try our best to have a better session than we've just enjoyed."

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director: "That was a frustrating Friday here in Austin. It can be difficult to get the car dialled in immediately on a sprint weekend, particularly on a circuit as challenging as this. It is important to do so though if you are to have a positive Sprint. Sadly, whilst our long run pace looked competitive in FP1, we clearly had work to do on the single lap. We made some adjustments ahead of Sprint Qualifying but we were never in the fight for the top three unfortunately. Kimi, on his first visit to COTA, put in a good lap in SQ1 but a few lock-ups in SQ2 cost him. He was only a few thousandths short of getting through but fell just the wrong side of the cut-off. George progressed to SQ3 but didn't enjoy the cleanest of laps on the Soft tyre, losing a couple of tenths at turn one. Whilst that cost him, P4 was probably the maximum today given our pace. Starting P5 and P11, it is unlikely that we will score major points tomorrow morning. We will still give it our all but the main priority will be to gather data and learnings so we can improve the car for qualifying in the afternoon."

Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team

Fernando Alonso (6th, 1:32.910): "I'm happy with P6 today. It's one of our better qualifying sessions of the season and we put together some good laps. It felt like we really maximised the opportunity, but we do have some fast cars starting behind us, so we'll see if we can score points in the Sprint tomorrow."

Lance Stroll (14th, 1:34.394): "I thought we did what we could today, qualifying in P14 for the Sprint tomorrow. In SQ2, I had a snap in T6 during my second push lap and aborted the lap - we could have probably found a couple of tenths there. But in hindsight, you can always look back and find a bit here and there. Let's see what we can do tomorrow in the Sprint – it's a very tight midfield and Sprint weekends are intense, but I like it."

BWT Alpine F1 Team

Pierre Gasly (13th, 1:34.258): "I'm actually quite pleased with today's result in Sprint Qualifying. The last few weekends have been tricky for us and we have not really been in the mix with our competitors. The team has worked really hard in the week between Singapore and here to find some improvements and it was important to find more performance to put ourselves back in the mix, which I feel we have done today. We always want more than what we achieved today but, looking at the work everyone has put in, we can be pleased as we have a good baseline to work from for the rest of this weekend. Tomorrow for the Sprint, we need to try and maximise the start and gain some places and see where we end up. It is a tricky track and we will just take one session at a time and try to maximise what we have every time we are on track."

Franco Colapinto (17th, 1:35.246): "It has not been the smoothest of days and with only one Practice session, we were not able to get on top of some of the issues we have been facing and fine tune our package. I think there is potential in the car and our position is not necessarily reflective of where we could be if we manage to put everything together. I have been struggling a lot for grip, especially when putting the power down on traction. It did not feel great on either run in SQ1 and the wind also seemed to pick up later in the day, which made it a bit more unpredictable. This track lends itself to good racing so let's see what we can do tomorrow, but also keeping one eye on Qualifying and the Grand Prix itself. We will try our best to move forward from our starting position and also use the track time to keep learning about what improvements we can bring between the sessions."

MoneyGram Haas F1 Team

Oliver Bearman (16th, 1:35.159): "Sprint Quali today was a big shame. This morning I felt pretty happy with the car, but in qualifying I only got one lap, and I'm still learning the track, so that lap wasn't my best, but I wasn't expecting that lap to be my best. That's why in SQ1 you have two laps to at least get a feeling of the car. I put the update on in between sessions, so a lot of things changed. We'll need to review why we didn't make it around in time, but there was no point in pushing flat out to make it as my tires would've been gone."

Esteban Ocon (19th, 1:36.003): "It was a very bad first lap unfortunately, I went into Turn 1 and lost the rear, so the first lap was quite compromised. On the second lap, I took the flag basically with the entire group around me, including Ollie. Our first lap wasn't good enough, so it clearly wasn't an ideal session but we'll try and get the best out of it tomorrow. The Sprint is now going to be an experiment, we're far from scoring points, so we'll do the best we can and learn as much as we can about the car."

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal: "It was a very disappointing Sprint qualifying. I think FP1 was okay, and Ollie got on with it considering this is a new track for him. Esteban ran the new package in FP1, but we also put the update on Ollie for Sprint quali. What happened in the second run in SQ1, with time running out, we didn't make it around in time so in hindsight we should've taken more margin to make it through. That made it extremely hard for Ollie, who's had changes to his car, and we should've had two laps but essentially, he's only had one. On Esteban's side, he struggled with rear grip feeling. It's very tough to take. We need to look at timings, which is pretty clear, and then we need to look at Esteban's feeling as well."

Visa Cash App Racing Bulls F1 Team

Isack Hadjar (12th, 1:34.241): "I still think we're fast, and tomorrow is all about maximising everything and putting it all together. Starting from 12th will make it tough to score points, but we'll push hard and aim for Q3 in Qualifying. I had a good feeling at the end of FP1, but in that session it felt completely different. In SQ1, I managed to put a lap together to get the car through and it felt quite competitive. I expected to make a good step in SQ2, but we committed to a single push lap and the car was very difficult to drive, it was quite challenging out there. I still think we're fast, and tomorrow is all about maximising everything and putting it all together. Starting from 12th will make it tough to score points, but we'll push hard and aim for Q3 in Qualifying."

Liam Lawson (15th, No Time): "Points will be tricky, but we'll be pushing for that and will continue to work on building a strong car for Sunday. We got hit by traffic on our laps, so we'll have a look tonight on whether we should have run earlier in the session as opposed to later, which may have mitigated the issue. However, there are positives to take away as the car is very fast. Points will be tricky, but we'll be pushing for that and will continue to work on building a strong car for Sunday."

Mattia Spini, Chief Race Engineer: "We'll now focus on extracting as many insights as possible from today's sessions, as tomorrow offers another opportunity to adjust the car ahead of Qualifying. A Sprint weekend always brings a unique challenge for both engineers and drivers, with only one Free Practice session available to fine-tune the car setup and driving. We completed FP1 running some setup differences across the cars to maximize learning on balance and overall performance. We opted to use the Medium tyre for the second run, unlike most of the field that used the Soft, considering it a better plan for the rest of the weekend. The pace looked promising ahead of Qualifying, although the drivers were not entirely satisfied with the car's balance, so we made some changes to address that before Sprint Qualifying. We managed to progress into SQ2, but lacked the pace to reach SQ3 today. On top of that, Liam had his best lap deleted due to track limits. We'll now focus on extracting as many insights as possible from today's sessions, as tomorrow offers another opportunity to adjust the car ahead of Qualifying."

Williams Racing

Carlos Sainz (7th, 1:32.911): "It's encouraging to be P7 in Sprint qualifying, especially with the little track action I've had today after missing most of FP1. Considering the circumstances, I'm happy with my laps on both compounds and I'll do my best to grab some points in the Sprint race. We'll also take the learnings for tomorrow's main qualifying and hopefully we can repeat or improve today's result."

Alexander Albon (9th, 1:33.099): "We thought SQ3 was on the cards today but to have both cars through was nice. We struggled a bit still and didn't feel as comfortable compared to practice, but nevertheless, a nice surprise. We're starting the Sprint on the clean side of the grid, so we want to keep it tidy and with points on the table let's see what we can do tomorrow."

Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber

Nico Hulkenberg (4th, 1:32.645): "I'm really satisfied with how things went today. We looked strong from the start in P1, and it was nice to see that performance carry through. The car felt good: it was in a great window, right in the sweet spot, and the lap times backed that up. I enjoy driving around this track; it's good fun and quite rewarding when everything clicks. The sprint will be challenging with plenty of quick cars around us, but we'll fight hard and try to turn this momentum into a strong result."

Gabriel Bortoleto (20th, No Time): "Unfortunately, I don't have much to say about today. My first timed lap was cancelled due to track limits, and the second attempt was unfortunately not enough to make the cut. It's obviously disappointing, especially since our car felt quite good earlier today during free practice. Looking at tomorrow, we'll use the Sprint as an extra chance to learn something more about this track and how our car behaves here, before putting our focus on delivering in Qualifying ahead of the main Race."

Jonathan Wheatley, Team Principal: "An outstanding qualifying performance from Nico today. It's remarkable; every time people start to question him, he finds a way to prove them wrong. He delivered a flawless run through SQ1, SQ2, and SQ3, securing our highest-ever grid position in a sprint and matching our best starting position in recent years. I feel for Gabi today; had we managed to put that first lap together, the outcome could have been different. Unfortunately, timing caught us out on his second run, as it did for several other teams. This is something we'll review, analyse and learn from. There's plenty to take away from today as we look ahead to the sprint. The priority remains clear: to maximise our points potential. This is a circuit where overtaking is possible, which means we'll need to be on top of our game to defend our position."