PART ONE – Fernando ALONSO (Aston Martin), Franco COLAPINTO (Alpine), Carlos SAINZ (Williams)
Q: We have two Spaniards and one Argentine with us. Can we start, please, by talking about Sunday night, that World Cup final? Who’d like to start? Carlos, perhaps you could give us your thoughts.
Carlos SAINZ: My thoughts on Spain winning? I don’t know, I always had the feeling it was Spain that was going to win it, given the way they had been playing the whole championship. I don’t know, but I had a feeling that it was Spain’s to win, and I’m very glad they did. I think they deserved it. I think they played the best football of any team in the World Cup. Happy, very proud to be a Spaniard, proud to see them celebrate and proud to see them succeed. I think it was a great event. The World Cup itself went great in the US, Mexico and Canada, so I think it was a great event. It’s still only football. Life goes on. It’s a World Cup match, we’re world champions, it’s great, but people take football so personally that sometimes it’s crazy to see how passionate people are about it. I enjoyed it, had fun watching, great win, and life continues and everything moves on.
Franco COLAPINTO: Yeah, tough, of course. I think Spain, they really played the best football, as Carlos said, all World Cup, so they are clearly the deserved winners. But I’m very proud of the team, very proud of Argentina, of Messi and of all the players from our country. I think we all in Argentina feel very well represented by them, the way that they played and the way that they defend the shirt. Very proud to be Argentinian. Of course, life continues, but it’s kind of the last few matches of a generation that gave us a lot of happiness and a lot of very good moments. It’s just those moments that sometimes happen in football. They are two countries that were always very close to each other, and it was a great final to watch and a great final to be Latino. To have a final between two Spanish-speaking countries was amazing, but then it just creates all these differences. The things that a sport like football creates, they seem massive enemies now. With Messi playing for Barcelona, he gave Spain so many happy moments, and it finished being pretty bad and seemed like a war between one country and another. I don’t like to see that. Football, being the most watched sport in the world, it’s not nice to see that and to show that. Of course, he didn’t give Madrid a lot of happy moments, but just to see them burning a shirt of Messi and these kinds of things… Luckily, it didn’t burn, the shirt of God doesn’t burn! In general, it was not so nice to see. Football creates these kinds of things that F1 doesn’t, and I don’t enjoy that. But yeah, worthy winners. Hopefully they get a bit more creative with the songs for the next World Cup. It’s a bit boring.
Fernando ALONSO: Not much more to add. I only watched the football game and I did enjoy it. Obviously, I think Spain played a great tournament, and not only this one. I think all the Spaniards are very proud of the national team, winning three Euros and two World Cups in the last 20 years, or something like that, I read. It seems that in football, also the women, we are world champions as well, so there are a couple of good things that probably the country is doing in football. It’s great to see the whole country celebrating. I think football unites everyone, and we all celebrate. When we saw the images of Madrid, the people celebrating on the streets, people in Barcelona waving Spanish flags, sometimes we have that problem also in Spain with different regions being very proud of our own flag, but then football unites everything and we are very proud to be Spanish. So yes, great, and in four years we go again.
Q: Fernando, just staying with you on the topic of Formula 1, describe the sense of anticipation inside the team ahead of this weekend, where you’ll be driving the upgraded car for the first time.
FA: I don’t think that it changes anything in the approach that we’ve had so far this year. We go to every race trying to maximise what we have in our hands. We’re here to win races and to fight for championships. We didn’t start the season that way, and we will not be that way either, because we are just in the process of understanding these regulations and getting onto a good path, let’s say, with the development of the car. I think for the first 12 races, all the teams opted for a different strategy, the more conventional one, to bring two or three tenths of a second every two or three races, and then you end up with one second or one and a half seconds by race 10 or race 12. We didn’t do that, so we fell a little bit behind everyone else on the grid, and now we will try to catch up all at once. But I think it doesn’t change your natural position at the end on Sundays. I’m obviously optimistic. I’m very proud of the team and of the job that they’ve done since the Bahrain test, when we understood that we had a problem and we had to fix a few weaknesses on the car. I think this is the first step towards those fixes, but there are more to come.
Q: How much of a step forward are you expecting here?
FA: Difficult to say. I’m not thinking too much about numbers, positions or something like that, because if we go back to the last five races, I think we had very different gaps to the midfield. We had a more or less consistent gap to pole position, which is unreachable, obviously, at this moment, but there were a couple of tough circuits. I think Silverstone was tough. Spa was one of the toughest. I think we had the guy in front of us 2.1 seconds ahead, so there is no package in the world that will give you that amount of time. Probably the position would not change if you ran the updated car in Spa one week ago, so that’s how we need to treat it. It will change circuit by circuit. Hopefully Budapest is a friendly circuit for us. Power is not the most important point here, which obviously helps. We will update the car, but not the engine yet, so we still have something that we need to overcome. As I said, I’m more interested in understanding the direction of the car, whether we are on a good path and whether we finally unlock the performance.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (David Croft – Sky Sports F1) It’s a question for you, Fernando. Apologies, Franco and Carlos. Adrian Newey made a comment a couple of weeks ago that maybe the team hadn’t listened to the drivers as much as it should have done. I don’t know whether you agree with that, but now that we are all listening, what would your advice be, in terms of the way the season has been for Aston Martin and the way that you need to turn around what is now a major deficit?
FA: I don’t know, I think to Adrian’s comments, they were more about the past. This year… I think in the past it’s true that we sometimes had different opinions during the race weekends in terms of the feeling and weaknesses of the car. When we were racing with other cars, what we felt behind the wheel, and sometimes when you go back to the factory and see the data, you discover things and misbehaviour on the aero that maybe were pointing the direction of the car in two different ways. Maybe the data was the winner in those debates. I think Adrian is the type of designer who listens to both sides: data, for sure, but also what the drivers feel. Formula 1 is a very complex sport, probably, and very dynamic. It changes every lap. You never have the same fuel load, you never have the same tyre age, you never have the same wind conditions, whether you are following a car or whether you are alone on track. There are many different things that can affect the balance of the car. That’s why data is not 100% the truth. I think you need to combine both things, and Adrian has the best experience in the world to design a car and to develop a car. I think we are on a good path.
Q: (Rui Chagas – DAZN Portugal) First of all, Fernando and Carlos, congratulations on being world champions. I always knew it would be either you or Portugal, 100%. Franco, I’m sorry for that. Carlos, a question for you. It’s a bit of a harsh one. After the end of last year, did you ever expect, before the summer this year, to have only six points?
CS: No, it wasn’t in my plans or in my expectations. I think I’ve been very open and very clear about the fact that I think in 2025 we overdelivered and, if anything, the results were better than what I expected when I signed my Williams contract in 2024. The 2025 car was a very good car, a car that was sometimes only three or four tenths off pole position, a car where you could feel that the balance was good. Obviously, going into 2026, I expected, if anything, with more time to develop the 2026 car and a new set of regulations, that we could potentially either stay where we were or make a small step forward. Yet time has proven to me that it has obviously been the opposite, or the other way around, and that as a team we are further away from the top than we thought we were at the end of 2025. It’s definitely been a character-building year for the whole team, a bit of an eye-opener in terms of how much work there is still to do if we even want to consider fighting with a top team in the future. A lot of things have been learned, a lot of things we’ve realised, and unfortunately it has been a bad year so far. We need to conclude and understand why and what happened. I think we have a pretty good understanding by now. The capacity to turn it around is there, but obviously in Formula 1 it takes time. It takes time, effort, budget-cap money and a lot of analysis, and that’s exactly where we are right now.
Q: (Mariana Becker – TV Globo Brazil) Fernando, in two races, this race and Zandvoort, you’re going to have a completely new car in your hands. Which signs are you expecting to see that would give you hope that the team can unlock the potential of the car and you can have a better life next year? What are you going to see that would give you the answers that you need?
FA: I don’t think that I need answers. I think I have a pretty clear picture of the team, that we will fix all the problems. They take time, but I have no doubts, zero doubts, that Adrian will provide the best car on the grid sooner or later. As I said before, I would like to see the first step with this package, with the understanding after the first couple of races, and I think there’s going to be more to come next year, that’s for sure, and in the years to come. On the power unit, I have no doubt as well. I think it’s a matter of time before Honda fixes the issues, because it’s what they’ve been doing for the last 40 years of racing. We started on the back foot, yes. We are dealing with that process now and that pain on the weekends, but we are all working together to fix the issues. It’s just how soon the car will be competitive. That’s the question mark. Maybe the next two races will give us a little bit of a feeling for that. For me, I’m relaxed. As I’ve said many times, I’m thinking about what I need to do next year and in the years to come. I feel fresh, I feel motivated, I feel fast, but I need to enjoy what I do as well. As I said in Spa, I think the Silverstone Grand Prix and Spa were not fun to drive. I think it’s not fun to watch, it’s not fun to drive, and we’ve been repeating the same thing every single Grand Prix. It’s not to criticise anything. It’s just to improve the sport altogether. I think the direction that we took this year, from the driver’s side, I don’t know about the spectator’s side, but behind the cockpit it’s not the same adrenaline that I used to have driving a Formula 1 car. That’s something that I need to put on the table. It’s not a problem with the competitiveness of the team. It’s just a problem of whether Formula 1 gives me the adrenaline that I need to live.
Q: (Panagiotis Seitanidis– ANT1 TV Greece) A question for Fernando and Carlos. You described the joy that this World Cup gave to the Spanish people and all the success the football team has had for the last 20 years. Twenty years before, we had Fernando’s championships to give that joy. What would it feel like for you, even though now you’re not in that place, but hopefully you will be soon, to give the joy of a Formula 1 World Championship to the Spanish people?
CS: I think Fernando is the right guy to answer this question, because he’s had the pleasure and the success of giving that joy to Spanish people. I was following Formula 1 and I was his biggest fan and his biggest supporter. I can only say that it must be an incredible feeling. I’ve had my little experience of it by giving a win to Spain in Formula 1. When I heard my Spanish national anthem, it was probably the most emotional moment of my career, standing on the top of the podium, hearing your anthem with your flag behind you. I think that is the thing that any driver or any athlete dreams about. I think we are incredibly lucky in Spain. Well, you would say lucky, but when you have so many athletes in so many disciplines who are so good, for such a relatively small country, it cannot be luck. It needs to be that we are investing well in infrastructure around sports. When you go to the smallest village in Spain, you still see a 25-metre swimming pool, a 400-metre running track, a football pitch, a basketball court and all kinds of Olympic installations. That’s in the smallest village you can imagine. I think we are a country that invests a lot in sports from a very young age, and in the end, it pays off. It makes me a proud Spaniard to see that such a relatively small country is so well represented in any kind of discipline, from motor sport to MotoGP, tennis, football, masculine and feminine. I think we are a very successful country in that way, and it makes me proud.
FA: Obviously, it means a lot, and it would mean a lot if we could repeat it. At the end of the day, you want to share those moments with your country, your fans, your friends, your mechanics and your team. There is always this feeling of being alone in the car. From the starting grid, all the mechanics go away, you do the formation lap and you’re completely alone. Then, when you win a race or you succeed, the first feeling and the first moment you have is on the podium, with all the team down there, and you start celebrating with them. Then you do the picture in the pit lane, and then there’s the whole procedure where you start sharing the joy of winning. It’s the same with your country and the same with the fans. This year in Barcelona, there were 100,000 fans. In the fan forum, there were five or six thousand fans, and they were all dressed in green. They were all supporting at 35 degrees, and they went there knowing that we would be 21st and 22nd. It didn’t matter to them. They went there just because they wanted to support us, because one day, if you win, they want to celebrate with you. That’s the hope that is unstoppable. If you are able to win and you are able to succeed, the moment and the celebration with them and with your country is something magical.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Luke Smith – The Athletic) Carlos, two years ago, I think, you signed your deal with Williams and agreed to join the team following your Ferrari exit. Over that two-year period, after the high of last year and the low of this year, is the team in line with where you were expecting it to be when you made that agreement? How much do you view this year as maybe another crossroads for your future, in terms of committing further to the team or looking at other options?
CS: I think there’s no secret that my expectations, or let’s say my timeline for how long it would take me to win a race again and for Williams to be the place to do that, have been delayed by a year or two. It depends on how quickly we manage to bounce back from this situation. Obviously, I had in my mind a timeframe that I was willing to accept in order to help this team get back into a winning position, and how long I was willing to wait to be fighting for wins again. Clearly, that timeline, unfortunately for all of us, because obviously the team is also affected by it, is going to be longer than we expected, and that path is going to be longer than expected. Having said that, I see what the team is investing in the future. I still see the vision of the team being pretty clear. I see how much is going on behind the scenes when you leave the current car performance aside, and this still gives me confidence and motivation that we’re going in the right direction. It’s just that this year’s car, for whatever reason or reasons, has been very underperforming and has fallen very short of our expectations for many different reasons that I’m not going to talk about again here today. Clearly, my timings have changed. I need to readapt my thinking into portraying myself now in three to four years’ time and take a decision, but I’m still confident in the path and the project that we are in.
Q: (Ronald Vording – Motorsport.com) A question to Franco, for a change. Do you feel that the last two layouts, Silverstone and Spa, have highlighted some specific weaknesses of the Alpine package? Are you a bit more confident for this one in that regard, or do you feel that the team has simply, at this stage, been out-developed by Racing Bulls to some extent?
FC: I think everyone brought more upgrades than us, and they have been developing in a better way. We did bring stuff that we thought was going to be a big step, and unfortunately it wasn’t as big as we thought. Teams like VCARB and Audi brought a lot of stuff during the year, and they improved the car a lot. We have things to come, but unfortunately not this weekend. We did improve the car slightly, but I think we were slightly out-developed, and we are not in the same position that we were in Miami, Canada and Monaco compared to them. We are working to make it better.
Q: (Carlos Miquel – Marca) A question for the three drivers. When will we know about your futures? There are three drivers here who are not only stars of the football World Cup. Next year, you don’t have contracts. When will we know about your contracts?
CS: I honestly don’t know. I cannot give you a date, but I imagine, as I always said, that I was going to wait until the summer to sit down with my team and think about this, and discuss with them, with James and everyone, the future of the team and my future in it. I expect that during the summer we will start to take a decision and start to see a bit more of the situation, but the exact timing, I don’t know.
FC: No idea. I’m just focused on driving and I’m happy this year. I feel like I’m doing a good job. I’m just focused on these few races and doing my best with the team, trying to improve the car. It’s our main focus. I think you guys definitely know more than us, with all the rumours. I don’t even know a quarter of what you guys know, so you shouldn’t ask us.
FA: I do have a contract, so I’m not moving.
Q: (Laurine Slingerland – NU.nl) A question for Fernando. Since the age gap between the number one and number two in the championship is quite big, and you’ve been around here for a while, I was wondering whether, and if so how, your driving style changes when you get older, and whether you think experience is going to be a big advantage for Lewis Hamilton.
FA: I don’t know. I think that’s a very personal thing, and in different car characteristics it changes your speed. Next.
Q: (Josh Suttill – The Race) Carlos and Fernando, there’s a regulation that says that the driver has to drive the car unaided and alone. Do you think, with all the algorithms and everything this year deciding when and where energy is being deployed, that this is in doubt a little bit? Is there any hope for the future that we can give the power back to the drivers, outside of the changes already agreed?
FA: I don’t know. It depends. I think Formula 1 has always been a little bit like that. I don’t think the drivers were deciding everything, even when we had traction control and some of the other aids. It was very specific to each team, developed by each team in a different way, with different philosophies. You were pressing the throttle at the exit of the corners, and some cars were much better than the others. It’s not pure driver talent or input on some of the exits. It’s the same with the starts. I’ve been doing starts for 25 years, and we’ve had many different regulations. At the end of the day, there were always some cars and some teams starting better than the others, with both cars. It’s not just that someone was doing something differently with the clutch, with a technique or with the throttle application. Both cars from that team were extremely good or extremely bad. I think the team is always bringing the performance to everything. But yes, I think with these current regulations and the battery deployment, there is something that has to be fixed and improved. I think that’s well understood. We are in the first half of this set of regulations, in the first year, and there are already talks about 2030 or 2031 and the V8. Next year, there is already approval for the change to the combustion versus electrical part of the engine. There are things moving forward, and it’s well understood by the sport, by the teams and by everyone. I’m optimistic for the future that it will get better and that it will be better understood what the rules and what the cars need to be.
PART TWO – Oscar PIASTRI (McLaren), Oliver BEARMAN (Haas), Isack HADJAR (Red Bull Racing)
Q: Oscar, why don’t we start with you? McLaren have won the last two races here in Hungary. What chance a hat-trick?
Oscar PIASTRI: We’ll find out tomorrow. I think we should be a bit more competitive. We’ve got a few upgrades this weekend, so hopefully that puts us a bit closer to being able to fight. I think in Spa, certainly in the race, we were probably a bit more competitive than we expected, so that was a good thing.
Q: Tell us more about the upgrades. How did they feel on the simulator?
OP: I actually can’t remember if I used them on the simulator, so I don’t know. It should be faster. That’s all I care about. I feel like we’ve got a pretty good track record with upgrades, for the most part, and how they perform in the sim versus reality, so fingers crossed it just makes us quicker.
Q: Oscar, on a personal level, how are you finding the car at the moment? Are you finding it harder to drive than you did earlier in the year?
OP: Not necessarily, no. It’s been tricky to drive the whole year. I think maybe at the start of the season we had more to worry about on the power unit side of things, in terms of stuff we could actually control and manage ourselves, and things I could do with my driving style. Whereas now, there are still things we need to be careful of with the power unit, but it’s not really in our control as much anymore. It’s more purely about what the car is like, what the balance is like, and I think especially the last couple of weekends it’s definitely been a step harder to drive, for whatever reason, whether it’s just the layout, wind or type of tarmac. We don’t really know, but hopefully this weekend that becomes a bit easier.
Q: Oscar, we’re at the halfway point in the season. How would you rate your year so far?
OP: There have been highs and lows, for sure. Probably more lows than highs, unfortunately. For us as a team, it’s obviously not been the first half of the year that we would have liked, especially compared to last year, so hopefully the second half of the year can be better. For myself as well, there have been some good moments, some not-so-good moments and pretty much everything in between. I want to be able to improve and be a bit more consistently on top of my game, and hopefully we can do that this weekend and in the second half of the year.
Q: Ollie, let’s come to you now. While we’re analysing our seasons, perhaps we could start with that question for you. How would you sum up 2026 so far?
Oliver BEARMAN: It’s been a bit long at times, honestly. I was really happy with how we started the season. We had a really competitive car. Believe it or not, we were fighting with Red Bull in the first few races. They were not coming out of the blocks amazingly strongly, but we did a really good job. The first two events were really good. On top of that, we also got over the challenges and nuances of these regulations very efficiently, and we didn’t suffer with any reliability issues or software issues in the first few events, so we scored a lot of points. It was a really good start. Now it’s kind of tailed off a bit. We haven’t scored points as a team since Canada, which was where we introduced our last upgrade package, and it hasn’t quite brought the performance to the car that our competition has been able to bring. Audi, VCARB and Alpine we were on par/ahead of them at the start of the year, and now all of those teams have made a good step forward. It’s been a really long few months since Canada where, to be honest, I think in terms of execution we’ve been doing a good job. We’ve got the most out of the car, and I’ve got the most out of myself, but when the most is just P14, P13 or P12, it starts to get a bit old. We’re eagerly awaiting the next bit of performance that we have to add to the car, which hopefully will come soon, and hopefully that can make the second half a bit more fruitful.
Q: Is the deficit you talk about track-specific? This weekend, at the Hungaroring, do you think you will be more competitive than you have been recently?
OB: I think it’s track-specific in the sense that we struggle a bit more on power-limited tracks compared to the Mercedes engines and Red Bull Powertrains. Compared to those, we struggle a bit more at a track like Spa, and at Silverstone as well. But that’s not an excuse for us, because Ferrari were incredibly strong at those tracks and we have the same engine. That’s not something we can hide behind. Clearly, we are lacking performance in the whole package. I don’t know what to expect this weekend, if that’s what you’re asking. Let’s wait and see.
Q: Isack, let’s come to you. You went so well last weekend. Just sum up the season so far for you as well.
Isack HADJAR: It started a bit tricky. The first couple of rounds, I feel like I was doing the easy stuff really wrong and the tough things, like being quick, in the rhythm and not too far from Max, really well. Since the last couple of rounds, I think I’ve found some consistency, and in the team we’ve fixed a few issues that make our life easier. It’s a lot easier when the car is reliable, When it’s performing, it’s easy to achieve results, I’m not going to lie. It’s good, but at the same time I would love to have a race where I can actually fight for a real podium, and that’s the next target.
Q: When you say “the easy stuff”, what do you mean?
IH: I think the starts carried on for a long time, and that’s not an easy thing to fix, but I was more referring to deployment issues at times, understanding the boost features, spinning on lap one, which is not ideal. Just stuff like that ruining our weekends. That takes a bit of adjustment, and now I think we’re well settled in.
Q: You’re on a run of six consecutive points finishes. How much confidence do you have behind the wheel now?
IH: Good. It’s a car I handle well. It’s not the easiest to drive, but it’s consistent. I’ve got the most out of it for a few rounds now, so I’m definitely happy. We’re still not where I want to be. There are still a few areas where we’re lacking competitiveness compared to Ferrari and Mercedes, so we still need to dig, but it’s definitely good progress.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (David Croft – Sky Sports F1) A question to you, Oscar, because I think you suffered more at Spa than Ollie or Isack. Do you drive the car unaided at all times? If not, has that always been the case? What should you be doing with these power units that you can’t at the moment?
OP: To give you the full answer, I’d probably need half an hour. Even with the previous hybrid engines, there was a big element of learning, coding and AI, to some extent. When I joined Formula 1, those engines were incredibly mature, but also the penalty of things being slightly wrong or slightly out of place was significantly less, because it was such a small percentage of the overall power you got. Whereas this year, it’s basically half your power, so any small differences or anything that doesn’t quite go right has a massive impact, especially at a track like Spa. To answer your question, no, we’ve got no control over where the deployment happens, more or less. You can push the boost button, but that’s more for overtaking than in qualifying, especially. Like I said in Spa, when you’ve got those differences there that you have no control over, it can be frustrating. I’m sure it’ll get better. I don’t expect it to ever fully go away, but as the manufacturers understand it more and work out the regulation restrictions more, in terms of what the code can and can’t do, hopefully things will become a bit better.
Q: (Mara Sangiorgio – Sky Sports Italy) Oscar, tomorrow you will leave your car to Leonardo Fornaroli during FP1. Have you had the chance to talk to him in recent months? Does he seem ready for FP1?
OP: I think so. He’s been at a lot of races with us as a team. He’s already done an FP1 in Barcelona. He did a really good job. I think he’s been impressive. It’s been good to see, and cool to see how involved he is with all the engineers, and even with me and Lando as drivers. He’s always asking questions and wanting to know more, which is an important part of improving and being a good racing driver. He’s obviously shown what he can do in the junior categories, and I think he’s been very good to work with at McLaren, so hopefully he does a good job of setting up my car tomorrow.
Q: (Lukas Osztovics – ORF) Oscar, you were talking about a lack of control with the energy deployment. Does it sometimes feel like you’re the passenger of an AI programme that still has to be trained?
OP: Sometimes, yes. Again, at a track like Spa or a track like Silverstone, it’s going to be worse. Here, I really don’t expect there to be many problems at all with that kind of thing, because the straights are so much shorter, so even if there are differences, they should be a lot less. But the principle of driving a race car that loses effectively half of its power before the end of the straight is hard to get your head around sometimes. Even in Spa, a lot of the middle sector we were doing it just on the combustion engine, with no battery assistance at all, which is a weird feeling in itself, having some corners with a certain amount of power and others with full power. I think Spa was particularly frustrating, not just for me but for quite a lot of others, because those small differences in the code and what the engines did made quite a big difference in lap time. Especially at the front of the field, I think there were still only nine hundredths or something separating four positions, and there were definitely more than nine hundredths on the table for quite a few drivers from things they could not control.
Q: (Rui Chagas – DAZN Portugal) A question to Ollie. Did you ever expect to outperform your teammate like this throughout the season? Do you expect the same at this track, taking into consideration that it’s his only win here?
OB: It’s a tough situation that is happening at our team. We’ve been speaking about it a lot, but the inconsistency between our parts has been quite high. I’ve been on the bad side of that and I’ve also been on the good side of that, but it’s a shame because it means that you’re always chasing a moving target. Overnight, we can have changes to our car balance without expecting that. All of that is to say that it’s not always a fair fight, the one that we are having, and sometimes we feel like we’re fighting with our hands almost tied behind our backs. Of course, I feel like I’m performing at a really high level, and I really see a step in my performances from 12 months ago, even from the start of the season. That’s all I can do. At this stage, we’re not in the fight for points. We’re not in the fight to do a whole lot other than try to get the most out of ourselves and learn as much as possible in this difficult period, hoping that soon we’re going to have the performance to put that to work and score points. It’s been a challenge for us. I’m happy with what I’m doing, but the story is not necessarily what you see in the headline.
Q: (Mariana Becker – TV Globo) For the three of you, it’s been eight weeks, six races, lots of ups and downs for the three of you. We don’t know whether you’re going to finish this part of the championship on a high or a low. How do you face these two weeks off? Do you want not to think about Formula 1, or do you want to improve? Do you try to go through data or use a simulator at home? How do you face these next two weeks?
IH: Oh yeah, A lot of laps on the sim! I don’t know, honestly. I think for the team there are a lot of things we don’t understand about our car, so racing nearly every weekend is not helping us to understand that. Hopefully, when we come back in Zandvoort, we do have more answers. On my side, I really want to chill a bit and come back, because it’s going to be a tough second half.
OB: The same sentiment, really. It’s important to reset, rest and take your mind away from racing. These last few months have been incredibly full-on, and I think to find that motivation to keep pushing, particularly when the results are not necessarily there, it needs to be found by having a bit of a break and having your mind elsewhere. I’m excited for a bit of time off and then, of course, focusing in the final week off on what lies ahead. Like I said, we have some upgrades coming after the summer break, so for me it’s more about trying to get myself into a position to get the most out of the car when the performance comes, because realistically we’re not going to be in the fight for points this weekend.
OP: I think we’ll all enjoy the break. Like Isack said, it’s a very demanding second half of the year, and we don’t fully know where we’re going to be racing all the time. The break is always a nice moment to reset. Obviously, we’re very limited in the work we can do with our teams, but you can do some laps on the simulator at home if you want. Not for the first week, though. I’m going on holiday somewhere with an ocean and sand. Having a bit of a reset is always a nice thing to have.
Q: (Ronald Vording – Motorsport.com) A question to all three, starting with Oscar. You already explained in Spa that even a 60-40 split will not solve the issues with drivers being surprised by their own power unit and the algorithm. With the experience of Spa, do you think more changes are needed for the upcoming years to really put drivers back in control, or is it impossible and do we simply have to live with that until 2031?
OP: Again, to explain it all, I need a lot of time, and probably someone who knows it better than me. But I think they’re going to be a factor for as long as we have these engines, to an extent. The smaller you make the percentage of the electrical side, the smaller the effect will be, obviously. But in terms of the power unit regulations we have, there are a lot of rules and restrictions, and a lot of things you need to get around. In some ways, having some more freedom would maybe solve that a little bit. There’s obviously how that plays into safety, and then random closing speeds and stuff, so there’s not a perfect answer. I think they will be a factor to some extent for as long as we have these engines, but it will get better. Just how much better, we’ll have to wait and see.
OB: I agree with Oscar.
Q: (Luis Vasconcelos – Fórmula Press) First, one question for Oscar. Your first race this year was actually in Suzuka and you were extremely competitive. Does it make it almost puzzling that the speed hasn’t been there for most of the season? A quick one for Ollie: are you going to try to find some karting track and beat the record there?
OP: I think we’ve been quite up and down as a team in general. Suzuka and Miami have definitely been our two strongest races this year. In the first part of the year, we were doing a really good job of understanding the rules and understanding what we needed to do, because since the tweaks in Miami, how we need to drive and some of the things we need to do are a lot closer to natural than they were in Suzuka, for example. It was quite a weird experience of how you had to drive to go fast, so I think we were doing a very good job of maximising those unnatural things. But since then, everyone else has brought a lot of upgrades as well. We’ve brought some, and maybe not all of them have worked as well as we wanted. I feel like in those couple of races it was almost the exception to our pace rather than the baseline, so hopefully we can get back to that soon. For myself, again, it’s been quite up and down on a personal level as well, so hopefully that can stabilise a bit.
OB: Last year, I set the record at one tiny karting track close to where I was on holiday. I already took it back because I went there after Silverstone. I spent a long week trying to get it back, but I managed, and now I can relax in the sun.
Q: (Luke Smith – The Athletic) Isack, it’s one for you. When you came into this seat, obviously there was quite a long line of drivers before you who had been up against Max and struggled, and maybe not reached Red Bull’s expected level of performance. Was that ever on your mind coming into this season? You already seem to be a step ahead of all the ones who came before you.
IH: Obviously, you come in and you’re aware of where you landed, so I definitely had a few doubts because it’s Max. It’s undeniable, he’s great. There was a bit of doubt and pressure, but so far it’s been going pretty much like I wanted. It was definitely on my mind.
Q: (Josh Suttill – The Race) A question for Ollie. Esteban talked about having a power unit quirk where he had a blue flag, it confused the engine on the straight and basically went down to zero. Have you had that this year?
OB: Early this year, yes. I guess these guys don’t know about that, when you get lapped. It’s not a quirk. It’s the regulations, and we understand why it happens. When you lift off and go full throttle again, redeployment is normal, but it’s quite rare that you lift off on the straight and go back on power unless you’re being lapped, which happens to us quite a lot. All of these things are marginal differences that you need to try to avoid, because even though we’re getting lapped sometimes, we’re still in the fight for points, so anything that can help your race time is beneficial.
Q: (Daniel Majer – RallyCafé Magazin) A question to all three of you. We know that Fernando sometimes drives his old cars to keep his enjoyment levels up. At what percentage are your enjoyment levels right now, and which of Fernando’s older cars would you try if he let you?
OP: I’ve driven Fernando’s 2007 car, and I was lucky enough to drive Lewis’s 2008 car earlier this year. I enjoyed it a lot, is what I will say. It’s just a different era. The cars being so light and the noise they make, especially from that time, is pretty incredible. The cars we have now are still very quick, clearly, but when you’ve grown up watching that on TV and listening to it, there’s definitely that element of nostalgia as well. That was the time I started watching Formula 1. I think the cars you grew up watching always seem cooler, whether they actually are or not. Driving cars from 2007 and 2008, I had a pretty big smile on my face when I got out.
OB: I actually got to drive my old car. It’s not as old as Fernando’s, but last year’s Formula One car, and that was really fun. I enjoyed it a lot. It was really nice to be back. If I could drive any of Fernando’s, I would drive all of them, to be honest. I think all of his cars from the past are pretty awesome: his Ferraris, his Renaults and McLarens as well. He also has some pretty cool road cars, so I’m not really picky. If it’s owned by Fernando, I’m happy to give it a go, if he wants me to.
IH: Probably the cars from six years ago. I think they were the fastest cars ever, so probably Lewis’s car. That would be pretty cool. Fernando’s car when he was close to winning in 2010. So, the 2010 Ferrari.
Q: (Ronald Vording – Motorsport.com) One for Isack. We talked about you breaking the trend of second Red Bull drivers struggling. Are there any ways in which you’ve surprised yourself this season? In your own opinion, what are still the main areas for improvement?
IH: I actually haven’t surprised myself this year, to be honest. I’ve just been driving at a high level, definitely better than last year. That’s normal because it’s my second season, so I’m not very experienced, but I’m improving a bit. I would say Max has been very impressive on Sundays, all around. I think my one-lap pace has been pretty good, but how well he is managing the races is on a different level, so that’s what I’m focusing on working on.
