FIA Team Principals press conference – 2024 Dutch Grand Prix

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Scott Mitchell-Malm – The Race) Mike, just to follow up something you said in response to the question about Adrian Newey. You mentioned the team becoming more attractive. I wondered, since you’ve joined, how you’ve seen the team grow? Do you feel that the team is now in a place or getting to a place where it can make the most of someone like Adrian versus a few years ago where it was smaller and perhaps a bit less powerful than the top teams in Formula 1?

MK: Yeah, I think, you know, when I joined, I went into the old brick house of the former Jordan factory. And if you pass from the A43 into Silverstone, you see that this has massively changed. So from that point of view, it’s a completely different structure. It’s a different team. the headcount has almost doubled since. So I think this makes you per se not attractive, but this paired with the ambition and everything that goes into these buildings, I think makes us very attractive for the future.

Q: (Nicolo Arnerich – Formula Uno Analisi Technica) Why did you want to invest in the shark inlets, which are very similar to Red Bull that you introduced during this race, while other teams didn’t want to invest in this kind of solution? Maybe because Red Bull and Ferrari didn’t have so much advantage from this kind of solution. So, why did you want to invest on it?

JV: So fundamentally, the aerodynamic direction you see is not dictated so much by what you see from competitors, but rather what in our wind tunnel and our circumstances and our models is producing performance more than anything else. What I can reveal is the development of these was done before any observation of it came to the track for Red Bull. It takes quite a while to effectively produce the components that you’re seeing today. It will get better and better in time, but it’s one of the weaknesses we’re harbouring at the moment. So it isn’t in response to another team, but it is in response to, in our wind tunnel, it is producing performance. Nothing more complicated than that.

Q: (Bas de Wit– NOS Sports) I had a question for Mike, if I may. Last year’s final moments in the race must have been pretty exciting and maybe quite nerve-wracking from your perspective, with Fernando in the tail of Max. Could you bring us back to that moment at the pit wall and which decisions you made at that time and how you managed your own nerves and spirit?

MK: You mean last year? Yes. It was not as nerve-wracking as you might think, because we were hunting the leader and we were not hunted by someone behind. So that is always a much more comfortable position to be in. I felt that everything was under control, both from the pit wall, but also from mission control and from the driver. It was under control in terms of communication. It was quite calm and controlled. Then we had this big shower at the end, again where you have to survive these kind of conditions and I think it was a masterpiece in driving in the first place that brought us into this position and yeah it led us to the podium. But this is all in the past. We are now in the now and we cannot rest on the any of these laurels and have to try and score as many points as possible this weekend.

Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) Andrea, Lando yesterday said that he’s making too many mistakes. Do you think that perhaps he’s struggling to deal with the pressure of fighting for this world championship? And do you at McLaren think that Lando can actually win the world championship this year or at least take Max to the wire?

AS: I think I replied to this question before. Lando is definitely world championship material. He performs already at levels that I’ve seen in the past in some of the great champions I have the luck to work with. He is on a journey like the entire team is. And if we compare against perfections, then we do see some opportunities. I mentioned before some of the opportunities coming in the first lap, for instance, and trying to find the balance between being aggressive or simply like staying away from situation or accidents. We definitely have something to clean on the start itself, which is not only driver, it’s also a team responsibility. And then I think he had a couple of situations in the races in which he might have taken some of the responsibility, but I think it was the team responsibility. Like if I think Canada, a case in which we didn’t pit Lando for the late Safety Car before the pit entry, or if I think about Silverstone and the final stint, that’s the team responsibility. If the team had operated at higher standards, then Lando would have more points in the championship, and definitely as a team we kind of appreciate that. he puts some of the pressure on himself, or he raises his hand and says, like, it was on me, but… I think I have enough experience to say, mate, don’t worry, that’s on the team. Keep doing the good job. Keep working to improve on your own opportunities. But definitely we as a team have quite a lot of work to do as well.

Q: Andrea, second part of Phil’s question. Can he win the World Championship?

AS: So he can win world championships. That’s a statement that’s capital letters. In terms of this year’s championships, certainly we don’t give up. Numerically, from a driver’s championship point of view, it looks like there’s a big gap to fill. And we are chasing Max Verstappen, so definitely he’s not going to make it easy for us. But we are excited to be in this position. And definitely Lando is not in this position because somebody helped him. Lando is in this position because he performs very strongly. And that’s something that we should acknowledge and realize in terms of his achievements, not only in terms of the one, two, three opportunities in a season in which he could have done better. Because this is normal. And this is normal for every world champion in every season.

Q: (Adam Cooper – Adam Cooper F1) A question for all four of you. Jonathan Wheatley is joining your Piranha Club next year. Just wanted your thoughts on him as a person and also the fact that you guys are all part of this trend. we’ve seen recently of engineers becoming team bosses. He’s come from a different direction. He’s worked his way up, chief mechanic, sporting director with a different skill set. So just wanted your thoughts on that and also if you’ve got any advice for him?

JV: I mean, first and foremost, congratulations to him. It’s something I know that he wanted, and he’s done a brilliant job within Red Bull. He’s been part of the success that they’ve had there. You look at the areas that he’s responsible for, which is the operation of the race car track side, the race team, the pit stops, and you can see the diligence he applies to that area. They are class leaders, and that’s not by chance. That’s through hard work and applying diligence to it. In terms of the background people come from, I’ve said this already. The leadership skills are the important bits that come out of it. We all have different sets of skills around the table. I think, as you pointed out here, certainly there’s an engineering background to it. But there’s far better engineers than I am within an organization. That’s not what I bring to it. I bring a good understanding of how to run a business fundamentally, but not to the expertise of some of the other team principals. But it’s the communication and leadership that really comes through. And in that regard, I can only adjudicate by what he’s done at Red Bull. I think he’s got a good foundation to work from and wish him all the best in that regard.

AK: Yeah, I don’t know him that well, but of course I was at Enstone, then Jonathan was there before me at Enstone, so I’ve heard indirectly from the people who worked for him how good he was. And then, like James said, what he achieved at Red Bull is amazing. So, yeah, I’m really happy that he’s got this opportunity. I’m sure he will do a really good job.

Q: (Jon Noble – Motorsport.com) To Andrea. Before the summer, as Zak Brown suggested, there could be some discussions during the break about whether Lando perhaps needed a bit of extra help for the championship and maybe even making him number one and pushing him. Were there any discussions on that front? And what is the stance for the rest of the season regarding him and Oscar racing?

AS: I think when it comes to these conversations about being the number one, I don’t think that’s a good way of approaching racing. For us, we’d rather approach racing from fairness, integrity, and then see what comes, what sheds from this kind of approach. It’s ten races to go. I think for Lando to realistically be in condition to chase the World Championship, he needs to keep performing at a very high level. He needs to keep being fast. And then you gain your ranks on track. And if you gain your ranks, if you gain your merits on track by being fast, by being competitive, then we will evaluate, always led by integrity and fairness, whether on some occasions we need the team to take a certain direction in a 50-50 decision, or if we want to have a conversation with Oscar and say, like, ‘Oscar, would you be available to do this to support Lando chasing the World Championship?’, but it will always have to be a conversation before the race. Nobody should be surprised. We all should be in agreement because ultimately we chase and we are in the quest for a driver’s World Championship as a team. There’s nobody that goes his own way, and then the others will have to follow. So that’s our style, which is I don’t think it can be necessarily and simply summarised in like. we elect a number one, and then we work accordingly. I would like to keep this more articulated as a team, and then be more on a case-by-case situation.

Q: (Niamh Lewis – ESPN) Question for all of you, or who wants to answer. Kind of on well-being and how you look after fitness and nutrition of all your team members with so many races, so much traveling, and every weekend being so packed. So do the teams have any kind of policies on how people can manage it? And also, do you feel like you have to lead by example in terms of looking after yourselves physically and mentally?

MK: You mentioned lead by example. I think this applies not only to looking after yourself, but in any kind of things you do for the team and with the team. You cannot expect people to come at 7.30 in the morning if you come at 9.30 in the morning. You cannot expect people to be open and transparent if you are not. So I think that is a general principle. that applies not only to nutrition or to partying or whatever in life, but I think that applies to any kind of leader of a team. If you are not leading by example, you cannot ask your people to do things if you do not do them yourself.

AS: Yeah, I think with 24 races and more in general with the demand of Formula 1, managing fatigue is a very important part of Formula 1 business. And this is not only because of performance or well-being, but even health. Like, you need to look at this very holistically. And this is the reason why pretty much, I guess, all teams invest, invest money, invest even from an organization point of view. in having doctors trackside or at the factory, physiotherapists, and even the mental health, which is a topic that definitely McLaren will be very supportive in terms of a general team and awareness from this point of view. So definitely we have investments, because like I say, it’s health, it’s well-being, and it’s performance. If you are not well-rested, you’re not going to do a good job when you are trackside.

Q: (Madeline Coleman – The Athletic) A question for James. Obviously, with Carlos coming in, Logan is looking for another seat or another opportunity for next season. Looking at his performance, what are some strengths that you’ve seen from him and what are some opportunities of where he can kind of improve?

JV: I mean, one of the strengths that’s underrated in his regard is he has a huge mental resilience. We just spoke about it a second ago. But he takes a punishment in the media, in the world, really, almost weekend on weekend. But when it comes the following weekend, he’s cleared his mind of that. And he’s here just to perform fundamentally. And he builds up to the weekend in the way it needs to be. And it’s not that he hasn’t progressed. If you look across the last 18 months, you can clearly see that from where he was to where he is now in terms of number of mistakes, proximity to Alex, where he’s qualifying and where he achieves, how many seconds behind he’s finishing now. It is all on the right journey. What he’s very good at doing now, which was a weakness beforehand, was building up into the weekend, fundamentally. So finding the limit, but approaching it from a bottom up perspective rather than top down. Because top down, when you make one mistake, you lose a session and you start to put yourself at risk. I think he’s matured a lot as a driver, his own words rather than mine, but he’s able to deal with the pressure and what comes at you much, much better as a result of it now. And he’s also using a lot more of the tools that are available to him both within the car and outside of the car within the engineering systems that we have, et cetera. So those are all good progresses. And what I would always ascertain is we have to remember that we have the top 20 drivers in the world fundamentally competing on a world stage. And he’s ending up something akin to a few tenths off. And that’s not a large amount. That still puts you in good stead for the remainder of the world. I’m impressed with, as I said, how, when things are difficult, he can reset himself and bring it back onto a world stage.

Q: (Carlo Platella – FormulaPassion.it) Andrea, after the race in Spa, you explained how you prefer a robust mentality when it comes to strategy because it’s more rewarding than making risky choices. Would you say you are using the same approach also with development?

AS: I don’t think it’s a one-to-one transfer of what could be a safe approach to strategy to what is a safe approach to development. We try and be considerate. Let’s say we think over the course of a season, a robust approach could be more rewarding than trying to gamble and go for the jackpot all the time. Like in particular, when we think about Belgium, we did consider the one-stop. But I wasn’t ready to sign it off, because if it doesn’t work, you may lose many points. It did work for Russell, but this is just an example of, like, unless you have evidence, data, and you can make a robust decision in terms of the outcome, then I think playing conservative is a good way of approaching the long-term outcome.