FIA Team Principals press conference – 2024 Mexico City Grand Prix

TEAM REPRESENTATIVES: Ayao KOMATSU (Haas), Mike KRACK (Aston Martin), Christian HORNER (Red Bull Racing)

Q: Mike, can we start with you, first of all? One of your drivers is celebrating a landmark occasion this weekend, 400 races. Can we just start by discussing what makes Fernando Alonso so special?

Mike KRACK: Yeah, I think that is a question that we could ask many, many people in the F1 paddock. He has worked with a lot of teams already. I think we are privileged to be able to organise the celebration now with the party, but I think it’s tribute to everybody that has worked with him for all these years in the first place. But then, obviously, the individual, incredible career over the last 20-plus years, 400 race starts. I wish I could give him a winning car on Sunday. It would be difficult, but I think all in all, if you look back, or if you look at how at an advanced stage of the career he’s still performing, it’s incredible. So if you ask about character or adjectives, there are many, but I think what you need to really point out is the talent, obviously, as many people are having, but then the discipline and foremost, I think the desire, the desire to compete, super competitive. So super competitive, super disciplined and super talented.

Q: Can I bring in the other two on this particular topic? Ayao, you worked with Fernando when you were at Renault. What is your overriding memory of that time?

Ayao KOMATSU: Yes, I was a tyre engineer back then. So I was doing lots of tyre testing with Fernando. And what struck me was just unbelievable ability to understand. If you give him, ‘OK, I want you to do a 20-lap stint on these tyres. I want you to do these laps times for the final five laps of the stint, and then completely use up the tyre on the in-lap’, he can just do that, bang on, knows exactly what it’s going to be like by lap two, lap three, how he drives. He knows what the tyre’s going to be like on lap 20. And he never underused or overused the tyres. He can really hit that, bang on. I was really amazed at that ability. And also, like Mike said, just the desire. He loves the sport, doesn’t he? And just the desire. But yeah, that was really an eye-opener for me.

Q: Christian, I believe you nearly signed Fernando on a couple of occasions. What was it like to negotiate with him?

Christian HORNER: He’s a formidable competitor. At the end of his McLaren stint, the first one in 2008, I remember going to Madrid and pushing to get him in the car. We wanted to do a two-year deal, and he was only prepared to sign for one year. And we were convinced he had a Ferrari contract in his back pocket at that point. So we didn’t get to a deal. And had he come to us in 2009, maybe things could have looked slightly differently. And even halfway through the 2009 season, he was convinced if he got in our car, he could still win the championship that year. So that was that point. We then had a conversation… I remember meeting with him with Adrian in the back of a hire car at Spa Airport. I think that was around 2011, ‘11 or ’12, about coming across from Ferrari and then even as early as the beginning of this year. So it’s incredible the longevity that he’s had, the competitiveness that he has, and the statistics for the talent that he has and the ability he has. Two World Championships don’t do him justice. He should have won more than that.

Q: Alright, thanks. Mike, let’s come back to you. How is Fernando, first of all? He wasn’t at the track yesterday because he was feeling poorly. Is he OK today?

MK: Yeah, he came this morning all normal. We were in touch, obviously, all the time. So he’s fine and he will drive now the second session.

Q: Alright, let’s talk car performance now, with regards to Aston. You had the upgrade in Austin last weekend. Did it perform as expected and will that translate here in Mexico?

MK: Yeah, I mean, if you look at it, it was a Sprint weekend. We decided to start with both cars identical, basically throwing everything at it. And it was not easy the whole weekend. We turned the car up, we turned it down, we went stiff, we went soft. But we couldn’t really extract the performance that we wanted to extract from it. As I said, it was tough. And from this, we said, ‘OK, we come to Mexico, and then we have to do a little bit more homework’. We will have a bit more time. You have seen probably both cars had big rakes on today. They ran with different specifications and they will run also different specifications this afternoon. So it’s about understanding what we have not understood yet and do better going forward.

Q: It seems you’re experimenting a lot at the moment. How are you viewing these last five races of the season? Is it all about 2025 and preparing yourself as best as possible for that?

MK: Yeah, I think that is the case for most of the teams. Everybody has his eyes on ‘25, except if you have big ambitions for the championship or different championship positions. So it’s about learning the maximum. But then we also, this is not only a learning exercise. We’re not here for learning only. I think when Saturday and Sunday start, you have to go racing and you have to go with the best car you have, so I think the Friday is good to experiment and to try and learn for the future, prepare as much as you can, but then come Saturday, Sunday, I think you have to run what you think is the fastest you have.

Q: Thank you. A final one from me, Mike. Andy Cowell, Group CEO, was at Austin. It was his first race with the team. How was the debrief after the race weekend? What comments did he have about the team?

MK: Well, it was very good to have Andy around in Austin so that he gets an overview of how we operate at the track. He was at the factory already for a couple of weeks. It’s obviously a lot about getting to know the people, getting to know how we do things. And I have to say, I’m very, very positive about how we went so far. A very calm, very structured approach, very factual. which is very promising. And from the early talks, early beginnings or early conversations, I think I get an understanding why he was so successful in the places where he was before.

Q: Mike, thank you for that. I’m sure there’ll be more questions for you in a minute. Ayao, can we come to you now? So five consecutive points finishes for the team. Just tell us, first of all, what is the atmosphere like inside Haas at the moment?

AK: Yeah, atmosphere is really good, so obviously scoring points is difficult, but we have to put everything together, so to do that in five consecutive events is great. So, yeah, atmosphere is really positive.

Q: Now, let’s talk upgrades. Obviously, it was a big upgrade in Austin, it worked, but it appears that all of the upgrades you’re introducing this year are working when you put them on the car. That hasn’t always been the case for the team. What’s changed?

AK: Yes, so this year, all the upgrades, it’s not like everything worked completely perfectly, but none of the upgrades made our car slower, so every time we put upgrades on the car, we actually made the car faster. What’s changed, it’s really, we’ve still got the similar people, same people, really, so details about communication, trying to work together as a team, listen to each other, give people freedom. so really those are let’s say simple fundamental things that we really focused on and I’m really pleased that they’re now you know seeing the result of it

Q: And you’re in a an intense battle in the Constructors’ championship with VCARB, just two points the difference and at the moment you’re ahead. Who do you feel has the faster car at the moment?

AK: I think it really depends on the event. You know, they’ve got upgrades here as well. And then, so, like, FP1, they looked quick. We’re not very happy with the car. So I think it really depends every event. And also, like, even track temperature, that can swing things as well. So it’s very difficult to say who’s got upper hand for remaining five races. I think we’ve got to maximise everything you’ve got every day, every race.

Q: Okay, final one from me. The technical partnership with Toyota. You announced that before the Austin weekend. You went to Japan for the announcement. It’s working in addition to your existing relationships with Dallara and Ferrari. Can you just tell us a little bit more about how you’re weaving it all together to work in harmony?

AK: Yeah, obviously, Ferrari and Dallara has been amazing partners since day one. And then as you can see, you know, Ferrari, obviously, the PU partner, gearbox, suspension, hydraulics, et cetera. Those areas, obviously, Toyota’s not touching. You know, the area that Toyota’s touching is the area that we don’t get support from Ferrari, and that we’ve been doing it on our own. So, yeah, that really just adds to our capability and then a chance to understand the car better so that we can make our team more competitive.

Q: And how long-term is this deal with Toyota? I mean, hypothetically, if Gene Haas were to say one day that he wanted to sell his team, do Toyota have first refusal on buying it?

AK: To start with, Gene’s not selling the team. Every single time he’s asking me, how can we go better? What can we do to make the car go faster? He’s not interested in selling. I believe he had so many offers, actually, but he refused every single one of them. So the team’s not up for sale. And then we haven’t even spoken about a first refusal or anything like that. That’s not being on the topic. It is a long term, very long term.

Q: Alright Ayao, thank you for that. I’m sure there’ll be more questions for you in a minute. Christian, coming to you now. Max was saying last weekend in Austin that the RB20 has taken a step forward. Just how big a step?

CH: I think it was a positive step, I mean, to get the pole for the Sprint, to win the Sprint race. Arguably, we were certainly in contention for the pole for the Grand Prix, qualified ultimately on the front row. The bit that we under-delivered on, I think with the set-up changes perhaps after the Sprint race that we perhaps overcompensated, was the Grand Prix itself, where we just had too much understeer in the car. So a Sprint race win, a fighting third, was a very positive weekend. And I think that the engineers, design team and manufacturing, supply chain, they’ve been all working tremendously hard back in the UK and it’s good to see performance getting through to the car.

Q: Okay, there was a slight engine problem on Max’s car this morning, but have you seen enough already in FP1 to believe that the performance will translate here in Mexico?

CH: It’s a different circuit. It’s a different challenge. Obviously, the altitude here, things work a bit differently. We hit a piece of signage that fell off the bridge in the first session, which did a little bit of damage to the floor, but that’s been repaired. The engine issue, thankfully, was a menial issue and has been rectified, hopefully, for the next session.

Q: So, let’s talk about Checo, home race this weekend. Now in the press conference yesterday, he described 2024, and I’m quoting him now, as a terrible season. How would you describe it?

CH: I think he’s summed it up perfectly. It’s been a bad year for Checo. He started strongly and obviously he’s struggled for form since pretty much Imola onwards and it’s been sporadic. We saw flashes of performance, Azerbaijan, arguably he could have won that race almost a month ago. So we know what he’s capable of and we’re hoping that we can give him a set-up and the confidence in the car to extract the kind of performances that we know he’s very capable of.

Q: What does the future hold for Checo?

CH: Look, Checo’s our driver. He’s contracted for 2025. He’s competitive. He’s hungry. He’s not happy with where he currently is. So as a team, we’re doing our very best to support him. Obviously, the big weekend for him here, huge support. I think he’s endorsing every product from Uber Eats to toilet roll this weekend, so it’s impressive how many endorsements he’s managed to line up for himself.

Q: Christian, this is probably a nice segue to talk about Liam Lawson. How impressed were you by his comeback race in Austin?

CH: I was very impressed. I mean, to jump in the car, a circuit that he’d not been to before, the pressure of just having to get in and get on with it over a Sprint weekend, I thought he acquitted himself very well. And I think that to go from the back to ninth and score points on his seasonal debut, I thought he did a super job.

Q: What do you think he’d do in a Red Bull?

CH: I mean, that’s difficult to hypothesize. I mean, he’s obviously a talented guy. We know a bit about him from the work he’s been doing in tire testing and so on. And he’s a talent that’s continuing to nurture and continuing to grow. So it’s interesting to see how he performs over these remaining five races.