FIA post-qualifying press conference – 2024 Dutch Grand Prix

1. Lando Norris (McLaren), 2. Max Verstappen (Red Bull), 3. Oscar Piastri (McLaren)

TRACK INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Jolyon Palmer)

Q: Max Verstappen it’s second place today in Zandvoort, but what a show you put on. There was a huge cheer from the crowd when you provisionally took pole. Just wasn’t quite to be today.

Max VERSTAPPEN: Yeah, I think the whole qualifying we just lacked a bit of pace. I tried the best I could. I’m still very happy, of course, to be on the front row. It’s very tricky out there with the wind. I mean, you know, you have these gusts of wind coming in, so every single lap just feels different. So you can’t really go off a reference as well. But yeah, I’m happy with second. I think after yesterday as well, this is a good result.

Q: How tricky was it with the balance? We saw your lap at the end fighting the car in the chicane, 11 and 12, some understeer, some oversteer. Piecing a lap together just looked very hard.

MV: Yeah, it’s how it is at the moment. Not the easiest to drive, but the rest of the lap was quite solid. I think, yeah, only 11, 12 was a bit difficult. But yeah, we’ll see. Hopefully the car is OK tomorrow in the race.

Q: No one’s ever beaten you at this circuit. Three wins on the bounce here. You at least start from the front row. Can you win?

MV: We’ll give it a good go. But of course, when you are more than three tenths behind in qualifying, I think we have to be realistic. You know, I just try to have a good race tomorrow.

Q: Alright. Well, you’re on the front row at least. Well done, Max. Good luck. Oscar, not quite the front row in the end. You were so close all the way through qualifying, just slipped back to third. What went wrong on the final lap?

Oscar PIASTRI: Yeah, I just didn’t do a good enough job, really. I think the first half lap was pretty solid and then the second half just wasn’t quite what I needed. So, yeah, clearly the car’s been very quick this weekend and, yeah, a little bit disappointing to not be a bit higher up, but we’ve still got a good race car underneath us and we can get some really good points and hopefully some trophies tomorrow. So, yeah, we’ll give it a try.

Q: You’ve got upgrades on the car. Obviously, with the weather that we’ve had this weekend, it’s been very difficult to get too many great reads, I imagine, from it. But they seem to be working well?

OP: Yeah, I think they’re all doing what they expect, what we expect them to do. And yeah, anything you can put on the car, especially when it’s as tight as it is, it’s always a good thing. So yeah, not the easiest conditions to see what it’s like, but as long as it makes the car quicker, then I’m happy.

Q: And the car looked good on the long run as well. You think that should give you a chance, bring you into play for a victory tomorrow, perhaps?

OP: Yeah, I think it’s definitely not out of the question. Yeah, the pace did look good in the long run. And yeah, we’ve been pretty quick the last few weekends. So hopefully we can have a good day tomorrow, get a good start and try and make up a couple of spots if I can. But yeah, some good things on offer tomorrow.

Q: Alright, Oscar, well done. I hope you can get in the fight. Lando, what a performance that was. We’re back from the summer break and you’re back with a bang, pole by three and a half tenths today. Incredible.

Lando NORRIS: Thank you. Yeah, an amazing day. Nice to be back and start with a pole. It was a nice lap. Honestly, the qualifying was always pretty smooth and put in some good laps, especially the one at the end, which is always the most important. So great job by the team and happy with today.

Q: And everyone’s talking about these weather conditions, the wind, the rain. You seem to be happy across the board. Every lap that you’re doing is wild at the front, rain or shine, wind or no wind.

LN: It’s harder than it looks, I think! I mean, everyone’s complaining of it because it is tricky. It’s not easy out there. And every lap, you have to kind of… know what to expect and know how much more you can push, where the limits are. But that’s our job in the end of the day. So it’s not easy, but I felt comfortable out there. The car was feeling amazing. We’ve got some upgrades on the car for the first time in a while and everything’s working very well. So a big thanks to the team too.

Q: And looking forward to tomorrow. It’s a shorter run to the first corner than Barcelona and Budapest. Can you hang on to it?

LN: I don’t know why you’re saying that, but I’m excited for tomorrow. I’m sure it’s going to be tough. Max has been quick all weekend. I know we got him today, but he’s still second and he’s going to be putting up a good fight, especially at his home race. So I’m looking forward to it.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: A dramatic qualifying session, Lando, and a brilliant final lap of Q3. Just how good were you? How good was the car out there?

LN: Both. I think both were good. I mean, especially my last lap in Quali Q3, Run 2 was by far my best lap. But I felt good all the way through qualifying, honestly. The car’s been strong all weekend. We felt comfortable. We felt strong. And especially come today in qualifying, since the first lap we did, I felt like always in a good rhythm. and It’s just not easy around here because it’s not an easy track, first of all. But it’s also even more difficult with the wind and the conditions and stuff. So just doing laps which are not mistake-free and not kind of locking up, not doing anything which would make me lose a little bit of confidence. And I just kept chipping away and improving every lap. So both were good, the car and I think myself too.

Q: You mentioned earlier that you’re very happy with the upgraded parts that have come to this race, but are you surprised by the gap to Max?

LN: Maybe a little bit, but it all depends on wind and conditions. You know, I feel like I did a very good lap, by far my best. But I think it’s a track where when you just hook everything up and it just flows a little bit better. You catch a little bit of a headwind or a little bit less tailwind in certain places, you can easily go one, two tenths quicker. But I don’t know if that’s why or not. But the car was good and I felt good too. I mean, whenever you’re going to bring upgrades to a car, and I think especially for us, we’ve been quite patient. We’ve not really brought many upgrades, or we haven’t brought any real performance-enhancing upgrades since Miami. We brought always little bits, and there’s always little things that we’ve added, but this is our first, let’s say, upgrade. We took our time because we wanted to make sure it worked well and worked as soon as we put it on the car and it does what it wants. And so far it’s looked exactly that way. So credits to the team for playing a big part in this too.

Q: Lando, it’s been a stop-start weekend with very little dry practice. What does it all mean for tomorrow? Are there lots of unknowns going into this 72-lap race?

LN: I mean, there are always some unknowns. I think we’re in a pretty reasonable place. Our long-run pace was pretty strong the other day, but Max, Oscar, both the Mercs, especially George, in the position he is, are quick and are going to be challenging. So I’m not expecting anything easy for sure. Tomorrow is going to look the most calm from a weather and a wind point of view, which is always a nicer thing to look forward to. I think we’re in a good way, so hopefully we can continue what we had today into tomorrow.

Q: Alright, very well done. Thank you, Lando. Max, let’s come to you now. A mighty effort by you to split the McLarens. How good was that final lap of Q3 from you?

MV: I don’t know. I mean, I had a bit of a moment in 11-12, but that was also a bit my qualifying in general. I never really felt… Every run, there were always one or two corners where I felt like I was losing a lot of time with just the gust of wind. And it seemed like it was very sensitive for us. The car was really responding aggressively to it. And that’s why I think every single run that I did it was different. I just had a different balance every time. Yeah, it just made it very difficult. Q3, I think the first lap wasn’t too bad. Then I tried to push it a bit more, but everything just seems very snappy, very on the edge, I would say. But nevertheless, I mean, I’m happy to be on the front row. I think after Q1 and Q2, I mean, I’ve never really been in that top five region. Of course, I was trying to save tyres a bit because I only had four sets, but I never really felt that I was in the fight for pole. And then when you come out of qualifying on the front row, I think that’s OK.

Q: So, what about the race? I mean, you’ve talked about the one lap pace of the car. Do you think you’ll be more competitive relative to Lando in the race?

MV: I mean, I would hope so, but I think when you see the gap, it’s going to be very tricky. Also, it just seems like Lando’s a bit happier in general with just the driving and how he feels. I’m a bit more all over the place with the balance, so I don’t know, maybe it stabilises a bit tomorrow, but I guess we’ll find out.

Q: Do you think this is going to be a strategic race, or do you think the start is your best opportunity tomorrow to take the lead?

MV: I don’t know. I mean, anything can happen, right, in the race. So we’ll find out. All right.

Q: Very well done to you. Thank you. Oscar, let’s come to you now. A little bit off in Q3. Start by telling us about the positives that you take from the session today.

OP: I didn’t crash like last year, so that was good! No, I think until the last lap, it was pretty good. Obviously, I think with the pace we had with the car today, I think P3 is not exactly a result to be jumping up and down about. But no, I think the rest of qualifying was pretty good. It all ran smoothly and I think a lot of those things were positive, just didn’t quite nail it when I needed to at the end. So a bit disappointing there, but we’ve still got a lot of opportunities starting from where we are.

Q: How much of this comes down to the upgrades? Are you less comfy in the car at the minute than Lando?

OP: No. I mean, to be honest, the car feels very, very similar. I think, you know, we’ve improved the car like a second and a half since last year or something crazy, and it doesn’t feel that different. So I don’t think it’s anything to do with that. I think simply Lando did a good job in the last run of Q3, and I didn’t do as good a job as I should have. So, yeah, I think it’s just simply down to that.

Q: Alright. And what’s your mentality going into the race tomorrow?

OP: I think try and, of course, get a good start. That would be the first plan. And, yeah, strategy could be an interesting thing tomorrow. So we’ll see. I think Max has got slightly different options to us. So, yeah, let’s see what we’ve got. But I think we’ve got a very quick car underneath us, and hopefully we can use that on my side to go a bit further forward.