FIA post-qualifying press conference – Azerbaijan

DRIVERS

1 – Charles LECLERC (Ferrari), 2 – Oscar PIASTRI (McLaren), 3 – Carlos SAINZ (Ferrari)

TRACK INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Alex Brundle)

Q: Carlos, great lap. You seem to have the car underneath you at Ferrari this weekend. Is that the way it felt to you? Really, really strong performance throughout qualifying.

Carlos SAINZ: Yeah, I think we had a solid quali, a solid day in general with the two cars. And I think we put ourselves in a very good position for tomorrow. I've never really been 100% hooked up around here in my career. It's a track that I tend to struggle a bit, so to be P3 is a good position for tomorrow, as also my race pace yesterday seemed strong, so all to play for tomorrow.

Q: The track was moving around all over the place underneath you. How difficult was it to keep up with the swift evolution of the track early on and then it tailing off towards the last part of qualifying?

CS: Yeah, definitely. The track was ramping up a lot and we were getting more and more grip as the track cools down and the sun goes down. So it was all about adapting. I found something going into Q3 that gave me a bit more confidence. Yeah, probably wasn't the best of build-ups to do that Q3 lap, but at least I found something that allowed me to put it into the top three, which is a decent position for tomorrow.

Q: Was the Ferrari front row available today, or was Oscar a little bit far away from you?

CS: If I would have been a bit quicker, yes, but it's Baku where I've never been my best version of myself around here. But I think tomorrow we can be.

Q: Great job. Thanks so much. Oscar, second on the grid. Brilliant job. You seemed to find a little bit extra into Q3. Where did that come from?

Oscar PIASTRI: I just got a bit closer to the walls and on the last lap got a little bit too close! But yeah, just tried to really get the most out of it. This track really rewards commitment. So yeah, the last laps in Q3, I knew I had a lot less to lose. So just try and maximise the car. I was feeling good all the way through. Just didn't maximize it that much in the first part of qualifying. But no, very happy with Q3.

Q: Looking at your race pace, are you going to have the speed to be strong and challenge for the victory tomorrow?

OP: I think from where we're starting, yes. But I think following around here is going to be really tough. We saw yesterday that it was pretty tough once you get behind someone. So hopefully I can get some clean air and that would be good. But yeah, we'll see what we can do. I think our race pace is good. But again, the Ferrari is certainly not slow.

Q: And given the qualifying performance, it goes without saying, you have the green light to go all out for victory tomorrow.

OP: Definitely.

Q: Charles Leclerc, mesmerising lap. From an evocative win for the team at home in Monza to continuing your amazing run of form in qualifying here. Just talk us through the challenge of setting a lap like that between the walls. It's been so low grip all weekend, but you absolutely nailed it.

Charles LECLERC: Yeah, well, I mean, it's one of my favourite track of the season. I really like it. It hasn't been an easy weekend because obviously the crash in FP1, which didn't make me lose confidence, I knew that the pace was there, but obviously you've got to build back up to speed. Then in FP2, we had a problem on a new part we brought on the car and there was something wrong there. So we lost another half an hour and then it’s laps that you don't really recover. So I was not worried, but I knew that we had to make up some time. But the pace was always there. And then in qualifying, until Q3, it was all about trying to stay as far as possible off the walls. And then in that last lap, I went for it a bit more. And the lap time came very nicely. I mean, the car felt really good and everything felt great. So, yeah, it's amazing to be on pole.

Q: You have yourself and Carlos up in the top three positions. Is that a benefit strategically moving into tomorrow with two Ferraris near the front of the field?

CL: Let's say it's the best we could have hoped for. I mean normally the even side of the grid has a little bit less grip, so first and third is where you want to start and hopefully we can play a team game tomorrow to win that race. But it's going to be a long race. In the past we were very strong in qualifying struggling a bit in the race. This year we have a stronger race car, so I hope that we can finally make it tomorrow.

Q: More whispering with the tyres, just like in Monza, to take it through to the end of the race perhaps?

CL: Oh, definitely. I mean, tyre management will be a big thing tomorrow as well. So we've got to do a good job. We've done a really good job in Monza. But yeah, as I said, we have to reset every race as we do. And that's what we did. So tomorrow is another race with other issues, even though tyre degradation is there. It's with different tyres. So you've got to adapt to that. And we'll do our homework tonight to get ready for tomorrow.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Brilliant job, Charles. Both of your laps in Q3 were good enough for pole. The car seemed very hooked up. Just talk us through that final lap.

CL: Well, it was a good lap. I just took a little bit more risk compared to the first attempt in Q3. It was important to just have a lap on the board, and then in the second lap, you just take more risk and see what happens. Luckily, I finished both of the laps, and they were good laps. The car felt really good since FP1. Honestly, we barely changed the car from FP1 to now. Straight away, I felt happy and the balance remained really good. We had to counter a little bit the track evolution because there's a lot of track evolution here, but the feeling was there straight away in FP1, even though there were not many laps in FP1 and FP2. That didn't stop us to recover after that and to be at ease for all the weekend.

Q: What is it about you and this racetrack, four pole positions, where do you find the time?

CL: This I don't know. I've been thinking about it. And obviously, whenever you have a good weekend, you try to analyse. But I don't really have a strong answer to it. I guess it just goes with my driving style very naturally, because most of the time, you have to work a lot to try and gain lap time. But there, I just feel good with the rhythm of this track for some reason. And yeah, that makes it a particularly good track for me.

Q: You said you haven't had to change the car much this weekend. So what about your race pace? Let's throw it forward to tomorrow. How confident are you?

CL: I mean, I didn't do a lap with high fuel, but it's been a pretty strong point of the car this year. So I am not worried going into tomorrow's race, but obviously we need to do things right. So I'll have to do a bit of homework tonight in order to get ready for tomorrow, but I'm not too worried that we'll do the best job with our package and then we'll see whether it's good enough to win the race tomorrow or not.

Q: And after all these pole positions at this racetrack, what would it mean to finally win the Azerbaijan Grand Prix?

CL: It would be nice. I mean, in ‘21 and... No. Yeah, ‘21 and ‘20, I think, it was quite unexpected, the pole position. So we didn't have the pace in the car to win. No, sorry, ‘21 and ‘23. In 22, we had a good car, and then the engine blew up. So, hopefully tomorrow the pace is there, and we don't have anything that stops us to win it. But again, before thinking about the final result, there are still lots of laps around this track, and it's a very difficult track. So we'll see tomorrow. But in the meantime, I'll just make sure that I am doing the best preparation possible.

Q: Alright. Very well done today. Thank you, Oscar. Let's come to you now. Front row start. But you said over the radio that that second lap of Q3 was the messiest one you've ever done. Really?

OP: Maybe not the messiest ever, but it certainly wasn't the cleanest. A few big moments in there and a couple of love taps with the wall. So, yeah, I mean, I pushed to get everything out of it that I could. And, yeah, maybe a little bit too much in some places, but I don't think I had enough to get polled today, so... I'm pretty happy with the front row. And yeah, hopefully we can try and put up a fight tomorrow.

Q: You only had the one set of new tyres for Q3. How much did that hold you back?

OP: I don't think that much in the end. I think the used tyres I did, I did more or less half a lap on it. So it wasn't completely used. And around here, the tyres have been a little bit strange, I would say. And just with the track evolution, it's more about doing a good lap rather than having the perfect set of tyres. So I was pretty happy with P3 after the first set. And then I found a little bit more on the second set of tyres. So yeah, I was pretty happy with that.

Q: You've mentioned the track evolution. Charles mentioned it. How much did it ramp up during the session? And did you get to a point where it stabilised?

OP: No. It was just getting faster and faster. I think from the start of FP1 to now… Normally we go maybe three seconds faster or maybe four in some places, but here it's been, I don't know what the number is, but it's like seven or eight. So, you really had to adapt a lot through the weekend and try to adapt your driving to the track you've got and adapt the car to what the track is going to be, which always makes life a little bit more difficult for the engineers and for us. But, yeah, it's never stabilized. And I think on a street circuit, it never will. It will just continue to get better and better.

Q: So it looks like another good battle with Ferrari, as it was last time out at Monza. Who do you think's got the faster race car here?

OP: Probably whoever finishes in front tomorrow, I would say! I don't know. I think it's very, very even. Through all of practice it looked very tight between us, Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull. To be honest, I was a bit surprised Red Bull weren't a bit further up at the end of Q3, but I think our race pace looked good yesterday, but nowadays the top four teams are so close in race pace that qualifying often makes a massive difference. So I've got confidence that our car will be quick. But yeah, I think there's definitely seven other cars out on the track that are certainly not any slower.

Q: Oscar, very well done to you. Carlos, if we can come to you now. Great to see you back in the top three. Can I start with this question as to who's got the faster race car, Ferrari or McLaren? What is your opinion on that?

CS: I think it's extremely tight. I think it's obviously one of... Charles was mentioning it’s one of his best tracks and he tends to always find a couple of tenths on the Ferrari around here and that probably makes us look like the fastest car, but I think it's honestly within two tenths between the top four cars and it makes it an exciting battle and an exciting race for tomorrow.

Q: Well, let's bring it back to today for you. Just talk us through the quali from your point of view and Q3 in particular.

CS: Yeah, but I managed to find a couple of things in Q3 that gave me a bit more pace than what I was showing in Q1 and Q2. Probably found it a bit too lat. By the time I found them, I wish I would have had more laps before to get used to driving the car a bit like that. And I felt like I was more competitive. But, you know, it's always been a track that I struggle a lot at. It's the best track for Charles and one of the worst ones for me, and I'm glad to be P3 and have a good position going into tomorrow, although it's something that I keep working on around here because from FP1 I always tend to lack a bit of rhythm and I need to build it up.

Q: Can you tell us a little bit more about what you found in the middle of the session?

CS: Nothing that I can reveal obviously in a press conference, because I would be revealing a bit too much, but just little things. Little things that you can do in quali to get the car to stop a bit better in the long braking zones, that gives you a bit more confidence to brake those three to five metres later that around here is fundamental. It's interesting because I normally feel very comfortable in city tracks like Singapore, Monaco or any, but Baku has never been, in my 10 years in Formula 1, one of those. But every year I come back here trying to improve myself, trying to find more of an edge in my driving, but it just doesn't come very natural to me.

Q: Carlos, when you look at the data, Charles' data, is there one particular area, given how good you are at street tracks, is there one particular area that you look at Charles and go, OK, it's there?

CS: Yeah, for sure. I mean, the braking, no. It's all about braking here in Baku and having the confidence to stop the car as late as possible, trusting that the car then is going to turn in into the corner. And yeah, that's where he excels around here and where he's particularly comfortable from the beginning of FP1. From my side, I don't know why I don't have exactly that same feeling that I have in Singapore, maybe on the higher downforce, or in Monaco with higher downforce, but it's what it is. I still think I made some good progress. I'm going into tomorrow into the top three. So, yeah, I still think we're in the mix.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Jake Boxall-Legge – Autosport) A question for Charles and Carlos please. Charles, we heard you sort of complaining a little bit on the radio about the tow, I think in Q2. Can you guys just kind of explain if you had any specific plan for that whether it was missing the tow with each other or was it timing it with other cars? Can you just sort of like go into the tactics there, please?

CL: Oh, no, no, it was nothing down to Carlos. It was just because I was the first car of the group, so I had nobody in front, but there was no... Yeah, we didn't plan anything between the cars. I just wish there was maybe another team in front and I didn't want to be the first car. And on a track like this it makes a bit of a difference and I also saw Max's lap in Q2 who had a massive tow in the last sector, so I just didn't want to be losing out to pole in Q3 because of something like that, so I was just making sure that the team knew that it was going to be important for Q3.

CS: It was, I think, a matter of… I think we both went in the middle of the session in Q2 while every other team waited until the track evolution. We prioritised putting a lap in the middle of Q2 to be safe going into Q3, and that left us exposed to no tow. And yeah, we were just making sure that for Q3 we were having one. That is when it counts.

Q: (Aytan Asgarli - Nargiz Magazine) I would like to ask you, Carlos, Baku has produced some unpredictable races in the past. What's the most unusual or unexpected thing? How do you prepare mentally before the race tomorrow?

CS: I think the biggest challenge of Baku normally is when there are red flags because that breaks the rhythm of the race. I remember one year there was two or three red flags on the same race and that really breaks the rhythm of the race. and then you have to wait while they clear the track, and obviously that is the biggest thing. Then the Safety Cars. Here it's very difficult to keep temperature in the tyres, so whenever there's a Safety Car restart, it's very easy to front lock, very easy to go wide into the first three corners. So yeah, all these aspects make Baku an unpredictable race, because as soon as there's one curve ball, like a Safety Car or a red flag, it actually generates even more chaos after, as a snowball effect.

Q: (Jake Boxall-Legge – Autosport) A question for Oscar this time, please. Oscar, we heard Lando sound pretty downbeat yesterday about the car. Were you sort of feeling the same thing about it or were you a lot more happy after FP1, FP2? Was there anything you had to change overnight to be sitting here today?

OP: Honestly, I was pretty happy with it. We had a bit to find for sure. But yeah, I think I said yesterday I felt like we were in the ball park. And yeah, I'm not massively surprised to be sat here. But, yeah, I definitely didn't feel like we were the quickest yesterday. But, again, I feel like it's so close between the top four teams that you never quite know who's going to come out on top. Red Bull were looking very quick at certain points. Ferrari obviously looking very quick. Even Mercedes at points as well. So, yeah, I always thought we were in a pretty good place. So, yeah, not that surprised to be here.

Q: (Lewis Larkham – Crash.net) Charles, your fourth pole in Baku. Where does this one rank compared to the rest, and do you feel it was your best yet, and if so, why?

CL: No, it's not the best. I think the ‘21 one was probably the best as we were in a very, very difficult year. I think we were fighting for P9, P10, that championship and to be on pole here was very special. However, it was a good lap. I mean, it was a really good lap. Again, there's not... For some reason, there's not that much scatter between my laps on this track. It looks like I'm very consistent. But again, I don't really have the magic answer. But I just like the rhythm of this track. And every lap I was doing was quite competitive from FP1. And the balance was feeling really good. So the lap was good. It was really good. But yeah, it's also very difficult to compare it to other years.

Q: (Aytan Asgarli - Nargiz Magazine) I would like to ask a question to all three of you. And it's actually quite an easy one, but more like fun related. What anthem song do you listen to before a race to get into the zone, considering how hard it's going to be tomorrow on the city circuit?

CL: I like instrumental, motivational music. It's like the movie music. That gives me a lot of energy before getting into the car. But if I am too tense, which doesn't happen very often, but it did on a few occasions, like Monaco maybe, before the start this year, then it's more calming music, and it's very calm, just to release the tension a little bit. But yeah, otherwise, instrumental, motivational music.

Q: Do you ever listen to your own music?

CL: Before Monaco, I did, because that's a lot more calming than the other type of songs I normally listen to.

Q: Oscar?

CL: Do you listen to my songs?

OP: No! Maybe I should. I honestly don't listen to anything. When we're in Europe, I normally end up listening to whatever Lando listens to because it's at a volume loud enough for both of us. And then, I mean, whatever they play on the grid, you can kind of listen to whatever you want, but especially when we go to like the Netherlands, yeah… I don't know how your calming music works in Zandvoort, but normally whatever they play on the grid, which to be honest is normally my kind of music anyway, but in a few places it's a bit much and you just kind of... You have to shout sometimes to speak to your engineers, which is a little bit frustrating, but it's all for the atmosphere.

Q: Carlos?

CS: I'm going to sound boring, but I don't need any music. I'm already pumped up and nervous enough, having the goosebumps before the race to even put something on my ear to pump me up even more. I actually just talked a bit with myself. Sometimes I need to, if I pump myself up, I do a stronger warm up. If I need to calm down, I have a bit more time to chill. I tell you one thing that pumps me up here is the Azerbaijan anthem. It's quite strong here. It's a good one. And it's an anthem that when we're standing on the grid is very powerful, actually, and it's good fun.