F1 - 2024 CANADIAN GRAND PRIX POST-QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
DRIVERS
1 – George RUSSELL (Mercedes)
2 – Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing)
3 – Lando NORRIS (McLaren)
TRACK INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Jolyon Palmer)
Q: George Russell, pole position. That was a qualifying session for the ages, and you got it in a dead heat. But it wasn't a fluke. You were so quick today.
George RUSSELL: Oh, amazing. It feels so good, feels so good! So much hard work back at the factory has gone into this. We said it in Monaco that we hope this is the start of something for our season, and I think it is. I've missed this feeling.
Q: Yeah, it's amazing. You had such a big cheer from the crowd here. They love to see a Mercedes back on top. Where's this pace come from, George?
GR: It's awesome here. Every time we come to Montréal, it's such good energy from all the fans. And I'm excited for tomorrow. So, obviously, first step done. But obviously, now we've got our eyes on that win.
Q: Can you keep Max behind you?
GR: Why not? Of course. Let's go for it. I think the car has been feeling amazing. Since we bought some upgrades to Monaco, we've sort of really been in that fight now. So, we're going for it tomorrow.
Q: Alright. Best of luck. Well done, George. Well, Max, there was literally nothing in it today, but you have to settle for second place. That must be frustrating when it's a dead heat.
Max VERSTAPPEN: I mean, it's how it is, right? I think overall we still had a good qualifying. The whole weekend has been still a bit tricky for us. But to be P2, I’ll take it. I mean, going into qualifying, I would have definitely taken that. So that it was that close at the end, yeah, makes it really exciting for tomorrow as well.
Q: And this looks like more conventional Red Bull than what we saw in Monaco. Have you felt better than last time out, able to fight tomorrow?
MV: I mean, I felt good in Monaco, but it was just not our track. It was not happening for us. This weekend, again, we didn't have a great build-up to today. But, yeah, I think it will be quite an interesting race with the tyres tomorrow, how they are going to fare, the weather as well. It keeps on coming in and out, the rain. So, yeah, hopefully it will be very exciting.
Q: What's the plan? Attack at the start or play the long game tomorrow?
MV: I don't know. We'll think about it. I'm not that stressed about it.
Q: Lando, two whole hundredths away from pole position.
Lando NORRIS: Is that it?
Q: That's it. Great lap.
LN: It's a shame.
Q: Not quite enough today. But you must be happy?
LN: I'm super happy. First of all, congrats to Mr. Russell. I knew he's been quick all weekend, so congrats to him and to Mercedes. But I'm happy with third. When you're so close, you always think, ‘could I have jumped in the car for that little bit more?’ But yeah, third is a good job by us, so I'm happy and excited for tomorrow.
Q: It looked such a tricky session from the cockpit. A threat of rain that never really came. You had to be on it every single lap and not miss a beat.
LN: Pretty much. But that's Montréal. I think that's why we love it here. It's one of the best places to come to every year. So, yeah, I love it. I mean, it's why we're all smiling. We have a good time. It's tricky. Like, a lot of the time, you're thinking you're going to crash, half of it, but when you put a nice lap in and you end up top three, it's always a nice feeling.
Q: Yeah, it was thrilling to watch. And you put some dicey overtakes last year. You've got two to make tomorrow.
LN: Yeah, two overtakes tomorrow. Easy, light work. So, no, I'm excited to see what we can do. You know, car's been great all season, especially the last three, four races. We've been on a good roll, but two very fast drivers ahead, plenty of fast drivers behind, so we'll put on a good show tomorrow.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Home
MEMBERS SECTION
HOME
F1 - 2024 CANADIAN GRAND PRIX POST-QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
F1 - 2024 CANADIAN GRAND PRIX POST-QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
09.06.24
SPORT
FIA FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
CIRCUIT
SEASON 2024
FORMULA 1
F1
DRIVERS
1 – George RUSSELL (Mercedes)
2 – Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing)
3 – Lando NORRIS (McLaren)
TRACK INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Jolyon Palmer)
Q: George Russell, pole position. That was a qualifying session for the ages, and you got it in a dead heat. But it wasn't a fluke. You were so quick today.
George RUSSELL: Oh, amazing. It feels so good, feels so good! So much hard work back at the factory has gone into this. We said it in Monaco that we hope this is the start of something for our season, and I think it is. I've missed this feeling.
Q: Yeah, it's amazing. You had such a big cheer from the crowd here. They love to see a Mercedes back on top. Where's this pace come from, George?
GR: It's awesome here. Every time we come to Montréal, it's such good energy from all the fans. And I'm excited for tomorrow. So, obviously, first step done. But obviously, now we've got our eyes on that win.
Q: Can you keep Max behind you?
GR: Why not? Of course. Let's go for it. I think the car has been feeling amazing. Since we bought some upgrades to Monaco, we've sort of really been in that fight now. So, we're going for it tomorrow.
Q: Alright. Best of luck. Well done, George. Well, Max, there was literally nothing in it today, but you have to settle for second place. That must be frustrating when it's a dead heat.
Max VERSTAPPEN: I mean, it's how it is, right? I think overall we still had a good qualifying. The whole weekend has been still a bit tricky for us. But to be P2, I’ll take it. I mean, going into qualifying, I would have definitely taken that. So that it was that close at the end, yeah, makes it really exciting for tomorrow as well.
Q: And this looks like more conventional Red Bull than what we saw in Monaco. Have you felt better than last time out, able to fight tomorrow?
MV: I mean, I felt good in Monaco, but it was just not our track. It was not happening for us. This weekend, again, we didn't have a great build-up to today. But, yeah, I think it will be quite an interesting race with the tyres tomorrow, how they are going to fare, the weather as well. It keeps on coming in and out, the rain. So, yeah, hopefully it will be very exciting.
Q: What's the plan? Attack at the start or play the long game tomorrow?
MV: I don't know. We'll think about it. I'm not that stressed about it.
Q: Lando, two whole hundredths away from pole position.
Lando NORRIS: Is that it?
Q: That's it. Great lap.
LN: It's a shame.
Q: Not quite enough today. But you must be happy?
LN: I'm super happy. First of all, congrats to Mr. Russell. I knew he's been quick all weekend, so congrats to him and to Mercedes. But I'm happy with third. When you're so close, you always think, ‘could I have jumped in the car for that little bit more?’ But yeah, third is a good job by us, so I'm happy and excited for tomorrow.
Q: It looked such a tricky session from the cockpit. A threat of rain that never really came. You had to be on it every single lap and not miss a beat.
LN: Pretty much. But that's Montréal. I think that's why we love it here. It's one of the best places to come to every year. So, yeah, I love it. I mean, it's why we're all smiling. We have a good time. It's tricky. Like, a lot of the time, you're thinking you're going to crash, half of it, but when you put a nice lap in and you end up top three, it's always a nice feeling.
Q: Yeah, it was thrilling to watch. And you put some dicey overtakes last year. You've got two to make tomorrow.
LN: Yeah, two overtakes tomorrow. Easy, light work. So, no, I'm excited to see what we can do. You know, car's been great all season, especially the last three, four races. We've been on a good roll, but two very fast drivers ahead, plenty of fast drivers behind, so we'll put on a good show tomorrow.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: George, many congratulations. What a session, literally nothing to separate you and Max in the end. Start by giving us your reaction to what's just happened?
GR: Yeah, such a buzz. It's been a while since we've experienced this feeling. And, you know, so much hard work going on behind the scenes at Brackley, at Brixworth. And, you know, it's been a little while to be able to sort of get back in the fight. And we've almost felt like all of that hard work hasn't been paying off. But I think these last two race weekends has really shown that. And as I said, we've been so fast all weekend. Q3 was probably our worst session of the three. And, you know, it bodes well for tomorrow.
Q: As you say, it has been a while. It's been nearly two years since you took that pole in Hungary. Were you getting impatient for it to happen again?
GR: To be honest, this weekend's been really challenging to know because of the conditions yesterday. You know you've had rain around all weekend and then this morning Lewis was absolutely flying and you know he was well ahead of me and I had to look a lot into his data to try and understand what he was doing differently. And to be honest, that helped me a huge amount. So ahead of this qualifying I’m just so glad that we could pull it off because it, you know, I feel like we really deserve it for all of this hard work we've been putting in and the cars been feeling awesome this weekend.
Q: Well, where is the car better this weekend? Tell us about it.
GR: Well, it always feels better when your
GR: Yeah, it was really challenging, to be honest. All weekend, every single session and every lap it's been changing. The sun comes out, the track temperature warms up, then the clouds come in, it's spitting. And it's just really, really difficult to find that sweet spot. And my lap on the used tyre was really, really strong in Q3. And I was expecting to find about three or four tenths for the second lap on the new tyre. And it just didn't click. But it was fortunate enough that the first lap was good enough for pole.
Q: So the race tomorrow, we've had very little dry running. What are your predictions?