Singapore Grand Prix Team and Driver Reaction
With it’s magnificent backdrop, the night-race is now over. Lets take a look and see some team and driver reaction from the Singapore Grand Prix.
Singapore Grand Prix Team and Driver Reaction – Mercedes
Nico Rosberg
Position 1
“That was a fantastic weekend, in the past, Singapore has been a track that hasn’t treated me well and this win is a very special one.”
“I had a good start and was able to keep the Red Bull’s and Ferrari’s behind me both of which would have beaten us comfortably last year.It was a bit tight in the end after Daniel did a clever pit stop. “
“Now we’re looking forward to Malaysia but now I will celebrate this win tonight.”
Lewis Hamilton
Position 3
“It’s been a difficult day and a difficult weekend. At one stage it looked like I might even miss out on the podium but fortunately it didn’t work out that way. It was an ok start and I didn’t lose any ground which is a good thing.”
“The brakes were nearly critical temperature for most of the race so I kept having to back off to cool them down and I ended up making a mistake and ran wide which left Kimi past.”
“These things are sent to try us and now I’m just looking forward to the next one and a chance to give it another shot. I need a couple of strong weekends to get back to where I need to be.”
Toto Wolff – Head of Mercedes -Benz Motorsport
“What an incredible race, that was F1 at it’s best today – Nico did a perfect job all weekend and after that stunning lap yesterday in qualifying he managed the race and almost controlled the way today.”
“We wanted to make a third stop with him but Ricciardo put in a stunning out-lap after his final stop and Nico had traffic on the lap which cost him time.”
“As for Lewis, it was a great recovery to come back to the podium after a difficult first half of the race and a tricky weekend for him. It just shows how important all the practice laps are, if you want to reach the perfect set-up and preparation for the race.”
“We didn’t give those to Lewis this weekend which left him on the back-foot this weekend.”
Singapore Grand Prix Team and Driver Reaction – Red Bull
Daniel Ricciardo
Position 2
“Ah, it was so close today. We did everything we could and I thought it was pretty much a perfect race. The only thing that would have been better was to get Nico at the start.”
“I pushed so much at the end and on the super-soft and really tried to do something but it wasn’t close enough – I don’t really leave here with any regrets.”
“Obviously we came here to win but I felt like we left it all on the track.”
Max Verstappen
Position 6
“I had a bad start, it wasn’t as bad as Monza but it wasn’t good which is quite disappointing. I had a lot of wheel-spin and then with Hulkenberg spinning in front of me, I had to brake even more which compromised my whole start.”
“I had some pretty intense battles which I enjoy but it’s tricky to pass here so you do get a bit stuck, Dani and I fought quite hard but we didn’t touch so that’s always a positive too.”
“We have to try and do better in Malaysia but first we have to focus on getting the start where we’d like it to be.”
Christian Horner – Red Bull Team Principal
” A really exciting finish to a long grand prix. Tyres and strategy were always going to be a key today and in the end, opting to go to a three-stop strategy with the tyres that we save from earlier in the weekend brought Daniel tantalisingly close to Nico.”
“Lewis triggered the final round of pit-stops with Kimi covering him and then us in turn covering Kimi.”
“Unfortunately for Max, we had some clutch issues overnight which we thought we’d cured in time for the race, combined with an awful lot of wheel-spin at the start, it cost him some time as did avoiding the Hulkenberg accident too.”
“Overall, it’s a positive weekend – we’ve scored another second place finish and produced an enthralling end to the grand prix.”
Singapore Grand Prix Team and Driver Reaction – Sauber F1 Team
Marcus Ericsson
Position 17
“It’s obviously a disappointing result after starting the race from P14. The start was ok and then I was able to move into P11 before the safety car.”
“Then, we took a gamble on the strategy and went to three stops which in the end did not work out. During my second stint, I got stuck in traffic and therefore lost time.”
“Now we need to look into it and bounce back for Malaysia.”
Felipe Nasr
Position 13
“It was a challenging race, at the start we were a little bit unlucky as one other car crashed into the barrier on the side of the grid which I started from.”
“I lost two positions because of this incident.”
“Finishing the race in P13 was a good recovery keeping in mind that I started from P16. The two stop strategy paid-off and I think this result was maximum today.”
“Now I’m looking forward to the upcoming race in Malaysia.”
Monisha Kaltenborn – Team Principal
“Being in P14 and P16 on the grid gave us better starting positions than expected. It was unfortunate that Marcus’ race strategy did not pay off and this was also because he lost time due to the other cars in front of him”
“Felipe put in a good performance and extracted the maximum from his strategy.”
Singapore Grand Prix Team and Driver Reaction – Sahara Force India
Sergio Perez
Position 8
“I am so happy about tonights performance, it surely ranks as one of the best races in my career. To be able to do 36 laps on one set of soft tyres, in this heat, and to keep my position under pressure from Kvyat is a big achievement.”
“Pitting on lap one put us behind Gutierrez and this impacted on our strategy – we lost a bit of time behind him and it was very hard on my tyres which was not good for what was effectively a one-stop race.”
“On a day like this I had to race intelligently and pick my fights to make this strategy work, it’s a good result for the team and it puts us back in fourth place in the championship.”
Nico Hulkenberg
Position DNF
“It’s extremely disappointing to end my race in the barrier after just 50 metres – especially because I had made such a good start, probably my best getaway off the line this year. I went for the gap between the two Toro Rosso’s which was there but obviously things got very tight.”
“It was a really frustrating end for me, especially because all the good work we did on Friday and Saturday – it counted for nothing.”
Robert Fernley – Deputy Team Principal
“It was a roller coaster race for us tonight – starting with a low and ending on a brilliant high. Losing Nico before turn one was very bad luck and he was just the innocent victim of a Formula 1 start.”
“Having made a sensational getaway he was clipped on his left rear, this pushed him into the wall and caused some heavy damage to the car.”
“Resulting in a safety car, this caused us to roll the dice with Sergio as he pitted at the end of lap one, switching from ultra-soft tyres to softs. From there we deployed a brave strategy which saw Sergio execute what was effectively a one-stop race as he stretched his second set of soft tyres over a mammoth 36 laps.”
“Considering the bad luck we have encountered this weekend, it feels very sweet to pick up four points and move back into fourth place in the constructors championship.”
Singapore Grand Prix Team and Driver Reaction – Renault
Kevin Magnussen
Position 10
“I’m very happy for the whole team as this must be a boost for all of us, it’s been a very demanding season as we all want to score points at every race but that’s not been possible.”
“The team nailed it with the strategy, with the start and with the balance of the car – to drive a race like this and not to win it, it feels strange because for me – it felt perfect!”
Jolyon Palmer
Position 15
“That was a tough race, we didn’t have any breaks come our way. I lost out with the shenanigans at the start and probably collected some debris as I had an early slow puncture too.”
“We pitted pretty early and this meant we had to run for longer, subsequent stints which meant nursing the tyres more than if we’d run the more balance stint length planned.”
“The positive from today is we’ve seen that there’s still scope to get points if everything goes your way – that’s what I’m gunning for in Sepang.”
Fred Vasseur – Team Principal
“It was a strong and measured race from Kevin with some great strategy and exceptional pit stop work meant we scored for the second time this season.”
“Jolyon kept pushing despite a frustrating race for him with a slow puncture early on – we can see how everyone at Enstrone and Viry, whether at the track or back at base, keeps pushing and we will continue to do so no matter how difficult the challenge.”
Singapore Grand Prix Team and Driver Reaction – McLaren
Fernando Alonso
Position 7
“Seventh was the maximum which we could achieve today – the best of the rest after the two Mercedes, the two Red Bull’s and the two Ferrari’s”
“We weren’t perhaps quite the fourth-fastest team here this weekend so it’s thanks to a good strategy and a good start that we were able to bring home this result.”
“I chose to go on the outside at the start and the crash didn’t affect me as I was already up into sixth at that point.”
“For a time, I was even hoping for a podium finish – if something had happened ahead of me it could have worked out that way but in fact, it was one of those race in which nothing happened at the front.”
“Overall, we did the best that we could today.”
Jenson Button
Position – DNF
“I might have retired on lap 43 but to be honest my race was effectively over on the first lap. I got a very good start and pulled alongside Valtteri but I didn’t see Nico’s car coming across the track until he was right in front of me facing the wrong way.”
“I lifted and pulled to the right but there wasn’t really anywhere to go so I tagged Valtteri with my front wing and that broke my front wing, brake duct and floor.”
“The reason we stopped was that we were concerned about the brakes – the temperature were rising because of the duct damage. We were worried about a failure – it was the right decision to stop.”
Eric Boullier – McLaren Honda Racing Director
“Above all, today was a good day for Formula 1. After two hours of intensely competitive racing under spectacular floodlights here in Singapore.”
“The fact that the first two cars home were separated by less than half a second underlines what we do, we love racing and Formula 1 remains a superb sport as exciting today as it’s ever been.”
“Fernando’s forceful and competitive run to seventh place, he made a strong start and then maintained an impressive race and consistent lap-times all afternoon. His was a great drive by any standard.”
“As for Jenson, he got off the line well and his fine start was spoiled when his front wing touched the part of the Williams of Valtteri who was trying to avoid getting embroiled in Nico’s shunt.”
“There was absolutely nothing that Jenson could have done to avoid getting tagged in Nico’s accident this evening.”
“I want to say a public bravo to our race team – those in the garage and those on the pit-wall as well, as those back at mission control in Woking too who managed the race so efficiently. That was a good job, very well done guys.”
“Next we travel from the warmth of Singapore to an even hotter venue – the Sepang international circuit in Malysia. It’s a very difficult kind of racetrack from the Marina Bay Circuit on which we raced today – fast, wide sweeping bends rather than slow, narrow tight corners – we’ll be gunning for points again all the same.”
Singapore Grand Prix Team and Driver Reaction – Ferrari
Kimi Raikkonen
Position 4
“It was a good and solid race, the car was behaving well and we had a pretty good speed too. Obviously it was very difficult to overtake but at one point, Hamilton made a mistake and I managed to pass him then after the pit stop he got the position back.”
“We lost a place there, I don’t know how and why they managed to jump us and I don’t know what would have happened if we had stayed out. We have to go through everything and see what happened and what we could have done better. Today we gained one place from starting position but of course this is not the result we are looking for – we are trying to be in a position to win and we need to make the car a bit faster.”
Sebastian Vettel
Position 5
“We sure had a good strategy today, also we had the chance to make a big progress with the safety car but it didn’t come so P5 is a very good result.”
‘Thanks to the team, I had been a bit down after qualifying yesterday. What nobody wanted to happen has happened so we had to deal with it and move on.”
“My start was not good, there was an incident so I took it a bit easy, most importantly the car was still intact but after the restart it was tricky to get the tyres working again. I was on the primes at the time and lost quite a lot of time behind the Sauber.”
“Once we fitted the last set of ultrasofts at the end, this is where we really could unfold the pace. I know patience is not the quality of a Ferraristi, it’s not a quality of mine either – we are here to win and we’re not satisfied until it happens – we’re going to keep progressing step by step and one day I think it will pay off! I believe in the team and I believe that in the future it will be better.”
Maurizio Arrivanebe – Team Principal
“It’s fair to say that we drive an aggressive race today! Kimi’s move on Hamilton to pass him on track shows that he’s not a world champion by chance. Considering the distance to cover to the end of the race and the degradation – it all made sense to call him to box one more time to cover the Mercedes strategy.”
‘As for Seb, it’s a shame that he was so penalised by his starting position but he drove a fantastic race, supported by perfect strategy – there are six more raced to the end of the season and all of them will be important.”
The Formula 1 Girl 🙂
xxx
Photo – Mark Thompson/Getty Images
