DRIVERS
1 – Lando NORRIS (McLaren)
2 – Carlos SAINZ (Ferrari)
3 – Charles LECLERC (Ferrari)
TRACK INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Nico Rosberg)
Q: One of the most thrilling F1 seasons of all time has just come to an end, Charles. And what a race from you. I mean, lap one, you were already eighth!
Charles LECLERC: Yeah, I knew I had to be very aggressive. So I knew that in lap one, I had to take all the risks possible in order to gain as many places as possible, to then be in a good position for the rest of the race, this achieved. But then, unfortunately, we were just starting too far back to do anything better than what we’ve done today. I think we’ve done the maximum. It hurts, obviously, because the season was so close until the end. It was a hard hit on Friday when we knew we had the penalty. We still gave it all and we just came short of our goal, which is a shame. But at the end, we’ve tried everything.
Q: I think you’re going to rebuild in the winter now and definitely give it another shot for the Constructors’ and maybe even for the Drivers’ title next year.
CL: Yeah, I really hope so. I mean, if we look at our first part of the year, we were nowhere near being in the fight for the Constructors’. Then the second part of the season was really good and the team has done an incredible job. I think Carlos and I have done a really good job as well together. So, yeah, we ended strong, and I’m sure that next year we’ll hopefully start as strong as what we have ended this year.
Q: Next year, your teammate is Lewis Hamilton, the greatest of all time. Are you excited about that?
CL: Yeah, of course. I mean, Lewis has achieved so much in the sport and it will be a big motivation. But obviously for now, it’s more thinking about the past year and the past years I’ve done with Carlos. We’ve had an amazing relationship. We’ve pushed each other. I really hoped that we could finish these four years together with a Constructors’ title. We both gave it all. It wasn’t enough. So obviously now the disappointment is here. And yeah, now I will have four or five days to reset and start thinking about next year then.
Q: Thank you very much, Charles. Congrats nevertheless also for P3 in the Drivers’ Championship.
CL: Thank you very much.
Q: Carlos, are you pleased with the P2 here in the end or were you hoping for the win today?
Carlos SAINZ: Obviously, a bit of a bittersweet feeling in the end. V2, I think, was the maximum we could do today, given the pace of Lando in the McLaren. Yeah, I gave it everything, especially the first thing. It looked like we could hang on to them. Then as soon as we put the Hard tyres, they just seemed to be that one or two tenths quicker per lap, like we’ve seen all weekend. And they just got a bit out of reach. But yeah, congratulations, first of all, to McLaren. They deserve this championship. They’ve been rock solid in the last two-thirds of the championship, and they’ve been incredible. From our side. I think we can be proud of the effort and the championship we put together. It’s been a tough year, but definitely a year where we need to be proud of and, yeah, hopefully be back here soon.
Q: Your time at Ferrari is coming to an end now. Are the emotions starting to come through? I’m sure it was an incredible time for you.
CS: Yeah, obviously emotional on the in lap with my engineer talking to me on the radio, Yeah, at the same time, very grateful, you know, to be part of this amazing team for four years. I think I’ve had the opportunity to win my first races, do my first pole positions, my first podiums. I’ve proven to myself and to everyone that I can be fighting for race wins and for podiums. If I have the right car and my target is from next year onwards, focus together with Williams to get back to where we belong together.
Q: Thank you very much, Carlos. All the best with your next chapter.
CS: Thank you very much.
Q: Lando. P1 for you today. Constructors’ champions with McLaren after 26 years. How does that feel?
Lando NORRIS: Thank you. It feels incredible. It feels incredible. Not for myself, but before the whole team. The team have done an amazing job this year to come from where we were at the beginning. I’m so proud of everyone. It’s been a lovely journey, and to end the season like this is perfect. So just a congrats and a big thank you to everyone in McLaren, everyone in papaya, everyone who supported us this year, because it’s been a tough one, but for us to win a Constructors’ after 26 years is pretty special.
Q: Take us into this a little bit. How are you going to celebrate this? Like, is it going to be big?
LN: Yeah, me and Zak already said we’re going to get absolutely hammered tonight, so I’m excited. You know, we’re going to celebrate. This is a historic moment for the team. They’re going to want to celebrate, and I want to celebrate with them, so it’s going to be a good night.
Q: Lando, on the in-lap, you said, next year is my year. Are you going to be world champion next year?
LN: This is my goal. This is our goal as a team. We want to win the Constructors’. We want to win the Drivers’ next year. I made my mistakes this year, but I’ve learned a lot, and I’ve learned a lot from Max and my competitors around me. As much as I’m happy now, I’m excited to get next year going.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Lando Norris, many congratulations on your fourth win of this 2024 season. A brilliant race, and most importantly, your win gets McLaren across the line in the Constructors’ Championship. Just how happy are you feeling this evening?
LN: Yeah, I mean, I’m very, very happy. Just as I’m sure everyone in the team is. Today was a very special day for all of us. It was ours to lose today and I’m sure at certain moments people thought that it was not far away from being lost. You know, two Ferraris up there and Charles doing a great job to get back to the podium. Oscar was super unlucky. He got taken out in Turn 1. So for a minute, my heart was like, ‘oh God, it’s not looking as likely’. But if I just kept my head down and kept focused, I knew I could deliver and do what I got to do. That’s that, but the bigger picture of us winning a championship for the first time in 26 years, you wouldn’t have thought that when you say the name McLaren. It feels wrong to say that they’ve not won a championship in 25 years (sic). But for me to be part of that, for Oscar to be part of it, is something we’re incredibly proud of. And delivering that for the team has put the biggest smile as possible on everyone’s face. This is the biggest reward you can give back to everyone who designs the car, builds the car, gets the partners. Everyone has played such a big part, so just proud. Proud is my biggest thing. Of course, I’m happy I finished the season this way, but I’m way more happy for the team than I am for myself.
Q: And you’re P2 in the Drivers’ Championship as well. Do you believe in momentum? Because if you do, you’ve got it.
LN: I don’t, so… I don’t believe in a lot of things, but I think the one thing I’ve learned this year is probably to believe in myself a bit more. I’ve certainly not come out on top as often as I would have liked in certain moments as a driver, you know, especially in my fights against Max. As much as it hurts sometimes, I’m probably happy about it now that I’m going to go into next season knowing that I can fight. And I know myself, and I know more and better than anyone what I need to improve on, where I’m not strong enough, where I’m strong enough. You know, I’m always open for criticism, things like that. But I’m the one who knows better than the others, right? So not in an arrogant way or a selfish way, but I know that I have to improve in a lot of areas and certain things. And I feel like I’ve already done that quite a lot in the last three, four, five races. I feel like I’ve delivered some very strong results. But on the whole, next year is hopefully a year where I can go in and decide before the first race we’re going to fight for a championship. We’ve not ever thought of that. We’ve not even had the feeling of it from a team perspective and also for me as a driver. So hopefully the next year is that year. And we obviously have a lot of work to do. And Ferrari are going to be pushing a lot. But that’s another year. For now, I’m just going to celebrate with my team tonight and celebrate what they deserve.
Q: Lando, just one quick question on the race. How exposed did you feel when Oscar was taken out of the picture on the opening lap?
LN: Yeah, I was watching the TV screens and I saw Charles was P8 after lap one, so I was a little bit nervous! But I knew I just had to focus on myself, put my head down, and Carlos was never far away. I think the biggest I got the gap was to like 4.2 seconds in the first stint, and that’s not a very nice gap in my opinion. It’s a bit too close to my comfort. So it was still a tricky race, and I’m sure there was probably a lot more nervous people on the pit wall and in the garage, knowing what was at stake and things, and I’ve got the adrenaline of the car and focused on that. For them, they’re just sitting and watching the screens, and they have a lot more time to think about what can go wrong and all of that. But, yeah, a shame for Oscar. We really wanted to have a one-two today and let McLaren be on top today as a team in a race, but also for a championship, you know, and I felt quite bad for him in the beginning. It wasn’t his fault. But he’s had a great year, so we’ll all celebrate together. I certainly am. And we’ll have some fun.
Q: Lando, thanks for that. Very well done today. Carlos, let’s come to you now. Many congratulations on a brilliant final race of 2024 for you. What does it mean to finish your time at Ferrari on the podium?
CS: Yeah, obviously a bit of mixed feelings, I’m not going to lie. I think we all came into this race trying to win the Constructors’ Championship and ultimately we did manage to do it. McLaren have put together a very strong weekend. Lando hasn’t put a foot wrong all race and all weekend. And in the end, congratulations to them because they deserve it. On my side, I tried to do everything I could to keep within reach of McLaren. Before the race we knew that McLaren might have one or two tenths of pace on us and that was enough, you know, to pull a bit of a gap before the pit stops or during the race to have a bit of a buffer and not to feel too much pressure. I think I had a very strong first stint, managed to keep them within reach and within pressure margins, especially when I was told Charles was coming in a good comeback. Oscar had obviously that incident in lap one, I thought, we might have a bit of a chance, but then little by little it started to fade. When we put on the Hard tyres, like we’ve seen in many cases this year, the McLaren upped the pace a bit, turn up the pace a bit, and they started pulling away two, three tenths per lap, and that was enough for them to have that safety margin and bring it home. And from our side, I think we did everything we could. Both Charles and I have given absolutely everything this weekend. It hasn’t been an easy weekend for me, obviously, knowing it was the last one. But I did the best I could to stay focused and to do the maximum that the car could do today, I think.
Q: You say it hasn’t been an easy weekend. How did it feel to step out of the SF24 for the final time?
CS: Strange. A bit emotional, I’m not going to lie. Probably, I would say it was more emotional the last time that I jumped in the car, in the grid. I knew that was obviously going to be my last race with a group of people that I’ve enjoyed these last four years. The last time that I would jump in a Ferrari car, probably, and I was just feeling emotional. I tried to remind myself to try and enjoy the race as much as possible and to give the absolute maximum for this team. Jumping out of the car, I already had the bittersweet feeling of… Lando just did the snake. A worm? a snake? I don’t know what you were there. Where were we? That distracted me. I honestly lost, where were we?
Q: You summed it up very well. Can we just turn the page to tomorrow? You’re gonna be driving the Williams. Is it hard to move on so quickly to the next chapter?
CS: Being very honest with you, I don’t think so. I think, I’m not going to lie, my last laps, as much as I was pushing like hell for this team and trying to, I was already starting to feel things in the car and trying to say, remember how this feels. because tomorrow and Tuesday I need to remember why is this car quick in this corner and why does it feel good? Because I know probably what I’m going to find tomorrow and Tuesday needs some margin of improvement in the corners that I was feeling the car. So this just sums up that I’m already looking also ahead. I’m extremely motivated for the challenge that I have ahead of me. Today is a day to try and enjoy as much as possible with the team as my last day in red. We still have some days in Maranello coming up, but obviously my competitive mind is already looking forward to Monday and Tuesday and to see how I can make that Williams car faster.
Q: Carlos, thank you for that. Charles, let’s come to you now. P19 to P3, phenomenal evening’s work by you. Just how satisfied are you?
CL: No, not really. I mean, again, I’m, of course, really happy about the race. But the disappointment is a lot bigger. You don’t win or lose a chairmanship in the last race. But obviously, it’s over the course of the season and after every single race. And McLaren has just done a better job than us. And congratulations to them. But it obviously hurts when you get to the last race. You know there’s an opportunity. It was a very difficult weekend, obviously, already with the penalty on Friday. It was never going to be easy. But after such a good first lap, the hopes were high. And yeah, we just came short of our dream, which was to win the Constructors’. So it hurts.
Q: Have you ever made that much progress on the opening lap? You went from P19 to P8.
CL: I don’t know. Maybe in Formula 2, I’ve had a few good first laps. But in F1, I think it’s definitely the best first lap I’ve had.
Q: So, have you come away from the race feeling, what if? What if you’d qualified higher up?
CL: I mean, yesterday, I think P4 was probably the best, which would have been P14 or P15. Then you never know what happens by starting P15, we’ll have had won anyway 11 positions? I think it’s a long shot to say that. So yeah, all in all, I think my first lap recovered basically everything that we’ve had since the beginning of the weekend. So I don’t have any regrets.
Q: So just bigger picture, McLaren have clearly done a great job this year. How happy are you with the season that Ferrari has put together?
CL: I’m very happy because I think the first part of the season wasn’t easy. We were definitely not the fastest car. We were actually struggling for performance. The second part of the season, we’ve done an incredible job, mostly for improving the car in terms of pace. We’ve picked up a lot of pace. We were a lot closer to the guys in front, and actually on some races we were probably the fastest car and this is thanks to the team in Maranello, thanks to Carlos, thanks to me and the team back at the track as well to have done such a great job with the new upgrades. But I think the highlight of this season has definitely been the execution. Because to be fighting for the Constructors’ at the end of the year until the very last race, if you look at the performance we’ve had in the first part of the year, And that’s where I think we’ve done a particularly good job. So on that, I’m very proud.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Alex Kalinauckas – Autosport) The same question to both Lando and Carlos, please. Just how hard and how critical were those first few laps in the second stint, obviously, with the Ferrari gaining a couple of seconds? Was that, Carlos, your one chance? And just how perfect did you each have to be at that point? Thank you.
CS: It was a very tricky thing to handle because obviously I did a very fast out lap to try and get within DRS or within range of trying to overtake Lando after the pit stop. Also, in case they had a half a second to a second slower pit stop that could put us within reach. And that’s why we sent the undercut. Then after he came out in front of me, you go through this thought process of do I push like hell now to get within DRS, but Lando can also push and keep me out of the DRS. And that means I’m going to destroy my tyres and not have a chance at the end of the race of putting him under pressure. Or I save my tyres to try and put them under pressure at the end like I did in the first stint. And so it’s very difficult thing to judge with these tyres to use the first three laps to extract the peak of the tyre or to save that to the end of the race. I don’t think it would have mattered. I think McLaren and Lando today, with a Hard tyre, they were just one or two tenths quicker. And he could have used that pace whenever he wanted to keep me at bay, you know. Even though on the Medium I really strongly believed we had a chance, little by little with the Hard, it just seemed like it was getting tougher and tougher. And that’s where I think the weakness of our car started to also appear and the strengths of the McLaren started to appear again. And it slipped away from us a bit.
LN: Yeah, Carlos said it well, honestly. It was a tough one. I mean, I knew he probably pushed a good amount out of the pit lane to try and get me. I didn’t have the finest in lap. I started to struggle a lot with the tyres. And like Carlos said, a set of tyres and how they perform and how they work on our car is all it needed to shift from them being quicker to myself. I think in the first stint, Carlos was probably the quicker driver-car combo. Just the dirty air is painful, even at three seconds, two seconds. To do that for a whole stint and stay that close is impressive. So I knew that he was very fast. But the whole season, we’ve always performed better on harder tyres. So simply just changing tyres and the characteristic of a tyre changing makes for one team to be the quickest to us to be the quickest. And that’s how quickly and easily things can change. So I knew if we just executed a good pit stop, depending on how much he pushed out the box and how much he continued to push, that would decide my strategy, let’s say. Do I also push to cover or do I introduced the tyres in a good way, because it was a long race ahead still. And I saw already in Turn 2 and Turn 3 a place you save the tyres that he saved immediately, which gave me some comfort and allowed me to start saving at the same time. So it’s a difficult one because if he would have pushed too early, he would have completely gone off a cliff and maybe so would I. But it’s very difficult to judge those kind of things at that time of race.
Q: (Adrian Huber – Agencia EFE) A question for Carlos. Yesterday, I asked you about you signing P3. You said, no, I want P1. It was either or. You made second, which isn’t bad at all. Five years ago, Carlos, you had two podiums. Today, you have 27. Four wins, six poles, three of your four fast laps you made with Ferrari. How proud do you feel today?
CS: Yeah, I feel obviously very proud of my time in Ferrari. Proud to have contributed these four years to bring in this team back to where it belongs, that is fighting for world championships. Unfortunately, like Charles said, we didn’t manage this year, but I have a feeling that Ferrari now is ready to fight for the world championship next year. And together with Charles, I honestly believe they have a very good chance, and they are, for me, one of the favourites for next year. From my side, I’m proud of the four years, but maybe more proud of this last year. I think this last year was a very tough year mentally and very challenging with the news at the beginning of the year to keep the motivation up, to keep the determination, to keep pushing through the whole year with a 24-race calendar and not letting myself get too deflated at times. I think it’s been a big challenge that I think I managed to respond with good strength and determination to finish the year strongly and to finish the year with a few podiums, with a win in Mexico and helping the team to dream about the Constructors’ title. We’ve seen that it was not easy for any other driver that was leaving a team to keep that focus and that motivation up through the whole year. And I managed to do that. And that’s what makes me feel good about this year and my lasting of this season.
Q: (Luke Smith – The Athletic) Lando, you talk about your confidence, taking a step forward and believing in yourself. What are some of the performances this year that have really helped breed that? And is a day like today really significant? Because it was all on your shoulders after Oscar’s first lap spin and you didn’t put a foot wrong.
LN: Honestly, it’s probably the harder moments, which are the ones you learn the most. So it’s kind of true what people say. But those harder times, my battles with Max, that kind of thing, certain other cases throughout the season, you know. If I go back to Austria. Silverstone. You know, there are just some along the way and some have different reasons, but… None of them are necessarily ones which have made me doubt myself any more. This season’s been my best season from a performance, like personally. Was it good enough? Probably it wasn’t, no. But when you look at my own performance and my qualifying performances, for instance, they’ve been almost twice as good as what I was last year, especially comparing to the other guys in exactly the same car. So I’ve definitely stepped it up at a good level this season. I obviously lost out on a few things. And there were maybe three starts this year, which lost me one or two positions at times. But they were positions quite often just to Max. Or it was Budapest and one to Oscar and little things like that. But none of them, when I look back on them, made me feel like, well, I’ve not got what it takes. Those moments only came when it was directly against max. And it’s Max. Going up against Max in any state is always going to be tricky. And no one has a nice time racing Max. I think Mexico was a bit of a turning point when it was proved that not everything he does is perfect. I think if we all go back to Austin and go back to Turn 12, the majority of, I say, almost everyone on the grid, as drivers and also externally, disagreed with the fact I got the penalty. We either both should not have got one or we both should have got one. You know, so… I think it’s little cases along the way, but I certainly, from a pace point of view, have not doubted myself this year. And I think I’ve definitely given myself more faith. Like, when I look at qualifying, I remember 12 months ago here, I messed up my quali three lap, a lap that I should have done P2 when I had a big slide in 12, 13. And I was pretty annoyed with myself post quali. And that was what everyone spoke about then. But that’s not really happened this year. I’ve closed off my quali laps. I’ve improved in all those areas. And it was more just that toe-to-toe fight, with one of the best in the world. And the thing is, what you don’t see on the outside are some of those moments where if I did certain things, we would have crashed. People on the outside have no idea on what it takes and those moments where you accept losing a battle. And that is the case. And that was because of where we were in the first six, seven races of the year. We lost too many points. And I was just in that position where I couldn’t gain as much as what I needed to and wanted to. But I’m not using any of these as excuses. I’m saying I didn’t have what it took this season to fight against Max and deliver what I needed to deliver. But it certainly gave me the feeling of, ‘OK, if I improve this little bit here, this little bit here’, for the first time, I have confidence in saying I’ve definitely got what it takes.
Q: (Jesus Balseiro – Diario AS) A question for Carlos. Where are you hiding the emotions from the outside? It sort of looked like this is just another race weekend. So I guess it’s not. How are you dealing internally with all that? And are you going to break down at some point? Or this is all the emotion you will get today?
CS: Maybe I already have. And you just don’t know. And you haven’t seen it. Maybe it was in the helmet. Maybe it was in the in the 10 minutes prior to a race when I was in the car. Maybe it was in the in-lap. Yeah. Maybe you’ll never know. I can just tell you that I did get emotional at some point today. I’m not going to tell you exactly when or how. It’s a feeling that I save to myself and for my team. And yeah, maybe it’s all a bit of acting, and I’m acting like I’m not emotional at all. And I’ve learned from Brad Pitt that is here this weekend. I don’t know. I tell you, I’ve been emotional. It’s just up until today, there was too much of a job to do and too much of a thing to fight for. So your brain doesn’t allow you to get emotional because you care more about winning and giving the team a Constructors’ Championship than your emotions itself. Let’s say, your competitiveness takes over. But today there were moments that I got emotional and luckily you guys didn’t get to see it.
Q: (Nate Saunders – ESPN) Charles, you mentioned about the execution to get here, final race of the season. I think it’s been 12 years since Ferrari came to the last race of the season with either title in the fight. How important is that going to be? just as an experience next season, the familiarity of it, kind of the team growing into that? Do you think it’s going to be a big factor just to hit the ground running at the start of the year?
CL: Yeah, I think we’ve had two seasons where we’re basically fighting for the championship. Obviously, one was not for long enough, which was in 2022. And I think with that, we’ve grown a lot. I’ve grown a lot as a driver and I think we’ve grown a lot also as a team, because when it’s been such a long time, obviously, the people in the team, most of them have changed. And so for many people, it was also the first time fighting again with Ferrari at the top. So I think it’s an important process. But yeah, I think in the last four years, we’ve taken steps by steps going in the right direction. With Carlos, we’ve pushed the team into a very good direction. And I think we are in a very good place now. Obviously, we just came short of the ultimate goal this year. But I kind of agree with Lando that momentum is not really a thing. There’s been quite a lot of examples on our side where we finished a year strong and then the beginning of the year after we’ve been struggling, so we really need to stay on it. We’ve had quite a few examples, and we managed to pinpoint what went wrong in that winter break, that we didn’t do quite right, and that we paid the price at the beginning of the season after. And this is probably the experience that is the most helpful in order to start next year in the best possible way.
Q: (Marco Canseco – Diario Marca) Question for Carlos. How many times do you think will be possible to take another podium with Williams?
CS: Yeah, that is a question that I cannot answer. It’s impossible to predict the future, impossible to know how long it’s going to take me and Williams to be back fighting for podium positions. I think James said it the other day and calmed everyone’s expectations, that next year is going to be a tough year and a learning year before we prepare for the change of regulations in ‘26, where I believe the team is investing and the team is preparing to maximise that chance. What I can tell you is that I’m as determined as ever to help that team to be back where it belongs. I personally feel like I belong to be fighting for wins, podiums and top fives in Formula 1. I think I’ve proven it these last four years as a driver. I think I belong to that. But Williams cannot forget that Williams also belongs to fighting for these top five and podium places. And together with the determination and the strength that I think we’re going to show together, the target is to get Williams and myself fighting for those positions in the near future, in the nearest future. How long that’s going to take, I cannot tell you. But as I said before, I don’t think you guys understand and expect how motivated and how much I’m actually looking forward to that challenge. I know that’s one of my qualities, to help a team to perform better and to know which directions to follow. And that actually motivates me, having a full team behind Alex and me pushing all in the same direction to make a historic team like Williams competitive again is. It’s a challenge that yeah it’s tough to explain but some people don’t understand how much i’m actually looking forward to it.
Q: (Carlos Miguel – Diario Marca) Congrats, Carlos, for your years in Ferrari, but the question is for Charles and Lando. Do you miss next season, Carlos fighting for the best position of the grid and the races? Do you understand that such a good driver is out of the top teams of Formula 1?
LN: Yes, I will miss Carlos.
CS: I don’t think you will. I think it’s better.
LN: I’m happy he’s not in a quick car anymore!
CS: One less guy to…
LN: You know, the next driver who’s coming in is also pretty handy. It’s different. I mean, you know, Carlos is someone I know well. And I’ve started racing in Formula 1 with Carlos. You always knew he was going to be there and he was always going to put up a good fight today. In all of my meetings this morning, I was saying to the guys, like, let’s be careful of Carlos, OK? Because I was ready for him to attack a lot and put up a good fight. He’ll be back. Williams have been improving a lot. They’ve not had someone with a lot of genuine experience from a top team. Carlos will for sure add to that and propel the team forwards even more. They’ve gone under a lot of changes in the last few months and year or so. Even this year, there were some times when Williams were very quick. I’m expecting to still see him on track. I’m sure next year, Williams will take a good step forwards from where they are now. We don’t know. We don’t know when they’ll be fighting. Even in 2026. It’s a year which is just over one year away from now, but 2026 is a year where anything can happen. Williams can be at the top all of a sudden. So we’ll wait and see. But it’s a shame because I think he’s proven himself enough in in Formula 1 that he deserves a good seat. He deserves to fight for championships and wins and those types of things and it’s a shame when that opportunity is lost. But it’s not because he’s not got talent or he’s not got the ability, right? It’s because it’s the biggest name in Formula 1 who wants his seat. And yeah, we’ll see in the future what it takes. See how Lewis does in Ferrari with Charles and against Charles. But he’s proven himself enough. So I don’t think anyone needs to doubt him. And I’m sure his time will come back again and he’ll help Williams fight back to the top.
CL: I completely agree. I think Lando and myself are probably the two best persons to speak about it, because we’ve been sharing the same team with Carlos for many years. And I can tell you, Carlos is so incredibly talented. He’s helped me to improve in so many areas, his work ethic, his talent, just everything he brings. The discipline he has, he’s been just such an incredible team-mate. And I think if today, I will repeat myself, but if today we have done such a step forward in a year and in these four years, it’s a big thanks to Carlos. He’s just been extremely quick. And in Formula 1, as Lando said, some things you don’t really have explanations for. There’s also luck that is involved to be at the right place at the right time and Carlos definitely deserves to be in a top team. But I’m sure that it’s just a matter of time before he comes back and joins us to fight for wins. He will give so much to Williams, the way he’s so sensitive to every small change and every small feeling there is in the car. I’m pretty sure that already tomorrow they will have a lot of valuable feedback that will help them for next year. But yeah, I’ll definitely miss the fights. We’ve had our moments on track, but that’s only because we were fighting so close together and because he’s been pushing me all the way. And it’s been an absolute pleasure. And of course, in some moments, in the actual moment, in the present moment, there’s frustration. But I’m sure that, and actually already now, I’m looking back at those moments. with a lot of positive memories. And I wouldn’t be the driver I am today without him as my team-mate in the last four years. So yeah, it’s been a really big pleasure and four years that I will be looking back in the most positive way. And I wish him the best. But as I said, I have no doubts that he will be back at the top of the grid, whether it’s with Williams by his input or with someone else. But he deserves that. I think everybody knows that. And it’s just a matter of time before he comes back.
ENDS
Source : Fia
