Carlos, it’s your home race. You got a fabulous reception in the fan forum last night. It’s a sell-out crowd. What does this one mean?
Carlos Sainz: Yeah. Good afternoon, everyone. I’m a bit tired because I was almost late and I didn’t want a fine, so I ran and I’m a bit tired now. But I’m happy to be here. Good vibes yesterday in the fan forum, getting a lot of support from the home crowd here. I don’t know, it just always gives me good vibes. It puts you in a good mood, and the whole weekend makes you keep a smile on your face everywhere you go. Just hearing people cheer for you is the best feeling. To have a home race and get to have it every year – I feel very happy about it. And, yeah, I just want to go out there this weekend, enjoy it, and try to give them a good result and a good show.
Do you think the FW47 will put a smile on your face around this racetrack?CS: Probably, if I had to design a track for the FW47, it wouldn’t look like Barcelona. We don’t tend to like medium-speed, long-duration corners. But I’m hopeful. It’s a track where we can also show the progress that we’ve made over the last few years. Apparently, the team was P19 and P20 here last year. We haven’t reached Q3 since 2020, Q2 since 2021. That kind of speaks to the kind of track we’re facing this weekend. But I’m confident that this year’s car is a step better in all these corners and we’re going to show better performance.
And what about the impact of the technical directive that the FIA is introducing this weekend? What has the team told you about the impact of that?CS: Yeah, there’s been obviously a lot of talk regarding this. I don’t think it’s going to affect teams and people as much as people think or as much as is being made about this change of regulation. It’s still a front wing and still will be, just obviously run a bit stiffer and it will not flex as much as it did. I wouldn’t expect more than one-tenth swing up or down through the field for each team depending on how much you were flexing or not.
One-tenth is about four places on the grid.CS: That is true, actually. Especially in our little midfield area.
But Carlos, do you think the car will be more difficult to balance as a result of this TD?CS: Yeah, but I also think nowadays we have a lot of tools – mechanically and aerodynamically – to tune these cars. So even if it’s going to be more of a challenge, we still have three practice sessions to see where the car is at in FP1 and take steps to fine-tune it and get it back to a decent place. You can imagine teams also in the simulator have been running endless laps just with a new wing. Nowadays, F1 teams are too well prepared, ion that sense, to be caught out by this kind of change.
Carlos, thank you for that. Best of luck this weekend. Can we come to our most recent winner in Formula 1? Lando, how were the celebrations on Sunday night? I believe you went to the Prince’s Ball. What happened there?Lando Norris: Yeah, it was a lovely dinner. Really nice. Obviously, I was sat at the big table. And, I mean, it felt great because it’s an honour to be there – you only really get to go as a driver if you win. So, it’s a good thought. You get to chat with their highnesses and have a nice time. So, a nice dinner, all in the moment of celebrating the weekend, celebrating the win, have a little chat, and that’s all. Some nice food.
How does a win at Monaco, now that you’ve had a few days to reflect on it, compare to your previous wins in Formula 1?LN: I mean, it’s special for different reasons. Was it probably the hardest-fought race? Probably not, but that’s Monaco. Is it the one that means the most? The one with the most pressure on a Saturday? The one everyone wants to win? Then yes. It’s more just the meaning behind it – the history behind the week itself, the racetrack, the people who have won there. The prestigiousness (sic) of where it is and what kind of event it is. So is it the one I’m probably most proud of? I would say so. One that I’ll remember forever. I think it’s everything everyone talks it up to be and more. Because it’s something that you’re proud to say, it’s not just any win in Formula 1. It’s the one. So pretty cool.
You seemed very calm all weekend. Calm after taking pole, calm after the victory. Is that how you felt?LN: In the car, no! Especially in qualifying. I don’t think I felt anything close to calm. Qualifying in Monaco is the best laps of the year. I think it’s the best in Formula 1 – or just motor sport in general. It’s the one that brings you the most excitement, the most fear, the most uncomfortableness (sic). And at the same time, when you cross the line, the one that brings you the biggest smile. Saturday is perfect. Sunday, not always known to be the best race of the season, but still a great race for many reasons.
Let’s bring it on to this weekend quickly. Are you concerned about the TD and how it might impact the MCL39?LN: Nope. Not at all.
What has the team told you about setting up the car? Will the aero balance shift to make it harder to drive?LN: Like Carlos said, there are little tweaks here and there. But no, nothing that will change how we have to do anything.
Good luck to you. Thank you very much for that. Ollie, let’s come to you now. You won the F2 Feature Race here a couple of years ago. Just tell us, first of all, your thoughts on this Barcelona circuit.Ollie Bearman: Yeah, it’s a really cool track. It’s one that we’ve done, I think, as drivers the most laps on because there’s so much testing here. Always pre-season or winter testing ends up in Barcelona. So it’s returning to a track that we’ve done a lot of laps on for most of us. But it’s a fun track. Now with the new Sector 3, it’s a bit better to drive compared to the previous one with the chicane. I had a good race here in Formula 2 a few years ago. I don’t think we’ll replicate that, but hopefully it’s a good weekend.
Just how good is the car? What performance traits have you seen now over these eight races so far this year? Do you think you can be competitive this time?OB: Honestly, I’m at a bit of a loss because the weekends where we expected to struggle, we’ve actually done really well – and vice versa. So, it’s tough to really build predictions for this car. What we’ve done is bring the new upgrade in Imola, and we need to see how that works now in high-speed corners, because Imola isn’t as high-speed as Barcelona. If we can get that under control and have good performance there, then I think it can be another solid weekend for car performance.
Questions From The Floor
(David Croft – Sky Sports F1) Lando, congratulations last weekend. We’re a third of the way through the season now and assuming you’ve had time after the recovery from Sunday night to take stock of the third of the season, which bits do you think you’ve got right this year, and where do you think there’s more improvement from you to come?LN: Honestly, I think it’s pretty obvious. I think it’s fairly simple. I’ve made it clear on where my struggles have been. The things I’ve found a little more difficult, especially this season compared to previous ones. Saturdays have had a lot more ups and downs. My Sundays – 95% of the races this season – I’ve been pretty happy with. Of course, there are still some races that haven’t gone perfectly. If I look back on Miami and things like that, if I could redo things, of course, I would do some things differently, but some things just go the way they do. My Sundays I’ve been very happy with. I’m always very confident going into Sundays, and I’ve been this whole season. So yeah, it’s just tweaking little things, and that’s more just the position that I start the race. That’s been the biggest thing. Like I said before, Monaco is the area I’ve been working on the most. It’s the one I’m putting the most time and effort into because it’s the one that allows me to win races or not.
(Tom Slafer – DAZN Spain) Question for Carlos. We’re hitting your home Grand Prix in a track that you’ve always gone really well at. I think it’s the track that you’ve scored the most points throughout your career. You have your own grandstand here, but it’s not the best one for the car. Has Williams reached the point where in a bad weekend you can still make it to Q3 and still think of points?CS: Yeah. I think the best example is still Monaco. I think we were all expecting to perform a bit better in Monaco, but we did some mistakes with set-up choices and the way we did our tyre prep in quali that compromised our performance that weekend. We came out finishing P9 and P10 and we were frustrated. I think if you had asked Williams a year ago about a P9 and P10, a double points finish, it would have been a great result and the team would be celebrating. A year later, it’s not enough. We know we can do better than that. Barcelona might be a weekend where a P9 and P10 is a good result. We need to keep that in mind. I think we’re heading into our most challenging track since China. A lot of new things to look into with the change of regulation. So we’re going to need to keep a good eye on how the weekend develops and see if we can perform at a good level. I’m confident we can, but on paper, it’s not the best track.
(Albert Fabrega – ESPN LATAM) Carlos, you were so disappointed at the end of the Monaco Grand Prix, even scoring points. What would you change in Monaco for the future years to have a better show and mainly better racing?CS: I think it’s a conversation that we need to have amongst drivers and maybe come up with ideas for FOM and FIA to think about. I think there’s no one better in F1 than us as drivers – we get to be in the car and realise how easy it is to manipulate the race or to defend, and go three or four seconds off the pace and still finish in the same position. So we all need to – for the benefit of the sport – sit down and see what is not the best solution, but the most easy to apply or the common-sense kind of solution. We will all have a think about it and come up with ideas and see what can be done or not. Obviously, FIA and FOM went for the two-stop idea. Clearly, it didn’t work, at least in the midfield. Although I always welcome something new and experimental to see if it can actually work. I feel everyone would benefit in the decision-making process from including us drivers in this conversation. I really believe the sport would benefit if instead of trying something top-down, we all sit together at a table and, with the ideas of the drivers, let FOM and FIA know and put together a solution that actually works.
