Thursday Drivers' Wrap | 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix

yeah I mean you know the the team have asked me to to help out and I mean I've said for the last few races that if I was asked then then I would and um you know of course naturally as a as a driver it's never uh I guess an easy thing or a simple thing to agree to but um again there's a much bigger picture at play than than just just myself so uh you know I'm still coming out here to try and achieve the best results that I can um and and you know

put myself in in a good position um to to score a lot of points for first myself and also the team um but I know that you know if if there's uh some ways of of helping the points for Lando then um then I will do that it's not as simple as that so a lot of people think it's very simple and very straightforward it's not um people can believe what they want and come up with their own opinions but Oscar is also a driver fighting for his own Championship his own career uh and that's

a very valid reason for him to want to fight and do well you know so it depends what the positions are for what positions we're fighting for um there's many different scenarios so uh yeah people on the outside think it's an easy simple thing it's not um but we've come up with a good plan of uh how we can approach it all I mean on M look I it's my my old family and um I'm just just really happy to see them back up there and I think it's probably been a long time since they've

been in that position so this is all new newer I mean probably most likely the people that are in the team today are not all the people that were there when I was there and so even for those it's the first time that they're having this such a competitive car um and um I think they've been handing it well and and naturally like everyone that's challenging for these uh uh for wins and for a championship the mistakes will be made um but uh again I'm not running the team so I can't they win or if

they should have or shouldn't have um yeah Claren without doubt are the fastest team on the grid at the moment and if you look at probably the last six or seven Races they could have arguably won every single one uh so yeah Lando's driving great and with the support of his teammate let's see but I think it it more depends on on Max's performance and if if he's able to finish in those second and third places is it'll be very difficult for Lando um if he's finishing in fifth sixth and seventh then it will swing

pretty quick but I'm confident Lando and McLaren are going to be winning a lot more races from here into V the season yeah I mean uh you just have to look at uh Adrian's track record um you know every uh car that he's built um has fought for you know wins in championships and uh that makes him you know one of the the most iconic people in the sport so to have him wearing green now I think is really exciting for everyone in the team and probably for me what I think is that you know

Aston Martin team is the team of the future in in a way you know we are just opening um new buildings uh at the factory the campus now building two is finished wi tunnel will be January um Honda aramco uh best partner in the world probably and uh and now Adrian as well so yeah I think the team is taking shape and Lauren's vision is taking shape so yeah good news this week it's nice but my job is to also reset before going into a weekend like this because you can pay the price quite a

bit of having that uh huge motivation and uh huge expectations as well going on a track like this is true that between the winning Monza and the fact that it's a track that I particularly like and that I've been part particularly strong in the past you you've got that momentum and you just hope that everything is going to go well but uh I just focus on the process try to not to think about too much about the past just try and prepare this weekend in the best possible way and then we'll see where we end

up it was a a big boost of motivation and happiness for everyone at the factory after a few difficult weekends where we didn't seem to find the right way with the development we brought a new package to to monsa and it seemed to work well I think it's also mainly due to a circuit that favors a bit the Ferrari like here in Baku Singapore or or Vegas I think are our next good opportunities but still we will try to maximize them and see if we can keep bringing home victories or or podiums uh yeah monzo

wasn't good for us um yeah we've analyzed a lot of things and uh yeah it's uh time to to try and be better um and um yeah let's see how uh how this weekend will go it's a thing with a with a style of Max that he's less sensitive to the issues we we have just by Nature you know there are some some people don't understand it especially from the media side that different driver Styles can come to different conclusions and the problem was that well not the problem the good thing was that Max was

a lot less sensitive to it and and than I was you know 10 12 races ago I was complaining about these issues uh but now it seems that they're so big that even Max is is feeling them so I think the solution will benefit me even more you know with with my style so yeah and now it's very clear in in in the data the team is fully aware of it and hopefully we can fix the issue soon going forwards uh because then we can unlock a lot of per of performance from the car yeah

it's nice to be back first of all um of course not the circumstances I I would have hoped um but nonetheless it's a great opportunity to build up my my experience uh get a full weekend on my belt like you said with some notice this time time I I've been known it was coming uh which which is helpful and yeah I just want to use it to really build up step by step and enjoy it as well a new teammate for you this weekend and Ollie bman will you be giving him some advice from your

side of the garage or you just going to leave him to get on with it if he wants advice of of course my do is always open um but I think he he's pretty handy uh I think he likes Street circuits um and I think he he will be on the pace pretty quickly I think he's had a a thorough preparation process uh with a lot of simulator running and stuff and uh I I I suspect he will be on the pace pretty quickly and then settling in just fine we definitely have a bit of

positive momentum going on about us uh in terms of raw Pace though I think mono even though it was a a successful weekend we were still lacking a little bit of pace towards the house um and it was a track that we knew we going to be strong at so coming into this weekend points are on the Cs but it's going to be a tough race we're going to have to execute it um perfectly unfortunately I didn't have a lot of experience in the Formula One car so I had to learn quite a lot of

things very quick um I had a lot of information coming in uh from from all the team members and they were super helpful they were really really helpful and it helped me to to you know process everything a little a little bit quicker to that learning process quicker and I think part of the the good performance that I had in Mona was H due to my Engineers due to the mechanics uh due to the warm welcome that that everyone has been giving me in the team Alex has been very very helpful as well uh very

supportive and yeah I'm just very happy to be in this team honestly you must be very proud to reach this 150th Mark yeah it's it's a big number for sure um you know I didn't see the the time going you know things flies um when you have fun time flies that's what people say um yeah it's it's a big number for sure um I didn't know it before I came to to this event um I just saw that the team did a special post you know for it and uh it's pretty cool um you know

to achieve such a such a milestone there's a lot of races now uh a year and uh that's why you know the the time flew so so quickly but um yeah I mean I guess you just go race by race and uh and you know you travel around the world you know one after the other and uh think about the the present moment but um yeah it is it is quite emotional you know I think 100 races with the team uh as well with with this team and um yeah we've achieved a lot there's some

um you know bit sweet taste you know a little bit with what we've achieved cuz there was some some great stuff but uh we would have liked a little bit more of course but yeah I'm here until the remaining of the season and and I'm going to try and do the best I can with what I got in hands he is one of the most successful car designer um in our Sport and he's got a very unique way of approaching racing approaching um design CU similar to Daniel I walk in the factory and see him

in front of his board drawing all sort of stuff which I could not even tell what was really going on on there but um ultimately it just seems to work uh when it it gets to the track and um very humble person which I liked on a on a personal level I always had great talks with him and always accessible which uh which was very enjoyable um for the time we we had working together yeah there's there's quite a few things to think about in this sport um just the race weekend alone is uh is

quite a lot of load on you mentally and and and and Al um and yeah there's always the contract situation which is um an extra stress it can be let's say but um yeah things are progressing we're still almost in daily contact with with Matia uh figuring out what each party wants and um yeah that's about it but I'm always positive uh so um but now again it's time to focus for the weekend rather than the contracts you know every weekend we like obviously we're having a similar uh package for a few races in a

row now but uh like every weekend we're trying to extract this match which we could like together with me and my teamm we try to have a different set up to understand what is the needed for the current situation to making a bigger step even for the next coming races or is for the future development so is a tough situation at the moment just because I think we don't really have the pace fighting yet to anywhere close to top 10 and we keep keep the let's say motivation high and we want to learn as much

as we could in every certain stand and to understanding therefore with high down first track low down first track and then see how it goes also here in back when Singapore because I think the last two races to the coming two will be complete different certain stance but uh yeah it's uh difficult just to give a very high expectation but we are trying to work in each individual areas that uh current weakness and trying to solve that and hopefully that can give us a let's say better better coming up races and in terms of performance

we can be fighting more closeup yeah I have always confidence every every race week so yeah I just going to continue that I don't yeah every race week it's always reset um wherever I went in a bad situation in previous race I'm in a normal shape next race so I'm good I I could answer it simply by saying yeah just coincidence and I don't know I don't know if it's the the track layouts I mean there has been like moner there was some some incidents and a bit of contact here and there um sometimes it's

also just the way it goes sometimes contact can be brushed off and other times it it isn't so uh yeah um I know from a viewing point of view sometimes obviously a safety car mid race spices it up but uh yeah when we're in the race and we're out there we're just trying to do what we can and get our head down so if if if you happen to see a safety car at some point you know you you adjust accordingly but uh yeah I didn't even know if you said there was a safety guard

two races ago I would have said oh yeah I believe you