We are in Budapest for Third race of the season and final race of first ever triple header in F1 history. Thursday is press time and with driver market rumors in full swing, it was very interesting day for all the media members. Let’s see what each driver would say about this weekends race.
Ferrari Drivers on SF1000 performance
Charles Leclerc:”I think realistically we are struggling with the performance at the moment, so I don’t think we can consider us fighting for podiums at the moment. But we try to change that. And we are trying to work as hard as possible to change this. Last year I think we were also struggling on this track.This year we have a different car. Hopefully the changes made on the balance will help us, but I doubt it will be a very different picture to the previous weekend. So I’m expecting that it will be a similar picture.”
Sebastian Vettel:”We know that the parts have worked.We would have liked them to be obviously a game changer: it doesn’t look at this stage, like that.But then again we have to confirm them in real race conditions. So I think it will be interesting and we are excited about seeing where the car will be tomorrow and then especially in the race.”
Mercedes Drivers on W11
Lewis Hamilton: W11 is best car Mercedes has built
“Firstly I don’t think there’s ever been a car that I’ve driven that’s been easy to get into working.Because the conditions are always different, corners are always different. There are corners that it works well in, and corners that it doesn’t. And that never changes.”
“There have been a couple of cars in the past that have been – I think Toto [Wolff] mentioned one being a ‘diva,’ which was not the word that I particularly had used – but you know, it was a real handful the majority of the time.This one’s more refined. We really worked hard last year, in really being clear and concise in picking out what the issues were with the ’19 car and what we wanted to do moving forwards.”
“And that just continues to come from the great communication that we have as drivers with the team, with the engineers, the understanding we have with the terminology we use, and the team really take that in, and then have implemented that into the car today.”
“But we’ve only been to one track. It’s still not easy to get the lap out of the car, but I think that’s F1 in general. But it is the best car that we’ve had so far.”
Valtteri Bottas :
“I think we’ve started the season in a very decent way in terms of understanding the car and for sure.We learned a lot for example between the first two race weekends and even the second week, at the same track, we were still discovering things.”
“It’s obviously too early to say, it’s been only really one proper track with this package, so we’ll find out. But I have a feeling things started in the right way. And for now, there’s been no massive drama.”
Renault Drivers On RS20 and Radiator issue
Esteban Ocon:
“Well, in motorsport zero risk is never of course there – but we think we know the issue, we think we’ve solved it, [and] hopefully it won’t happen again.Of course, it is two times an issue that we didn’t want to have, but yeah we now need to make the most of the opportunities we got.”
Daniel Ricciardo:
“We’re told that it all looks a lot more promising now [after] the two failures that we didn’t want. But I feel like they’ve got enough now to cover it.RS20 is a better car than its predecessor, specifically at “the rear of the car”.I don’t think I need to go into great detail, but to explain and it’s not giving anything away, but it’s really just when you get on the power,Essentially you’re able to reach full throttle earlier.
“Yes, Formula 1 has a lot of grip but to a viewer maybe watching at home who things we come out of the corner and go ‘whack’, straight to 100% throttle, but there’s a lot of feeling and a lot of time to get there.You feel the grip and all this. Say if it takes a couple of seconds to reach full throttle, that time is now shortened because we’ve got more downforce and more grip in the car.”
“I guess it squats down on power, we feel it. That’s the big thing, the exits have improved, and that was the first thing I felt in testing.And it’s still the strength of the car I feel now, and that’s been the biggest thing for me.”
