1 – George RUSSELL (Mercedes)
2 – Kimi ANTONELLI (Mercedes)
3 – Isack HADJAR (Red Bull Racing)

PARC FERMÉ INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Jolyon Palmer)

Q: What a way to start the season, George, living up to the pre-season favourites tag. It’s been a great day and a great lap at the end. How was it?
George RUSSELL: Yeah, it was a great day. We knew there’s a lot of potential in the car but until we get to this first Saturday of the season, you never know. But it really came alive this afternoon, especially as the track temps cooled. We know we sort of tend to favour those conditions. And also, really happy to have Kimi here next to me as well, because it’s been such hard work from all the team to deliver this car, and they did an amazing job in the garage as well today. So, all in all, mate, really good day.

Q: Let’s talk about the car, all new for this year. What does that mean for the driver? It’s a very different driving style, it looks like.
GR: Yeah, it’s not easy. It’s not easy to drive. It’s not easy, I think, for some of the fans to understand. However, I’m excited for the race tomorrow and I think it can bring some quite exciting racing. And also, for you guys in the crowd, it’s always amazing every time we come to Melbourne, so thank you so much for all of that support for all of us, and hopefully we can deliver a good race.

Q: Alright, hold that thought because I’m going to come back to you on that. But Kimi, what a day for you as well. There’s only one place to start: the start of that session. That must have been pretty sweaty.
Kimi ANTONELLI: Yeah, it’s been a very, very stressful day. Unfortunately, in FP3, I went into the wall. But the guys, the mechanics today, were the heroes, you know, to put the car back on track. We couldn’t even set up the car, we just went out and managed to put it on the front row. So really happy with that.

Q: I have to say that last lap from you was pretty incredible as well, because you had the lock-up, you had no time on the board in Q3, and suddenly you went to provisional pole. So how do you manage to do that with the day that you’ve had so far?
KA: Yeah, it was not easy. I had to dig deep. But yeah, need to have a clean weekend next time because it definitely compromised qualifying a little bit. But we have a race tomorrow to look ahead to and a good result is possible.
Q: Yeah, well done Kimi, amazing result for you today. In the end, Isack Hadjar, top three for your first qualifying with Red Bull. What a cheer, what a feeling. How was that for you?
Isack HADJAR: Yeah, I didn’t... I mean, thank you very much to all the fans cheering. Yeah, it was a very smooth qualifying. The run-up to qualifying, the whole weekend, was a bit difficult. We are not really in a position to fight for a top three. I felt like the Ferrari, the McLaren were a bit clear of myself, but we kind of built up to it the whole qualifying session and that was a very good last lap.

Q: Very tight margins between you and those behind, but you’re in the third spot behind these two Mercedes. Can you do anything about them? Can you maybe get them at the race start? What does it look like tomorrow?
IH: Yeah, take a better start, but then it’s going to be... they’re just too fast at the moment. So, I want to keep my position. A second podium could be good.

Q: Alright, well done today, Isack and good luck for tomorrow. Alright then George, let’s talk about tomorrow. Pole position, but a whole new set of circumstances with these cars in race trim. We saw the starts in testing look difficult. How are you feeling for those?
GR: Yeah, I think a lot of the simple things that were in the past, like race starts, pit stops, are a hell of a lot more challenging with these new cars. So, I said it to the team in the garage at the beginning of Q3: “Now let’s just have a clean session because who knows what’s going to happen tomorrow.” Obviously, we’ll try and work hard tonight, but obviously a really great day where together we’re the best place possible.

PRESS CONFERENCE


Q: George, tremendous lap, very well done. Let’s start with that final lap of Q3. Just how good was it?
GR: Yeah, it felt very good, to be honest. The whole session felt very clean, very tidy, no mistakes, and yeah, just how I wanted to start this weekend really. These new cars are very challenging to drive, they’re very difficult to understand, the energy management and all of the other features we’re dealing with. But I think we knew as a team, or we thought as a team, we had a really good package beneath us, and it’s been so much hard work from everyone in Brixworth and Brackley to deliver this. But I don’t think we quite thought it was that good. And also, to have Kimi next to me here as well is really great.

Q: So you’re surprised by the eight-tenths of a second gap to the nearest non-Mercedes?
GR: Yeah, definitely. I think the conditions also came into our favour. We know we’re better in these cooler conditions and as the track temp dropped, we always seemed to find more lap time. But, you know, I think we’ve got a really great engine beneath us. However, I think we’ve also got a really amazing car beneath us, and I think that probably hasn’t been highlighted enough in the press these past few weeks. I think the car, from the off, Kimi and I both said it felt great to drive. We’re enjoying the smaller cars, the lighter cars, and yeah, perfect way to start Melbourne.

Q: George, you’re enjoying the cars. Just how different does a qualifying lap feel in these all-new cars?
GR: Well, the cars are more agile and you’re sort of sliding them around a bit more. It’s easier to lock up and run wide, lose the rear. It wasn’t easy conditions out there today, it was quite windy, quite gusty, but I’m enjoying that. It feels more like a go-kart compared to last year. It felt like a bouncing bus, to be honest. It wasn’t as fun to drive. So, I think there are lots of mixed views on the new regs as a whole, but I do think the car regulations for everyone are definitely a step forward compared to what we’ve had for the past, what, eight years now.

Q: Well, let’s throw it forward to the race tomorrow. It feels like there are a lot of unknowns, even with your pace advantage. Just how do you see it playing out? Are you expecting a dramatic race?
GR: I think the goal for us right now is to just try and make the finish line because we honestly don’t know what’s going to happen. The most simple things that we’ve been dealing with over the past years, such as pit stops, are now really challenging with all the procedures, getting the engine in the right window, the turbo speed spinning enough, the battery not too low but not too high, race starts, we’ve seen our challenge. So, I think the goal for us was just to have a clean weekend. Of course we want to win, we want to be on board, we want to dominate the weekend, but it’s a really long season and we need to get through tomorrow and just have a clean race because at any point you can stumble and that could be the end of your day.

Q: Very well done. Thank you for that, George. Kimi, let’s come to you. You said it yourself a moment ago, it was a stressful afternoon for you. Just how difficult was it to navigate from inside the cockpit?
KA: Yeah, it was a very intense day. But the mechanics were the heroes today. Massive thanks to them because they allowed me to be back on track. It was very intense, I was very nervous, very stressed going into the session because at one point it looked like I couldn’t make it. But then obviously we were lucky with the red flag as well, that it allowed us to buy a bit more time. But yeah, it was tricky. We couldn’t even set up the car, we just went out of the garage and yeah, at the end obviously we were still able to be on the front row. But yeah, this is thanks to the mechanics, of course.

Q: You say you weren’t able to set up the car. You found a massive chunk of time between Q2 and Q3. Tell us where that came from, if you could.
KA: Well, I had a bad lap one in Q3. Obviously, I locked up into Turn 3 and went off, so just put myself a bit more under pressure. And yeah, just tried to have a clean lap. Of course, luckily, we have a really good car. The team has done an incredible job to give us such a good car. I just did a clean lap, and it was still good enough for P2. Of course, George did an amazing job, but yeah, now looking forward to tomorrow.

Q: You talk about the performance of the car. Just tell us how it feels to have this car and this performance advantage underneath you in only your second season of Formula 1.
KA: Of course, it’s the best I could have asked for. We have a really good car and we look very, very competitive. That is because the team has done an incredible job on the engine side, but as well on the chassis side. I think the car, as George said, many people just talk about the engine, but the car itself is really, really strong. So I think we’re in a very good position and yeah, looking forward to tomorrow. But the car, to be fair, especially in these conditions when they’re lighter, is super fun to drive. It’s much more agile, the car is much better through the low speed, the ride is much better. Obviously, you’re lacking a little bit of high-speed downforce, but that’s going to come. I mean, we’re only at the first race of the new regulations. Then of course on the PU side, there’s a lot to learn. It’s very tricky on a track like this, but it’s part of the game.

Q: Alright, very well done to you. Thank you for that. Isack, if we could come to you now. What a way to start your Red Bull Racing career. Many congratulations. Just talk us through, first of all, how the session played out for you.
IH: Honestly, it was a very chill session. There was no drama for me. Also, it’s the first time, I think, in my small F1 career that lap after lap I found lap time, even on used tyres. So I was just building up to it. We did a very good job being consistent with the energy deployment management through the lap, so that was very consistent compared to yesterday, which was quite bad. So yeah, the approach was... it’s the first time in my career it’s that easy to put a car in the top ten, so then it makes the whole process a lot easier. You build up to it the way you want, you can allow yourself some mistakes. So yeah, in terms of pressure it wasn’t very high and that was good.

Q: So once Max was out of the session, did the pressure ramp up at all on you? Did you feel it?
IH: Actually, no. I might be P3, but if Max was actually running the whole session then I don’t know if I would be here. So that’s a shame. I want to compare myself with the best and today that didn’t happen, so we’ll do that next time in China.

Q: We’ve heard the Mercedes guys praise their car. Just tell us a little bit more about yours. What are its greatest strengths? How much potential do you think the car has?
IH: Honestly, what happens in Melbourne, it just doesn’t really matter compared to the car we’re going to have at the end of the year. There’s going to be so many... the progression curve is so steep that it’s going to be a lot different. So, at the moment we know our weakness. We have a reliable car underneath, which is positive, but we’re just lacking pure performance at the minute.

Q: Okay, final one from me. How do you see it playing out tomorrow for you? Where are you setting your objectives? Do you think you can do anything about the Mercedes, for example?
IH: No. And I think after Turn 1, if we keep our position then we have a good race, I think. But yeah, we simply don’t have the pace to win.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Filip Cleeren – Motorsport.com) George has spoken about this, so Kimi and Isack please. George says he enjoys the new cars. What about you guys? How are these cars to drive over one lap in qualifying? Between them being more nimble but also some of the dramatic energy harvesting we’ve seen, have you been able to enjoy these cars?
KA: Yeah, I mean I think the car is, on the chassis side, better than last year. They’re much softer, the ride is much better, no bouncing, they’re lighter, so much more agile in change of direction, low speed. Obviously in high speed we’re lacking downforce compared to last year. But first of all, the previous generation had... the faster you were going, the more downforce you were getting because it was a ground-effect car. But with this car it’s probably going to be impossible to match the high speed. But I think as a starting point on the chassis side the car is very nice, and I don’t think we’re that far from 2022 lap times. So I think obviously it’s the first race and the car is just going to improve massively throughout the year. And then of course on the PU side, it’s very tricky, but it’s also part of the game. That’s why the teams that are able to get it first, especially on energy management on this kind of track, can make the difference. So yeah, it’s part of it, but I think the car itself to drive is very nice.

Q: Isack, your thoughts please?
IH: I think the chassis is pretty good, and the rest, I’m not a fan.

Q: (Luke Smith – The Athletic) George, you talked about being surprised by the advantage. You’ve waited your whole career to get a car like this underneath you, so how do you feel now you’ve seen actually what the gap is to the rest of the field, and how do you see that fluctuate in the coming races? Do you think it’s a case of “make hay while the sun shines”?
GR: You definitely have to make hay while the sun shines because my mentality coming into this race is, if we started on the front foot, it doesn’t guarantee anything. If we start on the back foot, it doesn’t guarantee anything. And the rate of improvement from everyone at this time of the year is going to be huge. I’ve said it a few times, the 2022 season, with Ferrari, three races in they looked clearly the dominant team and were going to easily win the championship, and they weren’t close. You even look at the 2009 season, that was a 17-race year. If that was a 24-race season, there might well have been a different winner. So, we’ve got to keep on pushing, keep on working hard, and it isn’t just about these upcoming races. It’s about making sure we’ve got a good car for these coming years, because that’s where we failed in ’22.

Q: (Gabriel Porritt – 4ZZZ) Kimi and George, there were some rumours before this qualifying session, the sandbagging sort of accusations that often come up in pre-season. You did end up, like has been mentioned, 0.8 ahead of your nearest rivals. Toto looked pretty pleased in the garage as well as results started coming in. Was there anything to that? Were you holding anything back for qualifying, or was it just incremental changes in the right conditions?
GR: Well, I think it wasn’t a case of sandbagging. I think it was more a case of some of the other teams showing more than we would have expected in winter testing. We’ve seen this on numerous occasions in the past. Obviously, the Red Bull looks quick and we know how incredible a driver Max is as well. So, I’m sure Isack’s done an amazing job to be in this position. Who knows where Max would have been? And I think we said this from the outset, they look to be one of the biggest threats. But yeah, I can’t even remember what the question was, to be honest. Hopefully that answers it.

Q: (Filip Cleeren – Motorsport.com) Isack please. There has obviously been this narrative around Red Bull second seats. Some of your predecessors have struggled. I know you probably believe in your own ability, but is it still a bit comforting to show immediately what you can do so that doesn’t become a talking point?
IH: I mean, we have the same car, so it’s who drives better that does the better job and has the better results. So yeah, that’s it.