Italian Grand Prix - Post-Race Press Conference Transcript

Sport news DRIVERS   1 – Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing) 2 –  Lando NORRIS (McLaren) 3 – Oscar PIASTRI (McLaren)   TRACK INTERVIEWS (Conducted by Davide Valsecchi)    Q: Oscar Piastri, third position. Congratulations. How was your race? Hard battle at the beginning with Leclerc, who was very fast on the straight. And then how do you judge your race? Oscar PIASTRI: Yeah, difficult beginning, definitely. I think maybe not my best first couple of laps, and then… We seemed to have pretty good pace for the first couple of laps compared to Charles, and then I could get past. And then it was a pretty lonely race from there. Just struggled a little bit through the first part of the race. The car wasn't exactly how I liked, and once the tyres went away, it actually felt a bit better, which is never a great sign. So yeah, happy with the points, and I'll take it.   Q: At the end, about the strategy, you tried something different using the Soft at the end, and the little problem you had with your team-mate. How was that? OP: Yeah, I mean, we went so long that the Soft seemed like a good tyre to put on. We were just staying out for Safety Cars, if we got any, but eventually Max got back into our pit window, so there wasn’t any point staying out much longer… Yeah, a little incident at the end, but that’s okay.   Q: Good points anyway for the championship. No risk at all during this weekend? OP: I think it’s fine. Not a bad weekend. Obviously, would love the performance to have been a little bit better, but all in all, I think there’s a lot of things to learn from this weekend. So happy going forwards, and we’ll try and be stronger next week.   Q: Thank you so much. Championship leader, Oscar Piastri. Congratulations. Lando Norris, what a great start, to be honest. Did you leave the throttle down there when you touched the grass? Did you close the door a bit too much on Max, or not? Lando NORRIS: A little bit! I had to! I tried to keep it, even on the braking to Turn 1. I tried to stay, but I always know it’s going to be a good fight with Max, and it was, so enjoyable, but just not the speed today, not the pace of Max and the Red Bull. A tricky one. One of the first few weekends where we were just a bit slow, but still fun. Still, a good race, so I enjoyed it.   Q: We really enjoyed the first part of it, that’s for sure. Can you talk us through what happened at the pit stop? LN: No, I don’t know. I felt like I was there for quite a long time, but I guess every now and then we make mistakes as a team. So, today was one of them.   Q: And about the championship, what do you think? You were not lucky at all in the last weekend. Seems that this weekend everything was running in your direction, but then Red Bull and Verstappen were quicker than you. Second position, what do you think about the championship? LN: Yeah, I mean, I did everything I could today. I couldn’t do a lot more. I tried to fight against Max, but we had a good race and he came out on top, and they deserved it. So nothing more. Second was our best result, and I just need to keep doing what I’m doing.   Q: Congratulations. Second position. Always a pleasure, Lando Norris. Max Verstappen, race winner. What an unbelievable performance. After yesterday, that already was astonishing – your lap. Talk us through your race, because that performance was legendary, I think. Max VERSTAPPEN: Yeah, it was a great day for us. Of course, lap one was a bit unlucky, but then after that we were flying. The car was for me really enjoyable. I could manage the pace quite well throughout that first stint and I think we pitted at the right time. Then with the Hard tyres at the end, you can push a bit more, they’re a bit more resilient. And just a fantastic execution by everyone, by the whole team. I think the whole weekend we were on it. And yeah, it’s super enjoyable to win here.   Q: And tell me about the start. You were super hard like always, like Max Verstappen. When you lost the lead, did you think it was possible for you to win this race anyway, or did you have a bit of doubt? What was in your mind at that time? MV: I could see that immediately the pace was quite good. I just needed to settle in. There was a lot of fighting going on, and then I could see the pace was there and quite quickly we were back in the lead.   Q: And about your car, seems that it was perfect today. Do you think you’re going to have some more chances this year to let us enjoy your driving? MV: Well, we’ll try for sure. We’ll go step by step, race by race, but for us this was an unbelievable weekend.   PRESS CONFERENCE   Q: Max, very well done. You were relentless out there today. The margins were small, yet you somehow managed to win the race by twenty seconds. How sweet was that victory for you? LN: It was 19, no? I just don't want any misinformation! 19, yeah. MV: I would say probably a bit better than expected, but once I got back in the lead, I just tried to focus on my own pace and it kept on going, going well. I would say only the last maybe six to eight laps of that stint I started to struggle a little bit on the Medium. But up until that point, yeah, it was nice for once. The car was doing a little bit more what I liked. It just seems like this weekend has been another step forward with the behaviour of the car and that also then shows in the race, I think. So that was a big positive for us. Then, of course, we did a bit more of a normal strategy, you know, Medium–Hard. Of course, McLaren stayed out to try and gamble for the Safety Car, and I think that's why the gap is a little bit bigger than it should have been. But still for us, an incredible weekend.   Q: You say the car was doing what you liked. What stood out about its performance today? MV: That it's just not… Well, before it felt like you were a passenger in the car. We had some races where it was just not balanced. And now, finally, there was more balance in the car and then the tyres also behave a little bit more normal.   Q: The race settled down after the early laps, but can we talk about those early laps and your battle with Lando? It looked good fun. MV: Yeah, it was. There was a lot going on after the first lap, even into Turn 1. I think Oscar and Charles were fighting as well. I could see in my mirror. So it took two, three laps to settle in a bit, and then from there onwards it was fine.   Q: When you made the decisive pass for the lead, how confident were you of pulling away from Lando? MV: You don't know. I mean, of course, you are pushing a bit to try and get ahead and then time will tell, right, in that stint if it was going to hang on or not. But after a few laps, it looked like it was going really well.   Q: You've said several times this weekend that this has been a great turnaround compared to this race last year. How much hope does that give you for the remainder of the season? MV: I think it's still a bit track dependent. Here you drive low downforce. It always seems like our car is a little bit more competitive when it’s low- to medium-downforce. So it's not like suddenly now we are back. It's not like we can fight, I think, every single weekend. But the positive is that we seem to understand a little bit more what we need to do with the car to be more competitive. So I hope that that carries on into the coming rounds as well, and some tracks will be a bit better than others.   Q: Lando, how much did you enjoy those early laps with Max? Talk us through that battle. LN: It was a little bumpy at one point, but it was what I expected. It was close and it was fun racing.  Tough, again, as expected. Enjoyable – it's what I probably enjoy more than anything, these kinds of battles. It was nice to go out on top for a couple of laps, but it didn't last very long. Max's pace was just far too good for us today, especially in that first stint, especially in the first three quarters of the first stint. Close, even when he got me into Turn 1, I think we were both pretty late on the brakes and we just about made the corner. It was close. I felt like there was probably a little bit of rubbing at some point. So, like, nerve-rackingly close and exciting for that reason. But I wish it could last a bit longer than it did. Just a tough race for us, not the pace we wanted. I think we were hoping to at least fight for a win. But Max's race was a bit too easy today. So, yeah, work to do, clearly, on our side.   Q: You say “nerve-rackingly close” referring to the battle with Max. Do you think it was fair, good racing? LN: It's not my decision in the end. Got nothing to say. It was good. The main part I said was nerve-rackingly close was when he overtook me into Turn 1 on the outside, on lap two or three, whatever it was. That's the one where it's like, who wants to brake the latest? But I knew being on the inside that Max is in a much stronger position than I am. He can afford to be a lot more on the edge and aggressive than I can. I can't afford to lose a front wing or have a little bit of damage, whatever it might be. I felt like I took the risks that needed to be taken and did my part, but just not quick enough.   Q: You say Max's race was a little too easy today. Do you think McLaren's advantage will be back at the next race in Baku? LN: If you look back at last year, it was pretty close between many people. The Ferraris, as well, were very strong there. We expect them to be good there. But it's pointless to guess. We go into every weekend with an open mind. We've been dominant, and I think that's always a positive thing at the end of weekends – it’s when we come out when we’ve had a one-two and sometimes it's a smaller gap, sometimes much bigger. But we still go into weekends with the expectation that anyone could be there, whether it is the Ferraris or the Red Bulls, most likely. We still think they could qualify ahead and they could beat us in the races. Therefore, we're not too shocked to have lost today and to not have been on pole yesterday. We knew already on Friday, FP1, it was not going to be a great weekend in terms of dominance like we've had. You have to look at things on the other side. We've had, you know, 95% have been amazing and we've won by huge gaps. So it just hurts that’s it’s a little bit the other way for once. But when you look at the flip side, there's still a lot more good races than bad. So we have to take it on the chin, learn from this weekend, and see what we can improve for the other lower-downforce tracks like Vegas.   Q: Can I ask about those closing laps? You had the problematic pit stop resulting in Oscar sneaking ahead. Given what's at stake in the world title fight, did you ever doubt that he'd let you through again? LN: No. Because it's what we decided as a team, and it's what we all agreed upon.   Q: Oscar, very well done. Can I bring you in on that? Given the high-stakes game that you and Lando are playing in the world title fight, how much did you question the request to let Lando through? OP: It's something that we'll discuss. We have discussed it before. I think today was a fair request. Lando qualified ahead, was ahead the whole race, and lost that spot through no fault of his own. I said what I had to say on the radio. And once I got the second request, then I'm not going to go against the team. I think there's a lot of people to protect and a culture to protect outside of just Lando and I. Ultimately that's a very important thing going forward.   Q: What about the rest of your race? Did the time lost behind Charles Leclerc cost you a real chance of challenging these two guys? OP: Certainly not Max. I think with Lando, potentially, but even once I got ahead of Charles, I was struggling a bit. The balance just was not in a great place. I think as the Medium stint went on, we seemed to get stronger and stronger, and I felt like I got stronger and stronger too, which was nice. But ultimately just didn't quite have the pace. And once you got close to people, unless you had a fair bit more pace than them, it was very tough to stay behind.   QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR   Q: (Ronald Vording – Motorsport.com) Max, both Helmut Marko and Pierre Waché have just said that there was a slightly different philosophy going into the weekend – maybe listening to driver feedback a bit more, a bit less looking at the simulator. How significant has that been, and also, how important has Laurent Mekies been in all of that with his engineering background? MV: Up until now we've had a lot of races where we were just shooting left and right a little bit with the set-up of the car. Quite extreme changes, which shows that we were not in control. We were not fully understanding what to do. With Laurent having an engineering background, he's asking the right questions to the engineers – common-sense questions – so I think that works really well. Plus, you try to understand from the things that you have tried, that at one point some things give you a bit of an idea of a direction, and that's what we kept on working on. I definitely felt that in Zandvoort already we took a step that seemed to work quite well, and then here another step which felt again a little bit better.   Q: (Nigel Chiu – Sky Sports) Lando and Oscar, going back to the swap: if it was the last two or three races and the championship was still quite close, would you still expect to be asked to swap if the car ahead had a slow pit stop, just like today? Would you do it? LN: Yes. Because that's what we've agreed as a team. OP: Yep.   Q: (Bas Holtkamp – Formula1.nl Magazine) Max, what would you have done in the position of Lando and Oscar if you were fighting for the title? MV: I know you guys want a fun answer on that, but it's not my problem. Again, not my problem. It's better not to talk about it.   Q: (Luke Smith – The Athletic) Oscar, same subject. Were you surprised at all when you got that request on the radio? I don't know how clear it has been in terms of what specific incidents would require a move like that. Did it come as a shock at all? OP: No, not really. We have had discussions about all kinds of scenarios and when you're in the same team, when there are things outside a driver's control, there's a lot more ways you can rectify things. So it is a discussion we've had. I'm sure we'll review it and discuss more, but it wasn't a situation that hadn't been discussed before.   Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) Oscar, on that theme: on the radio you said, "we said a slow pit stop was part of racing, so I don't know what has changed." What did you mean by that? Did you expect that you wouldn't be asked to move out of the way? OP: I think the radio call kind of says enough. I'm sure we'll discuss it again.   Q: (Nate Saunders – ESPN) Question to both McLaren drivers. Slightly hypothetical maybe: you've talked about righting wrongs and fairness, etc. Let's say in Baku Oscar has a perfect weekend and at the end of the race there's a slow pit stop and it drops him from first to fourth. What happens in that situation now? Is the expectation that Lando should have to give a position back to a rival to balance things out? It seems like that's the precedent. You're not always going to be able to move the other car out of the way. What would the expectation be in that situation? OP: I think if it's within your control and there's no other cars involved, it's quite simple. But if there's other cars involved, we're not going to give away all of those points to other teams for a mistake. When there's no cars in between, it's much easier to rectify it. So to answer your question, if there had been more cars in between, then no, we wouldn't have swapped back because at that point it does just become very unfortunate.   Q: Lando, can we get your take on that? LN: I think Oscar said it well. Every situation is different, so it's pretty stupid just to assume that kind of thing and say that's the precedent you set. We're not idiots and we have plans for different things. If there were four cars in between me and Oscar, of course he's not going to let me back past, and I don't think it's correct that he let me back past. But in a situation where we weren't racing, in a situation where we can just be fair, then you'd expect to be fair, as a team. They don't want to be the reason to upset one driver or another through no fault of their own, you know. Today was not my fault. If I came flat-out into my box and I hit all my mechanics out the way, I also don't expect to get the position back, but today was out of my control. In the end, I don't want to win this way through getting given positions or anything like that. And the same thing with Oscar—we don't want to lose or win like that. But we do what we think is correct as a team, no matter what you say or what your opinions are, and we stick to doing it our way.   Q: Will anything change when McLaren wins the Constructors’ title? LN: No. Not that I know of. Ask Andrea.   Q: (Shanna Lutgert – F1Maximaal.nl) Max, at the end of the race GP was sort of, not slowing you down, but saying, "Bring the car home." How much margin did you have left, because you were saying "full push, no risk"? MV: It was a bit more of a joke because our engineer in sim racing with Team Redline always says that, he's just quite stressed sometimes. When I'm in the race, he's always like, "Yeah, no risk, full push." So that's why I said it. It was all under control. The car felt nice. The tyres were fine. GP, of course, wants to also just make sure that I'm driving without any risk, and that's what I did.   Q: (Samarth Kanal – The Race) Oscar, again on the same topic: it's such a small difference between second and third – three points. If at the end of the season you lost by that margin, would you look back at this moment and regret it? And was there something going through your mind beyond caring for the team and your team-mate that maybe pained you a little to swap positions? OP: I wouldn't regret it, no. I think today it was a fair decision. Lando was ahead the whole race and again it wasn't through any fault of his own. For me, that's fine. Ultimately, whoever wins the championship wants to have won it as much as they can through their own performances and things they can control. Today, that wasn't one of those things.   Q: (Leonid Kliuev – GrandePremio.com.br) Question to Oscar and Lando. It's very rare to hear that anything is more important than the chance of winning a championship. What is it about McLaren culture, I guess, that makes you stand out from almost every other competitor? OP: We've said many times that we don't want the chance of success just for this year. There's a big regulation change next year – we don't know how competitive we're going to be, and we don't know how competitive anyone's going to be. Ultimately, we want the best chance at winning championships for as long as we're Formula 1 drivers, and we're both at McLaren for a very long time. Protecting the people around us that give us this opportunity is a very important thing. It's easy enough to put yourself second at times like that. If we were fighting very closely for the whole race, then it's slightly different, but Lando was ahead by a few seconds the whole race, so there's no concern for me with that. Again, we don't just want this year to fight for a championship; we want it for as long as possible. Protecting the people, that includes the people doing the pit stops. It's not a very nice feeling, I would imagine. It's important to protect all the people that we have because that's what gives us a championship hope for years to come. LN: That was beautiful. He said it well. I don't need to add any more. The team is the priority. The team is number one, then the drivers are second. That's how it works. Normally, when you see teams who don't have enough respect for the team and the opportunities the team gives, it doesn't normally last long. You see that with plenty of other teams, whether it's been Red Bull, Ferrari, or Mercedes. We want to try and be in this position for a longer period of time than what they have been at the top. Still early days – it's only our second year of fighting for wins. But like Oscar said, the team gives us these opportunities. Without the team, then we're just fighting for tenth, and none of us want that. So team and the morale, the spirit of the team, is priority, and we're below that.   Q: (Nate Saunders – ESPN) Lando, it was hard to make out at the end of the race, but it sounded like when you came onto the podium there was a mixture of cheers and boos. It's a very famous podium here where you're right on top of the crowd, I wondered what your reaction was? And, Max, you joked earlier this week you might have PTSD from that Max Verstappen song if you keep hearing it—what was it like hearing that today, given how special this podium is? LN: I don't know why. I heard them. I hear the cheers louder than the boos, and that's the most important. MV: I think already in Imola it was pretty similar. It's just nice to see that support. Of course, most of them are here to support Ferrari – unfortunately they were not on the podium. But to see that crowd was incredible. Honestly, it's probably the best podium in the season in terms of what you see and how big the crowd is. They were very joyful, I would say, just having a good time, and it was nice to be part of it.   ENDS FIA Formula One World Championship Formula 1 F1 SEASON 2025 Sport Circuit 1SportFIA Formula One World ChampionshipCircuitF1SEASON 2025Formula 100 Sunday, September 7, 2025 - 7:09pm Sunday, September 7, 2025 - 7:09pm