Formula 1 News: 2024 USGP Post-Race Quotes
All ten F1 teams plus tire supplier Pirelli supplied quotes after the 2024 USGP at the Circuit of the Americas. The race was won by Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc
Scuderia Ferrari
Charles Leclerc (1st)): “It feels good to bring home a victory at the start of this triple header. The whole team did an amazing job to make this happen and a 1-2 brings us a good amount of points in the fight for the Constructors’ title. It’s an optimistic target, but we will never stop dreaming until it is done. I had a good start, leveraging the fact that Max (Verstappen) pushed hard into turn 1, and Lando (Norris) defended from him. I lined up my exit and overtook both of them. After that, I knew it would be a matter of taking good care of my tires and just bringing it home. Our pace was really strong from the first lap onwards and I felt that I could pull away from Max quite comfortably. We’ve made a really good step in terms of our race trim, and hopefully, we will keep it up in the next few races. We will do everything to maximize our results and at the end of the year, we will do the maths and see where we stand.”
Carlos Sainz (2nd)): “For the team this was basically the perfect weekend, so mega congrats to everyone both here and at home. My race was compromised at the start as I got blocked by Lando (Norris) and Max (Verstappen) fighting in front of me, which meant I did the first stint in Max’s dirty air. We had an issue and for some laps I was concerned but we managed to address it and used our pace to undercut Max and finish in P2. It’s great to be able to go on the attack with this car and we want to fight until the last race for the Constructors’ Championship. We have to continue working like this for the remaining races, starting in Mexico City next week.”
Frédéric Vasseur, Team Principal: “It was the perfect Sunday. We have done a very good job this weekend, scoring a lot of points but we have to stay focussed and not think we are champions just because of today’s result. Our pace was always under control as was the strategy with both drivers and when you have the slight advantage we had today, it is much easier to do a good job. The car has improved a lot in terms of its driveability compared to where we were a few races ago and that has contributed to the result. Charles had a perfect start and managed the tires well, while with Carlos we had to pit him earlier than planned in order to undercut Max (Verstappen). Once he was in free air he was able to set his pace and he was able to secure second place. Next week in Mexico will be a completely different story with the altitude making it a one-off race, adding to the challenge, where you have to focus a lot on cooling. Just because you are quick in Austin, it doesn’t mean you will be quick in Mexico. This one-two is great motivation for next week. As for the championship, we are taking it one race at a time, but there are still plenty of points available, including those from the Sprints so everything is still possible. Now we are completely focussed on Mexico where we hope to continue this positive trend.”
Oracle Red Bull Racing
Max Verstappen (3rd): “The battle with Lando at the end was cool as we were racing hard and it was actually a lot of fun. Today wasn’t the best for us, but the most important thing is that we have gained a lead in the Championship, which means a lot for the Team. I tried everything I could but we just didn’t have the pace that we have had over the last few days and unfortunately couldn’t fight the Ferraris on track. We had some balance issues, it was difficult to turn and break, and I couldn’t attack the corners because of the tires. The battle with Lando at the end was cool as we were racing hard and it was actually a lot of fun. You cannot overtake outside the white line and I have lost a podium here before overtaking outside the track, so that is unfortunate but it is the rules. We need to analyze a bit more why we didn’t have the same pace as we did yesterday as we did expect to be more competitive, which is a shame. However, this weekend we have made some positive steps and have had flashes where it looked like we were coming back to the front, so we are going in the right direction. It is still not enough, but we will keep working and improving the car where we can. As we said, ultimately, the fact that we have extended the gap is the biggest thing for us.”
Sergio Perez (7th)): “We lacked pace the whole weekend; it has not been a straightforward weekend and we have plenty of work to do. I lost quite a bit of time getting stuck behind the midfield pack at the beginning and the people who were on the hard seemed to have the best strategy; therefore I lost position to George in the end. It was quite strange towards the end of the first stint, my pace was better but I started to suffer badly with front pitching and the ride was quite bad. Generally, it then got a bit worse, and I thought it was maybe that tire, but then I fitted the hard and it was the same issue and the same pace. I was really struggling with a bit of car balance today and it was awkward to drive. The upgrade seems to help us quite a bit in the high speed and I did not have the complete upgrade this weekend, so that’s part of it and the rest of it is car balance. I am not sure how much having the total package would have put us back into contention. We lacked pace the whole weekend; it has not been a straightforward weekend and we have plenty of work to do. I am looking forward to next week but we need to make sure we learn from Austin to make sure Mexico is more successful.”
Christian Horner, Sporting Director: “All in all there are a lot of positives to take from today, the Team did a good job at turning things around from Singapore. Firstly congratulations to Ferrari, they drove a great race from the get go, and it was a well deserved win for them. For us, we lost pace compared to yesterday, so we need to take a look at and understand that. We got front limited rather than rear limited. It changed round and whether that was temperature or a set-up change we made after the Sprint, I am unsure. We will, as I say, need to look into it. Max drove brilliantly today I thought, he defended well. There was obviously the issue at the end of the race but the rules are very clear about that situation and the stewards acted quickly, as all teams have been asking of them. All in all there are a lot of positives to take from today, the Team did a good job at turning things around from Singapore but we still have a long way to go. But to out score our main rival in the Drivers Championship by five points over the weekend, that’s okay! Now we look to Mexico; Checo’s home race, where we hope to build on what we have achieved here and continue to push in the right direction.”
McLaren Formula 1 Team
Lando Norris (4th)): “A frustrating afternoon. Of course, starting first and finishing fourth is not what we hoped, but it was a challenging field with the Ferraris looking strong all weekend. I was confident in a podium finish today but unfortunately, we lost it through a decision out of our hands. So, a tough weekend and we have work to do. We’ll debrief as a team and go again next weekend in Mexico to secure more strong points in our championship push.”
Oscar Piastri (5th)): “It was a bit of a lonely afternoon, to be honest, starting and finishing in P5. On the positive side, we scored some decent points, which is important in the Constructors’ Championship fight. We just didn’t quite have the pace of Ferrari today. The field is still extremely tight, and this weekend showed that. We’ll be aiming to come back stronger in Mexico.”
Andrea Stella, Team Principal: “A very tight race in Austin, as we anticipated with three different teams in condition to win. It’s a shame that Lando’s race was affected initially by Max pushing him off in Turn 1, and then, once the hard job of recovering the position on Max was done, thanks to good pace and strategy, he lost the podium because of a penalty we don’t understand nor agree with. We feel this was an inappropriate way to change the result of a race. On Oscar’s side, a very well-executed race by him and the team, leading to an important haul of points. Now we reset, turn the page and focus on the next race.”
Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team
George Russell (6th)): “I was pleased with how today went from my side. We didn’t know what the race would bring in terms of opportunities but going from the pit lane to P6, and finishing ahead of Red Bull, meant that we made the best of a difficult situation. We had good pace throughout, in particular on the Hard compound tire. We were able to extend that first stint and give ourselves fresher rubber with which to attack in the closing laps. We will work hard in the coming days to analyze the weekend as a whole. The car can still be tricky at times; Lewis doesn’t end races in the gravel as we saw today. When we find its sweet spot, it is capable of strong performances but that is difficult to deliver consistently. I think the car had the potential to fight for the podium this weekend, but we need to widen its operating window. We will therefore be looking to bounce back next weekend in Mexico.”
Lewis Hamilton (DNF): “I had a great start, and I thought we were in for a positive race. I was just bringing the tires in when I had the accident, which was a really strange moment. I wasn’t pushing too hard but the car bounced a little into turn 19, I lost the back end and that was that. We measured a large gust of wind, up to 40 kph, as I turned in which likely didn’t help. George had a similar spin to me yesterday so we will work hard to analyze both incidents and see what we can learn from them. I am sorry to the whole team who have worked so hard to bring these updates but onwards and upwards from here. Hopefully we can get the car in a better place for next week in Mexico. We will all be working incredibly hard to do so.”
Toto Wolff, Team Principal: “I had a great start, and I thought we were in for a positive race. I was just bringing the tires in when I had the accident, which was a really strange moment. I wasn’t pushing too hard but the car bounced a little into turn 19, I lost the back end and that was that. We measured a large gust of wind, up to 40 kph, as I turned in which likely didn’t help. George had a similar spin to me yesterday, so we will work hard to analyze both incidents and see what we can learn from them. I am sorry to the whole team who have worked so hard to bring these updates but onwards and upwards from here. Hopefully we can get the car in a better place for next week in Mexico. We will all be working incredibly hard to do so.”
Andrew Shovlin: “Given that we had one car starting at the back and one in the pit lane, we had realistic expectations as to what could be achieved today. Lewis made a good start and was quickly up to P12. Unfortunately, that didn’t last long as he lost the rear in turn 19. We’re still investigating what caused that, but in any case, his race was over. George was making steady progress through the field in his first stint, but it still took him until the halfway point to get any clear air to judge pace. Encouragingly, the car was hanging on to its tires well and that was allowing us to extend. P6 was the best he could have achieved today, and he drove a good race to get there. As a team we have underachieved across the weekend and are under no illusions that we need to do better. The update kit has shown some promise, but we’ve not had a single clean session, and we’ll leave here not knowing what we could have done if we’d started near the front with a car in our latest aero specification. We will look to answer that question next weekend in Mexico.”
Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team
Fernando Alonso (13th)): “It was a tough race for us today and we dropped back a few places from our starting position. I think we outperformed the car’s natural position in Qualifying and we knew it would be an uphill battle to stay inside the top ten. It’s been a difficult weekend and we have lots to analyze over the next few days to get better for Mexico.”
Lance Stroll (15th)): “We lacked pace compared to the other cars today. I had a bit of messy restart with a snap at Turn 10 but I think that, even without that snap, the result would have been the same. The car didn’t have the performance for us to fight for positions. We’ve still got work ahead us to improve this car and we’ll be pushing hard to make that happen.”
Mike Krack, Chief Operating Officer: “A very difficult race day. It is really disappointing to come away from the weekend without any points. The midfield is incredibly tight and we were on the wrong side of the competition. We just didn’t have any pace all weekend. We have to learn from days like today, redouble our efforts and put actions in place ahead of next weekend in Mexico.”
BWT Alpine F1 Team
Pierre Gasly (12th)): “It’s been a frustrating afternoon where we did not fully extract the maximum potential. We had too many sub-optimal situations throughout the race, which is a pity as we started in a really good position and we had much higher ambitions than finishing outside the points. Things slipped away and we could have managed our race better, which is something we will review for next time. We covered the early pit-stop of Magnussen, then had a slow stop but, generally, we were lacking pace on the Hard tire to be in a stronger position. It looks like our rivals are just that bit quicker at the moment and we must keep understanding our package and extracting everything from it. We have Mexico City next week – a unique track where we have another opportunity to learn and progress.”
Esteban Ocon (18th)): “Unfortunately, today my race was compromised by Turn 1 after being hit from behind, which caused me to spin and I fell to the back of the field. I managed to recover a few positions throughout the race, however, we were not in contention for much else after that. We decided right at the end of the race to pit and attempt the Fastest Lap on Softs, which we managed to achieve. We have positives to take from this weekend. The upgrades have shown to be working, especially in Qualifying yesterday, so I look forward to the team continuing to work in this direction and improve the car. Next up is Mexico City and hopefully, we can be in a better position to be in contention for points.”
Oliver Oakes, Team Principal: “We can come away from this weekend in Austin with some positives, particularly with how our upgrade performed and converting that into the team’s best starting position of the season, lining up sixth on the grid. It’s a shame we could not capitalize on our good starting position, we struggled in the second stint and need to analyze that. The team has been working incredibly hard on pit stops this season with lots of noticeable improvements in recent races. These things happen in racing, and we win and lose as a team. We’re looking forward to going again in Mexico City in a week’s time.”
Williams Racing
Franco Colapinto (10th)): “After a tough Saturday, we managed to bounce back in the race. We showed great strength as a team to turn it around today. RB, Haas and Alpine have all been strong this weekend so it was going to be difficult to get in the points. I knew we had good race pace and when I found my rhythm in the clean air we really pushed on. I’ve learned a lot from my first Sprint weekend, which can only benefit me going forward. I still need to keep learning to help the team progress in the right direction. Hopefully, we can build on this in the next two races of the triple header.”
Alexander Albon (16th)): “It’s been a tough weekend. I feel like I got a little bit pinched on Turn 1 and once I had damage, that was it. It was a race in that I thought we were going to retire the car but were trying to play the long game and likely help out Franco with his race. The car was okay, but I feel like I’ve been struggling all weekend, and we just haven’t been able to find the right spot with the Soft tires. It’s a disappointing result but it’s only the beginning of the triple header, so hopefully we can make some changes and come back stronger in Mexico.”
Sven Smeets, Racing Director: “The track temperatures were higher today than the rest of the week, so tire management was always going to be important. We decided to split the cars on to different start tires to increase our chances to get into the points in the race. Alex started on the Medium but was unfortunately hit in Turn 1 from behind and could not avoid hitting Ocon. We were able to pit him under the Safety Car to change the front wing, but permanent floor damage meant his race was over before it had really started. Franco started on the Hard tire and lost some positions after the start. When the first two-stoppers pitted and with how the race unraveled, we decided to try and make the one stop work. A great first long stint kept him in the running for points and when Magnussen stopped for a second time, we decided to pit Franco for his one and only stop. He just came out in front and from then onwards he showed great pace till the end securing P10 and a valuable point. We still need to understand our poor performance from yesterday but with the good race pace today, we are looking forward to next week’s race in Mexico.”
Visa Cash App RB
Liam Lawson (9th)): “The whole team have put a lot of effort into preparing me for this, a lot of extra hours knowing it was my first weekend back in the car. It was a good race; I didn’t expect that to be honest. We had a great first lap, I just went for every little gap and made up some positions. We made a really good step up with the car yesterday, which we hoped would replicate in the race today and thankfully it did. The car was really strong and it did exactly what we hoped it would do. The Hard [tire] works well for us, and we had good pace too. When I boxed and we got some clean air we were able to keep extending longer than we’d planned and I think for me, doing yesterday’s sprint, I took notes from what others were doing, which really helped. The whole team have put a lot of effort into preparing me for this, a lot of extra hours knowing it was my first weekend back in the car so a big thanks to everyone in the team for making this happen. Mexico is a very different track so we’ll see what we can do there next week.”
Yuki Tsunoda (14th)): “We’ll have a look at it to understand if something could have been done better, as well as to get some learnings for the future. It was a tough and frustrating race today. I started on mediums on a one-stop race, while other drivers had different strategies starting on the hard tires to keep the first stint longer before pitting for new mediums. We’ll have a look at it to understand if something could have been done better, as well as to get some learnings for the future. Unfortunately, I made a mistake in the second part of the race, where I lost control and spun in Turn 1 and that certainly didn’t help our race. It was a very strange moment and I’m not sure what happened there, so it’s something we’ll definitely need to review. Mexico is close, I’ll come back stronger.”
Laurent Mekies, Team Principal: “We can be pleased with our team performance here in Austin, with an excellent ninth place finish from Liam on his return, thanks to a very well executed race from last on the grid. He has done a great job all weekend, especially when one considers he has not raced since October last year. He was well prepared, having spent all season with us, working with the team at the factory and at the Grands Prix, so that for this weekend he was pretty much ready from the get-go. Yuki’s pace was also strong all weekend, starting the Sprint from ninth and today from tenth. In the race after a good first stint on the Medium, he did not have much free air in the second stint on the Hards and had to settle behind Gasly before a spin put him further back. Austin marked the start of an intense six race battle to decide the championship positions, not just at the front of the field. With one Haas finishing ahead of us today, they have now overtaken us for sixth place, but we have seen the hierarchy change very often this season. Like most teams, we brought updates here and we’re pleased with how they performed. We think there is still room for improvement with them, and we need to get everything out of our package in the remaining five races. Everyone in Faenza and in Bicester is focused on that, and we are looking forward to a super fight all the way to the end.”
Jody Egginton, Technical Director: “We took a clear step forward with the cars in yesterday’s qualifying and the race pace shown today has validated that these set up changes have also delivered a much better race car relative to the sprint race, with a notable improvement in pace and tire consumption in today’s race. With Liam starting at the back due to the PU penalty it was always the plan to target a long first stint on the hard tire. However, the pace he has been able to run at for the entire stint was very strong, allowing him pass a few cars on track and overcut some more. He has been rewarded with points in his first race back with us, which is a credit to him and a reward for the team for all the hard work put in here in Austin and also in Faenza and Bicester over the last period. Yuki’s race was more conventional, starting on the medium tire like the majority. Early on he was running solidly towards the front of the midfield, however with his pace starting to drop away a little, and some pressure coming from behind, we were forced to stop potentially a bit earlier than we would have liked. This combined with the early management on the Hard tire meant he lost a bit of ground in the middle part of the race. Whilst pushing on later in the race he was unfortunately given a 5sec penalty for a pass on Alex (Albon) and also spun trying to pass Pierre (Gasly), hence he was not in the fight for the last point scoring position at the end of the race. Looking at the weekend as a whole, it’s good to have extracted the expected performance from the new floor here and it’s good to be scoring points. However, Haas are also delivering strong performances, but there are five more races to go so we need to be focused on extracting the maximum from the remaining car updates and also delivering good weekends to meet our objectives for the season.”
Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber
Valtteri Bottas (17th)): “As a team, we tried everything we could today, converting to a one-stop strategy based on the tire performance and our competitors’ races. It was right to try, as you never know what may happen later in the race, but it didn’t work out as we had to extend our second stint a bit too long. While we could go the pace of our direct competition very early in the race, which is definitely a positive we can build on, we still lacked pace towards the end of the stints. We’ve made a step forward in race pace, but we still need to continue developing the car to address this deficit and improve our future performances.”
Guanyu Zhou (19th)): “Today I had a really good start and made up quite a few places. The first stint went well, and I gave everything at the safety car restart, knowing the others were on the hard compound. Unfortunately – and I apologize to the team here – I carried too much speed into Turn One, hit a bump at the wrong angle and lost the rear when I tried to attack the cars ahead. After that, the pace was tricky in the second stint, and I experienced some drop-off where we need to understand what happened – but the first 10 laps felt quite promising considering where we’ve been in recent races. Ultimately, it wasn’t enough today, but we’ll keep pushing and come back stronger for the next race.”
Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Team Representative: “Today’s race followed a similar pattern to the entire weekend, and we were unable to recover any places compared to our start positions. While Valtteri finished in P17 on a one-stop strategy, similar to the top 10 drivers, Zhou’s spin at Turn One on Lap 10 led us to stay on a two-stop strategy for him to benefit for the tire compound delta. In hindsight, we could have opted for a one-stop strategy immediately after Zhou’s incident and pitted Valtteri a bit later than Lap 16. However, our strategic decisions were ultimately influenced by the team’s race pace, as we observed more degradation than our direct competitors during the stints, especially towards the end. The race outcome is disappointing, and no one on the team is happy with the results; but we need to keep our motivation high and work hard to find a way back into the mix. We acknowledge the need to continue analyzing the causes of our lack of performance and fight hard to go forward.”
MoneyGram Haas F1 Team
Nico Hulkenberg (8th)): “I’m very pleased with that, we maximized what was possible and at the end we were actually getting closer to Perez in a Red Bull. I had a suspicion it could be a one-stop race, and it was, although halfway through the first stint it felt really poor and horrible. The tires recovered and came back to me, and going long opened the door for this race and this result. That was key, so two lots of points this weekend and two points in front of RB, it’s been a good weekend.”
Kevin Magnussen (11th)): “We didn’t get any points today although we had a good chance of getting some. We were talking about a one-stopper, but we didn’t manage that.”
Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal: “It was bit of a mixed result, but it was good to get P8 with Nico. He executed a very good one-stop strategy, and considering the situation he managed the tires very well and communicated well. On Kevin’s side, it was almost the opposite as our baseline was a two-stop strategy and then there was some messy communication towards the end of the race. I feel that we should’ve scored points with both cars today, although Kevin may have struggled to hang on top P10, at least he would’ve had a chance. If we had come away from here with P8 and P10, that would’ve been the best result, but unfortunately only Nico scored today. We got seven points out of the weekend, and two ahead of RB so that’s the positive. We’re now P6 in the Constructors’ Championship with five events to go, and we’re competitive, so we’ll go for more.”
Pirelli
MARIO ISOLA – PIRELLI DIRECTOR OF MOTORSPORT
“First and foremost, congratulations to Ferrari for a wonderful one-two finish in a country which has always been very important for the Prancing Horse. On the tire front, it was a very interesting Sunday, because of the technical insights it provided. Based on previous data and from what we learned in yesterday’s Sprint, when the Medium demonstrated a very high wear rate, combined with what we knew from this race last year, a one-stop did not seem viable. And yet it proved to be not only the winning strategy, but also almost the only one adopted by the field. As for the behavior of the Medium, the Safety Car following Hamilton going off the track in the early stages, meant that those who had started on this compound could extend their stint, while it also meant the tires were put under less stress during the crucial early stages, when the cars are running with a heavy fuel load. There were two other elements to consider: the significant evolution of the track condition, with much of it resurfaced leading to a major reduction in graining compared to what we saw in the Sprint and then the changes the teams were able to make to their set-up, based on what they learned yesterday.”