F1 News: GP of Saudi Arabia Post-Qualifying Press Conference

The top-3 qualifiers for the 2025 Formula 1 GP of Saudi Arabia met with the media after qualifying at the fastest street circuit in the world – the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.

In a close battle, Max Verstappen beat Oscar Piastri for pole while Lando Norris crashed out.

DRIVERS

1 –  Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing)
2 – Oscar PIASTRI (McLaren)
3 – George RUSSELL (Mercedes)

TRACK INTERVIEWS

(Conducted by Jamie Chadwick)

Q: George, P3 on the grid tomorrow. You look a bit disappointed. Did you feel like there was more there potentially?
George RUSSELL: Yeah, to be honest, before the session, I would have definitely taken a P3. But when I just saw how close it was… I was really happy with the lap, but you always think there might have been a little bit more in there. But, you know, being realistic, I think this was probably the maximum today. We know on the sort of high-speed circuits, we probably don’t quite have the pace of the McLarens, and obviously Max did an amazing job again. So, yeah, congrats to him.

Q: We saw you lose out potentially a bit with the track evolution, doing your lap a little bit early. Do you think you could have maybe had a bit more at the end of the session then?
GR: I can’t really hear you, to be honest. But, yeah, as I said, it was a really tricky session, obviously, with the red flag in the middle of the session, and we had to — that one lap at the end was all that counted. It was quite interesting seeing the Red Bull do the two laps. But as I said, P3 is a great place to start, and it’ll be a long race tomorrow.

Q: Oscar, I was picking you for pole for most of that session. It just got away from you at the end. What did you feel was potential there, and do you think pole was in the cards at the end?
Oscar PIASTRI: I mean, I was pretty happy with it. There wasn’t too much more left in that lap. So, I’m happy with the job I did. I think it was playing catch-up a little bit through the first part of qualifying and then, yeah, that last lap felt more or less like the best I could have done. So, you know, I think Max has done a good job. I think it’s another high-speed circuit for them where they seem to be having a little bit more success. But, no, he’s done a good job again, obviously. So, yeah, still all to fight for tomorrow. I think our pace is good. It’s going to be a tough race and the tires are a bit softer than last year, so we’ll see if that plays to our advantage.

Q: Talk to us about how difficult it is to extract a lap around here. It’s such high speed, you guys are all on the limit. We saw your teammate make the mistake. You also fell foul a little bit at Turn 4 on a couple of occasions. So how difficult is it to get that maximum out on that one lap?
OP: It’s tough around here. And once you kind of fall out of rhythm a little bit, it’s very hard to get back into it. You kind of need to get all the corners right, because if you don’t get one right, it means you don’t get about six in a row right. So it’s a difficult track for sure. But, you know, at night with Soft tires, high grip, it’s one of the best tracks we go to. So, yeah, a lot of adrenaline — shaking a little bit just from driving around the streets. But, no, it’s a really cool circuit and will be a fun race tomorrow as well.

Q: Max, that was an unbelievable lap. A track record. How much does the driver make the difference here? It looks like a track where you can really lean into finding performance just in those last few laps. So where you are from practice to now, how happy are you with the progress?
Max VERSTAPPEN: Yeah, I mean, very happy. I definitely didn’t expect to be on pole here after FP3 as well and looking at how the whole weekend was. But, yeah, the car came alive in the night. We made some final changes, and it was a lot more enjoyable to drive. The grip was coming to me. And around here, you know, a qualifying lap is extremely difficult because of all the walls. You need to try and nail it. And, yeah, it’s really satisfying, you know, to be first here in qualifying is, of course, the best position for tomorrow. Even though I think tomorrow in the race it will be tough to keep them behind, but we’re going to give it a good go.

Q: You say that the pole sitter has won three out of four times here. So do you still fancy your chances in the race?
MV: Yeah. We’ll do our best. I mean, you know, so far, I’m just very happy that we again had a solid qualifying — much better than what we had in Bahrain, of course. And, yeah, let’s see what we can do tomorrow in the race.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Max, a quite brilliant lap by you this evening. I’ve asked you many times in your career now, but how good was that lap?
MV: Good enough, clearly. I felt immediately more confident when I headed into qualifying. We made some minor changes to the car, but they were clearly big enough to feel, and I think that’s a bit the story of our car. It can be really hit and miss. When we get it right, I think it’s competitive, of course. But, yeah, when we don’t get it right, it’s a lot more difficult. But all of qualifying went well. Around here, I think it’s always important to have quite a bit of rhythm. So, naturally, you do quite a lot of laps. Also, the tires, luckily, they hold on to do that. Of course, then the red flag in Q3 is not ideal, but everyone has to deal with that. So we opted for that two-lap strategy, and I’m happy that we did that. Just kept me on top of things, and it felt good.

Q: You’ve talked about the car, but can you talk about that last lap? Did you leave anything on the table? Was it as good a lap as Suzuka two weeks ago?
MV: I think at the end of the day, you just need to try and have a clean lap, try to be on the limit. But around here, honestly, it’s super hard because some corners, like, you want to try and be super close to the wall. Sometimes it works out. Sometimes it doesn’t. Braking into 22 is very bumpy, so you don’t even see where you’re going when you turn in. So it’s very hard to get everything right. But, yeah, clearly, it was good enough. And, yeah, of course, in Q3, you risk everything a bit more.

Q: Now a week is a long time in Formula 1. Can we compare and contrast the car you were driving last week in Bahrain to the one you have here and why it is so better suited to this racetrack?
MV: Few more high-speed corners. The tarmac is completely different, which has a big influence on the tires as well. Naturally, when you have tracks where you need a lot of rotation mid-corner, and long-duration corners, which you have in Bahrain, that’s a big problem for us. Here, it just seems to be a little bit more competitive. I’m not saying that it’s solved, but at least it gave me an opportunity to push a bit better and deal with the limitations that we have a bit better.

Q: Looking ahead to tomorrow, there’s a good conversion rate from pole to race win at this track. Just how confident are you of the race pace?
MV: Up until now, not very confident, to be honest. My long runs weren’t particularly great compared to Oscar or Lando. I’m going to give it everything I have, for sure. Does it mean that I have enough? I don’t know. But the car definitely took a bit of a step forward compared to what we were testing yesterday. So I hope that will help our tire life out as well, but difficult to say that gives an opportunity to fight. But like I said, I’m going to give it a go.

Q: Oscar, it was a mesmerizing session. All three of you put in tremendous laps in Q3. Did you feel that yours was good enough for pole position?
OP: At the time, I felt like it was a good lap, yes. I made a bit of a mistake on the first lap and managed to get through that corner much better on the second attempt. And, you know, when you need one hundredth, you can think of a few places. But, no, honestly, it was a good lap that I was happy with. Max did a very good job today, and that was pretty much all we had.

Q: How destabilizing was the red flag in Q3, both for you and for the team?
OP: It was alright for me. I was the only one with a lap on the board. I knew that lap probably wasn’t going to be enough anyway. So I knew that I would have to go back out and improve. But it’s a little bit nicer when you have a lap already on the board. But again, when you know you have to go out there and do a better job, then it kind of renders that one somewhat useless. I also saw that Max was a thousandth faster before I went back out, so I knew that I had to improve to get back on pole. It was a good lap. No regrets, really.

Q: A couple of weeks ago, you had to sit behind Max for pretty much the whole race. Do you think there’ll be more opportunity for you tomorrow?
OP: I’ll see how I feel. I think we’ve got good pace. I think the Red Bull and Max look more competitive here than they did certainly last week. Suzuka is not a completely different layout to somewhere like here with a lot of high-speed corners, so it kind of makes sense to me at least that they’re a bit more competitive, and we’ll see if that translates to the race tomorrow. I’m feeling confident in what we’ve got. There’s a lot of DRS zones around here, which is a nice difference to Suzuka. So, yeah, let’s see if we can make some progress.

Q: George, a brilliant lap by you. What aspect of Q3 were you most pleased with?
GR: Yeah. I’m not too sure, to be honest. I’ve got mixed feelings because I felt there was a bit more on the table. There’s a lot of pressure going into that last lap because Oscar had a lap on the board. I think the run plan that Max did with the two laps was a really good one and one we didn’t really consider. Just having that lap on the board sort of takes the pressure off. When you go into Turn 1, you’ve got to really send it and you’re braking at 75 meters. When you’ve got no lap on the board, it’s like, “I’ve got no bailout here if I make the smallest of mistakes.” So, look, P3 is much better than I thought and to be so close to Oscar. Congrats to Max. He did a great job. It’s going be interesting tomorrow.

Q: Was two laps with a hot pit stop even discussed in the pit?
GR: It was, to be honest. It was discussed more to actually start on the new and put the used on after. I’m sure it was discussed on the pit wall. I’m not privy to every single conversation because I’m just driving the car at that point, and I put my trust in the team. But it’s something we’ll discuss afterwards. As a driver, just knowing you’ve only got that one lap… Especially on a track like this, you’ve got to be full commitment. Turn 1… you’re pushing the tires to be as cold as possible, and I didn’t have the confidence to push them any cooler. I lost a bit of lap time with my tires being a bit too hot, because I was just being a little bit too conservative with them. P3 is a great place to start. I think the deg on the Medium is going be pretty high, so I hope there will be more opportunities than Japan.

Q: Can you challenge for the win tomorrow?
GR: Yeah. I think it depends on Turn 1, to be honest. Max and I were just talking now. We both recognize McLaren are the standout favorites and definitely have the pace on everybody else. If Oscar gets into the lead, you’ll probably see a repeat of Bahrain. If we stay in the order we qualified, I think it could be a tight race until the pit stops. The Medium tire this year was last year’s soft, which only one driver used in the whole race. We saw the tires were too hard in Japan. We’ve all pushed to have softer tires. Hopefully, it won’t make it a slam-dunk one-stop, and there could be a couple of different strategies on the table.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Luca Coser – Car Magazine Brazil) Max, you said many times during this year that the car isn’t as it should be. But as we’ve seen in Japan and also here, you’ve done very well, the last lap was amazing. What role does a day like this, so high on strategy, play for the rest of the season? Also, did Lando’s crash influence the decision to attempt the second lap as fast as it was?
MV: Yeah. You just keep on trying to fine-tune before qualifying to find that perfect balance. We tried a lot of setup directions again this weekend, and I think we chose the right one going into qualifying. Then it’s just fine-tuning. We are learning. We are trying to understand our car a lot better because it has been more hit and miss than we’d have liked so far this year. So a positive that we did get it right here. With the crash, the only thing it meant was that you had to change your approach. I wasn’t entirely sure what to do. At the end of the day, GP said let’s fuel it for two laps. So you do the first lap on the used out-lap tire, then pit and go onto the new. You carry more fuel, so you’re a bit slower on the first time. But it was the right call. It was definitely the right thing to do for me in terms of feeling with the car and building up to the limit.

Q: (Luke Smith – The Athletic) Max, your magic lap in 2021 ended with the crash at the final corner. Is this one of the toughest tracks to find the edge? And how much of it is about confidence? Because when you see a crash like Lando’s for example, that just goes a little bit too far. 
MV: Yeah. It is a very tough track, honestly. Every time you go out, it’s a bit like Monaco, but much more high-speed, where you go out and you’re like ‘let’s get ready to send it’ whereas some other tracks it happens a bit more naturally. It requires big commitment from every driver to try to be as close to the walls at the apex, on entry, exit. But it is very enjoyable to drive.

Q: (Christian Menath – Motorsport Magazin.com) Max you mentioned the changes to the setup. Were those done overnight or between FP3 and qualifying? In FP3, McLaren was in another universe. Was it conditions, setup, or run plan?
MV: The main differences were yesterday where we tried a lot of things. Today, we chose the set-up that we thought was the right way forward here. From FP3 to qualifying was more like tiny adjustments. The gap in FP3 was massive. When the track is really hot, all the other teams except McLaren are lacking a lot of pace. Our tires overheat more than theirs, and we can’t keep it as well under control as them.

Q: (Ronald Vording – Motorsport.com) Max is this purely track-specific due to high speed, tarmac, and conditions, or did you also make a step forward after Bahrain with some minor bits of the car and maybe understanding the RB21 step by step?
MV: Every car is a bit better in different areas. Sometimes it’s better in high-speed, medium-speed, low-speed, rough surface, smooth surface. This definitely is a bit better for our car.

Q: (Edd Straw – The Race). Max, on the changes you made, were they purely and global confidence benefit or a specific areas – lower speed range, faster corners, where it was really giving you an improvement?
MV: Yeah, let’s hand out the set-up sheet! No. I just want to learn more about the car. If I keep doing the same thing every weekend with the issues we have, you’re not learning anything. Some things work, some don’t. You note everything down and continue to find different things. That’s what we did again today.

Q: (Ronald Vording – Motorsport.com) Max, do the changes you made also benefit your race pace on the long run, because Helmut said yesterday ‘I’m quite happy with the picture over one lap but now we have to find a balance between that and long runs’. Do you feel it will benefit both or will one hurt the other?
MV: I haven’t said what I tested I used. I don’t know. Our long runs haven’t been great so far. Naturally, with how the car was reacting today, it will be a bit better. But I don’t think it’ll be enough to be super competitive, especially on the Medium. I don’t know on the Hard, I haven’t touched it. It just shows that when it gets a bit warmer, like FP3, that’s where we are really lacking. In the race, you stabilize with a high temperature, and that’s where in general most teams are struggling more. That will be the same tomorrow. Let’s see how good or bad we’ll be.

Q: (Christian Menath – Motorsport Magazin.com) Oscar, you had a lap on the board, but did you consider going out for two laps at the end to get into the rhythm?
OP: We spoke about it, yes, but decided against it. Considering I had a lap on the board, I didn’t need to put another one on. It was going to be extremely tight. As Max said, he had to fuel for the whole run. That first lap on used tires with a bit more fuel, you’re weighing up how much you’re learning versus how much it puts you off. When you don’t have a lap on the board, it’s a very different scenario. For us with a lap one the board, we had done three or four new sets in a row. We decided to go for that single lap at the end, and I think for us, it was the right decision.