Formula 1 News: 2024 Belgian GP Post-Race Quotes

All ten F1 teams plus tire supplier Pirelli provided quotes following the 2024 Belgian GP at Spa.

Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton, 1st

“It is of course disappointing for the team to lose the 1-2 but there are lots of positives to take away from today.

“The car was feeling good, and we had much better pace than we expected. There were several cars that seemed similar in terms of performance but once we had got ahead, we were able to maintain that position. We committed to the two-stop strategy and covered those directly behind us. George was able to make the one-stop work and, although I got close to him in the final few laps, I was unable to get past in the dirty air.

“I feel for George, and you don’t want to win a race through a disqualification, but we have been back in the fight for victories in the past few races. It is incredibly competitive now, so we will need to work hard to battle for wins more consistently. Nevertheless, we can go into the summer break with momentum and positivity.”

George Russell, DSQ

“It is heartbreaking to be disqualified from today’s race. It had been an unbelievable Grand Prix for us to make the one-stop strategy work. In what turned out to be my final stint, the tires just kept getting better and better. I was nursing them in the early stages and as we went further, I became more and more convinced we could get to the end on them. It was a risk worth taking and it looked like it had paid off.

“Despite the disqualification, I am of course proud to have crossed the line first. It is also good that the team was still able to take the victory with Lewis. He drove a great race and was the fastest car out there on the two-stop strategy. Whilst I’m incredibly disappointed, I know we will bounce back stronger after the summer break, starting in Zandvoort.”

Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport

“We have to take our disqualification on the chin. We have clearly made a mistake and need to ensure we learn from it. We will go away, evaluate what happened and understand what went wrong. To lose a 1-2 is frustrating and we can only apologize to George who drove such a strong race. Lewis is of course promoted to P1; he was the fastest guy on the two-stop and is a deserving winner.

“Despite the disqualification, there are many positives we can take from this weekend. We had a car that was the benchmark in today’s race across two different strategies. Only a few months ago, that would have been inconceivable. We head into the summer break having won three of the past four races. We will look to come back after shutdown rejuvenated and with the aim of maintaining our positive trajectory.”

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

“It’s really tough for George to have been disqualified from the win after such an impressive drive. He did a brilliant job to hang onto the tires and defend to the finish. We don’t yet understand why the car was underweight following the race but will investigate thoroughly to find the explanation. We expect that the loss of rubber from the one stop was a contributing factor, and we’ll work to understand how it happened. We won’t be making any excuses though. It is clearly not good enough and we need to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

“It was a relief to have Lewis in second to inherit the victory. He also drove a strong race and was the fastest two-stopping car out there today. We can be pleased with the car pace but overall, it’s disappointing not to walk away with the 1-2. That is particularly true after such a good recovery from one of our most difficult Fridays, and following a race that was so well managed by the team. We’ll learn from this and be back strong in Zandvoort after the summer break.”

McLaren

Lando Norris, 5th

“A disappointing race today. I went off in Turn 1 and it cost me a good position, which was difficult to recover with the lack of overtaking opportunities. The pace of the car was good, and the team have done a great job so far this season. We’ll go into the break, reset, and come back stronger to fight at the front in Zandvoort next month.”

Oscar Piastri, 2nd

“I’m happy with the result. I think we managed the race very well and I don’t think we could have done much more today. We did a lot of things right and gave ourselves the best opportunities, but in the end, it wasn’t quite enough.

“It’s been a really good couple of weeks for myself and the whole team. We’ve scored a lot of points and made inroads again today into Red Bull’s lead at the top of the Constructors’ Championship. That’s a big positive going into the summer break. I think everyone’s looking forward to it – I know I am – and having a chance to relax before coming back stronger in the second half.”

Andrea Stella, Team Principal

“We close the first part of the season with another tight and great race for Formula 1, with multiple cars in contention for the victory until the last lap. Today, tire degradation was lower than projected, and overtaking was more difficult than anticipated, which made the race interesting in terms of an option for a one-stop strategy.

“For us, with the positions we lost at the start with Lando, and the fact that we didn’t qualify ahead on the grid yesterday, it was always going to be a bit difficult to recover.

“Oscar drove a very determined race. I think it’s quite impressive that he managed to be there at the end. The race was very clean, except for the last stop where he was long in the pit box, and we lost time. For Lando, it was even more difficult to recover, because he was in traffic for most of the race, and even if we stretched the first stint, there wasn’t much to gain in having fresher tires for the following part of the race.

“Overall, a very strong first part of the season for McLaren. We are even closer to the top in terms of Constructors’ Championship, and we look forward to the second part of the season.”

Ferrari

Charles Leclerc, 3rd

“I cannot be too happy with today’s race, as we had expected to be on the same level as Mercedes. On the positive side we managed to keep the two Red Bulls and one McLaren behind us.

“In terms of tires and strategy, we had expected to see a lot more graining on the Hard, but they worked well, while we struggled more with the Medium. I thought we were stopping too early for the first stop, but with hindsight the Hard was a really good tire and as we saw with George (Russell), the one-stop might have worked better, but in the end we did a good job to stay in front of Max (Verstappen).

“I had hoped for a better result going into the holidays, but that’s how it is and at least I know I got everything I could out of the car.”

Carlos Sainz, 6th

“It was a difficult race. We decided to start on a different strategy from everyone around us. The start and the first stint were very good, but unfortunately, I think we didn’t have enough pace to make it work to our advantage.

“It’s been a challenging first half of the season for many different reasons, but I’m sure that after the summer break, we will come back stronger. Thank you, everyone, for your support. See you in Zandvoort.”

Fred Vasseur, Team Principal

“Overall, in terms of pure performance this race was okay for us even if we would have preferred to go into the summer break with a podium place. We were all surprised by the very low degradation of the Hard and conversely the very high deg on the Medium. This meant that George (Russell) had the best strategy and behind him everyone finished within ten seconds, something which is actually very good for the sport and the championship.

“Our overall pace was good, and today we were able to finish ahead of the two Red Bulls and one McLaren, which in Spa-Francorchamps is not too bad. I think this weekend, on a potentially difficult track for us, we have found some more performance, but we are still lacking one or two tenths to be able to properly fight for the wins again. We will focus on this right tomorrow and after the break to increase our competitiveness for the coming races.”

Red Bull

Max Verstappen, 4th

“All in all it was quite a positive day for me, considering we started at P11, and we finished in front of Lando who is my main rival in the Championship. I think we did everything right with the strategy today and I had a good clean start. I was in the DRS train and it was difficult to pass, but I think strategy wise we did everything that we could to the limit. It was tough to make it with two mediums and a hard tire and we could potentially have taken more position if we started with the hard tire, but I think we did a good job and maximized our result today. It wasn’t realistic to start P11 and fly to the front, so I am overall happy with our performance. We are looking forward to the summer break and having a bit of time to relax, but at the same time we are committed to being better and faster and are trying to find solutions as we go into the rest of the season. However, everyone has been doing a great job and will have a well deserved break. We had a great start to the season, our last few races have been a bit more difficult, but we have been pushing to find a solution how to do that. Next race is obviously my home race in Zandvoort. It will be a tough battle and it will be all about tire management, but it will be great to be in front of my home crowd again.”

Sergio Perez, 7th

“Starting P2 and fighting for the top positions, the race was going well in the first stint and we managed to stay in the pack and had quite an intense fight with Lewis as well, we clipped wheels at the beginning. At some point in the second stint it went wrong with the medium tire when everyone else was on hard tires, we just didn’t have any pace and it was hard to push. We need to understand what went wrong as we changed a lot on the car but didn’t have the opportunity to try it on the dry as the conditions were so different from qualifying. We compromised a lot in the final stint, in the strategy we lost quite a bit of time unfortunately. We managed to set the fastest lap at the end, which was the maximum we could get today and more points in the bag. It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster for me recently, as a Team we need to re-group and take some time during the summer break to understand everything and hopefully we hit the ground running for the second half of the season. I’m looking forward to getting some time with my family over the break and getting back in to a good training routine and just really resetting. There is still a long championship ahead.”

Christian Horner, Team Principal

“It was a tough race today. We finished 7 seconds behind the leader and over all we struggled. There were some positives though, Max has extended his lead over Lando and Checo brought home fastest lap. But it was a really tight race today. We didn’t have a big offset of pace today over the others but, credit to George and Mercedes, I’m not sure they planned to do a one stop but it worked out well for them today. We have a lot to reflect on as we go into the summer break. We continue to lead in both the Constructors and Drivers Championships but convergence within the field means the gap is ever closing. We will regroup on Monday, as we always do before a break and look at how we can come back fighting for the second half of the season.”

Aston Martin

Fernando Alonso, 8th

“I am pleased with ninth position today and two points after a hard-fought race. We had a few different strategies planned for today. We extended the first stint on the Mediums and then on the Hard tires we managed the pace quite well and had decent tire degradation. We thought there might be a chance of a Safety Car and when there wasn’t we thought why not extend and remain on a one-stop strategy. This decision paid off and we managed to score some points. I am looking forward to a short break now and some time to recharge. We will continue fighting and we have some more work to do to improve for the second half of the season.”

Lance Stroll, 11th

“It became clear during the race that the tire degradation was lower than expected, so we elected to go for the one-stop strategy. We were running in P10 a few laps from the end of the race, but by that point I was struggling with the tires and didn’t have the speed to hold position. We were missing the pace we needed to fight for more today. As a team, I think we still have a lot of work to do to do catch back up to the top four teams.”

Mike Krack, Team Principal

“Two points from a one-stop strategy for Fernando and the team was the best we had today in Spa. We managed to make the one-stop strategy work for both drivers and this was the same for the race winner. Lance drove well but we weren’t able to get him into a points scoring position. The strategy worked together with the pit stops today and we’ve secured a small reward. We are moving in the right direction going into the summer break but there is still a lot to improve on in the second half of the season. Thank you to the entire team at the track and back at Silverstone who deserve a well-earned rest and then to come back fully recharged for Zandvoort with lots of opportunities ahead.”

Alpine

Esteban Ocon, 9th

“I’m pleased to have scored a point for the team this afternoon after some hard fights on track. We had good pace throughout, enough straight-line speed to overtake down the Kemmel Straight and in the end, it was enough for the top ten. There are positives, of course, like our general race pace and tire management. I do think we could have finished maybe a position higher up had we executed things slightly differently, but that is up for us to review and improve. We made a good decision in focusing on race preparation and setting up the car suitably for that. I am staying in Spa for a few days for the Pirelli tire test before the summer break.”

Pierre Gasly, 13th

“It was not a good race today in Spa. It was tough to fight with cars around us as we lacked straight line speed and we had to manage some temperature issues amongst other things. I feel like we missed a trick with our strategy today – as did other cars – with the one-stop clearly possible. These are things we must review as I know we can do a lot better as a team. In recent weeks we have not been good enough and we must do better when we return to racing after the summer break. It’s been a tough first part of the season for us but I’m pleased with some of the things we are bringing to the car. We must keep finding further improvements to the car and come back hungrier to do better.”

Bruno Famin, Team Principal

“We end the first part of the season with an important point here in Spa. It was a tough race filled with interesting decisions on car set-up and strategy. From where we began this season to where we are now, clearly, we have made significant strides forwards. It has been a turbulent 2024 season so far but one where we have dug deep as a team and been able to rectify and improve drastically our car performance. We introduced a good upgrade here in Spa and there is more in the pipeline for the remainder of the year. We will continue to build, continue to learn and right now we are looking forward to a well-deserved summer shutdown.”

VCARB

Daniel Ricciardo, 10th

“Today was very similar to yesterday; I’m quite pleased as I feel like we had a really strong two-stop race, but unfortunately so did some others and I think they had a bit more pace than us, so it wasn’t good enough to get rewarded. Esteban (Ocon) was generally a bit quicker and also had fresher tires, so I’m disappointed with our final result, as we tried our best to keep the tenth place in the last few laps. It was a positive weekend and I’m leaving Spa content and fulfilled, which pleases me entering the summer break. Looking ahead after the break, I’m excited to get back to Zandvoort and we’ll keep the momentum going from the last few races.”

Yuki Tsunoda, 16th

“We’ve been struggling for pace this weekend and also during the race today. I haven’t been feeling fully comfortable and it seems there was something going on from what I heard from my engineers after the race, so we’ll sit down together and look through the data. The strategy didn’t work out for us today, but we always knew it would be challenging given our starting position. We’ll keep pushing as a team and do as much as we can to maintain our position in the constructors as it remains a tight midfield.”

Laurent Mekies, Team Principal

“Overall, Daniel, Yuki, and the whole team performed quite strongly this weekend, with another race scoring points thanks to George’s last minute penalty. We were P14 with Daniel after lap one, and we made it back to P10, having lost P9 only a couple of laps from the end. It was a very tough fight again at the top of that midfield group, and on a very fast track layout like Spa we were again in that fight and that’s a good sign for the rest of the season.

“On Yuki’s side, we knew coming into this race that our work plan would be different to usual, with Yuki having to start from the back. It was a near impossible mission to make it back to the points from there, and it is fair to say that we never quite managed to have a car that felt right for him this weekend.

“From day one, our aim has been to race as credible competitors at the top of the mid-field and this summer break is a logical time to look at where we stand. We enjoyed a very strong first half of the season in which we built up our performance race after race, scoring points at 10 out of 14 races. We are fighting hard for that P6 in the Constructors’, against very strong competitors, and it’s going to be a tough battle all the way to Abu Dhabi. Our groups in Faenza and in Bicester are getting stronger every day, and we look forward to the next battles.

“We now have a few days’ work either side of the summer break, before tackling the last 10 races in several time zones, all of them back-to-backs or triple-headers. We actually won’t have a standalone race now until Miami at the start of May next year! Proof that Formula 1 is enjoying huge worldwide popularity, and we are happy to be part of it. It is certainly a tough schedule, particularly for the mechanics, so the pause is well deserved after everyone has worked so hard to get our new Visa Cash App RB reality off to a really positive start.”

Williams

Alex Albon, 12th

“I had a good start today but ultimately; we just didn’t have the pace. I think we executed the race as well as we could but at the end of the day, you need pace to get points and we just didn’t have it. It would’ve been better if we had two sets of Hard tires for the race but unfortunately, we didn’t, so I’m not sure if that would’ve changed things. We haven’t had any upgrades all year, so I think we’re just falling behind the pack too much, which makes things difficult. We’ve got some coming after the summer break, so hopefully, we can return more competitive.”

Logan Sargeant, 17th

“It wasn’t great today. I feel like the Hard tires were solid and I was happy with the pace, but the first two Medium stints were pretty tricky and it wasn’t easy to drive. In my second Medium stint, I was trying to hold people up behind, which was ultimately helping Alex ahead, so I was trying to do my best in that sense. I think things could have looked a little different if we had a dry Qualifying, but now we will use the summer to reset.”

Sven Smeets, Sporting Director

“It was a difficult and disappointing afternoon. We started the race well with Alex gaining two places in the start and a good first stint on the Medium following Fernando. We decided to cover off some of the early stoppers and fitted the Medium again. Unfortunately, we struggled a bit in that second stint, and it became clear that some of our competitors had more pace than us. P13 was all that was in it today, however with the disqualification of George, this moves Alex to P12 and Logan to P17.

“We’ll use the summer shutdown to charge the batteries and come back stronger for Holland with some upgrades planned for the coming races following the break.”

Haas

Nico Hulkenberg, 18th

“We had no pace, no harmony, no rhythm. I just didn’t get off on the right foot with the car all weekend and we didn’t manage to find a sweet spot across the sessions, and we need to look a little into why, but also forget this weekend and go again after the summer break. Kevin looked a bit better and pulled off the one-stop which was decent. Overall, we need to look into our low-downforce performance.”

Kevin Magnussen, 14th

“I think we had a decent race, we just didn’t have the pace to fight further up today. We took what we could and did a one-stop, which was fine. I can’t say we did anything wrong, we just weren’t fast enough. We thought this track was going to be good for us, but we’ve been surprised many times, and this is the worst race we’ve had in a while. I’m looking forward to the summer break – everyone is – and then looking forward to some races where we’ll score some more points.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal

“It was a tough race today, we didn’t have the pace. On Kevin’s side, he drove a really good race and we managed to do a one-stop strategy. Russell did a one-stop and managed to win the race compared to his teammate who two-stopped, so track evolution was actually pretty big and tire degradation was lower than expected. We reacted well converting Kevin’s strategy from two stops to one, and he drove well. Nico struggled a lot more and we couldn’t have done a one-stop strategy with him due to the degradation he had. We need to investigate why but all in all, it’s not the way we want to finish the last race before the summer shutdown, but we have to look at the bigger picture. Across 14 races, we’ve scored 27 points and we’re P7 in the Constructors’ Championship – so we need to look at the positives.”

Kick Sauber

Valtteri Bottas, 15th

“We gave it a good try today, attempting something different with the strategy, even if it eventually didn’t pay off; we could have probably stayed out and, even if we could have finished a couple of places higher than sixteenth, it most likely still wouldn’t have brought us a point finish anyway. As a positive, it felt like we were in a slightly better position in terms of race pace against our main competitors, although it was still not enough for the top ten – which is why we must keep bringing upgrades and progressing in every area. Now, a well-deserved summer break awaits the team; it’s been a challenging first half of the season, so we’ll be looking to refill our tanks and come back strongly in Zandvoort at the end of August.”

Zhou Guanyu, DNF

“Today’s race marks a disappointing end to the first half of the season. The day had started quite well for us: we opted for the hard compound, the pace and overall car balance felt good, and I was able to gain positions. I was close to the two Haas cars in front of me before experiencing a loss of power, followed by a loss of brakes, which ended my race. I reckon we had potential today; starting on the hard tire gave us some strategic options, making this outcome even more disappointing for the entire team. Now, we’ll head into the summer break to recharge and come back refreshed. I hope Zandvoort – where I’ll run the same upgraded car that Valtteri has been running in the last two events – will be the turning point for us as a team.”

Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Team Representative

“Today’s recognition goes to our pit crew, who achieved a remarkable 1.9-second pit stop with Valtteri on lap 36. This is a significant achievement for the team, especially after the issues we faced at the start of the season: it shows that we are now together with top teams for pit stop times. Having recovered from this challenging situation, we now need to focus on closing the gap in car performance through the effort of everyone, both trackside and back in Hinwil.

“For Zhou, the race was cut short early on: an issue on lap three, which we tried to fix remotely, ultimately forced us to retire the car on lap six. We’ll need to investigate what seems to be an electrical issue; this is very unfortunate as he had had a strong start and was pleased with the car balance, in what could have been a positive race for him. With Valtteri, we fought in the midfield for most of the race; starting on medium tires, we extended the stint on hards to attempt a one-stop strategy, similar to Alonso and Stroll. However, the pace was not enough to protect us against Stroll, Ricciardo and Ocon, so we pitted for a final stint on new mediums, pushing to close the gap to the Alpines, Williams, and Astons.

“Despite initial good laps in which the gap was shrinking, Valtteri struggled with rear tire overheating, preventing him from getting closer to the cars ahead. Nevertheless, he had a strong race with overtakes on Hulkenberg and Tsunoda. This weekend, we’ve shown progress in qualifying and the race with Valtteri’s upgraded car, but it’s still not enough to fight for points. As we head into the summer break, it’s important for both drivers and the team to recharge and return to Zandvoort with strong determination. The trajectory of our recent developments has been positive, and with another step forward, we can compete for points. This is our target and firm intention for the second part of the season.”