FORMULA 1 Brazil Grand Prix | POST-SPRINT RACE Press Conference w/ Lando, Oscar & Max

Sao Paulo in third place Max Verstappen in second place Oscar Piastri and taking his first ever sprint victory our winner Lando Norris. Lando well done your first sprint victory and an important eight points for the championship was the car where you wanted it today? Uh yes um tricky to know I didn't not I think the longest run I've done this weekend is like a five laps so um a few unknowns through the race but uh I think it felt good the wind changed quite a bit from today to yesterday so that changed things around a bit but uh um difficult but I think we were we were still strong as a team and um the car was good. Now you had close company from behind for much of the race was this a stressful one for you? Um yeah it wasn't a straightforward one um I think our pace was good but uh it's always hard to know and I think when you're actually in the front you know in a race like today um I don't know like for for Oscar it's it's hard to judge how much you push um and use that kind of free free air and clean air versus um how much the tyres might start to degrade by the end of the race and you want to keep the tyres alive so um a difficult position to be in for sure we knew it was going to be a difficult race to make to kind of manage the tyres and keep everything in a good window um but I think we did that so uh yeah I would have preferred having a much bigger gap behind but um that's the way it was. Would your life have been easier if Oscar had let you through earlier in the race? I don't know I can't I don't know how I'm gonna know. All right well look tell us a little bit about uh tyre wear how difficult was it to get 24 laps out of the medium? Um yeah not too bad I think definitely started to struggle a bit towards the end with with the balance um and playing around with the steering wheel a bit to kind of change the balance around a little bit and and try and avoid any any mistakes um uh yeah and then just make sure at the end of the race I was my tyres were good and I could keep Oscar within the DRS because Max was not far behind so um yeah we helped each other out and Oscar obviously helped me a lot today so um I thank him for that. So Lando it's a McLaren front row it's been it's now a McLaren one two just how much confidence do you have going into the remainder of the weekend? I smell a rain so uh I have no idea what's gonna happen there um I mean if it stays dry I'm confident I think our pace is our pace is strong um I didn't feel like I maximized yesterday uh at all um so yeah today's another another opportunity but I think we're in a good position the car's performing well but if it rains it's anybody's chance. All right well done today good luck for the rest of the weekend Oscar let's come to you now um can you just sum up that race from your point of view? Um yeah a bit of a tricky one um yeah like Lando said it's always a bit hard to know how much to push how much to uh how much to save in that kind of position um especially on a new surface like this that's not really had had much racing so um a bit of a tricky one but um it hung on better than I thought so um yeah car was feeling pretty good and um yeah pretty happy. Tell us about the team orders what was agreed pre-race and um did you execute as as the team asked you to uh yeah yeah we we spoke about it before the race um and uh and when we were going to swap um the cap never really got big enough to do it at a convenient time but um that was was always the plan at some stage so um yeah I think we we pulled it off as as well as we could got a bit close with Max under the VSC but um you know still the most points for the team which is um of course what we wanted. Oscar how hard is it for you as a racing driver to give up give up a victory? Um I mean it's it's it's not as fun as winning but um you know I think you know I know the position that we're in you know we've been talking about this for for months now and um you know this is really the first time that we've we've had to to enforce it so um yes I would have preferred to have won but again it's a sprint it's the same points for the team and you know being realistic I don't have much to fight for in so um yeah you know we we knew this is something that that could and probably would happen at some point um but yeah I was fine with it. All right thank you Oscar. Max let's come to you now you look very fast out there were you were you pleased with the pace of your car? Yeah I think we um we had good pace just um I got stuck in a DRS train so I had to wait for um for my moment to um to have a go at Charles um he had a few moments in the race and then uh yeah he made a mistake in turn one so then I had a good run out of turn three and I I could get him but yeah unfortunately a little bit too late but there was also not much else that I could do because when everyone is just in a DRS train you can't you can't attack um and yeah that was it but the pace is good um seemed like we we could at least you know be in that fight uh which hasn't really been the case the last few races so I think that's that's promising. As you say it was a little bit too late do you think if you'd passed Charles earlier you had the pace to to really challenge the McLarens today? Yeah of course but uh I was stuck in a DRS train so you cannot uh you cannot pass. Okay can you just talk us through the restart after the VSC it got very tight with Oscar? Yeah it got tight we were just yeah um getting close to each other then we had to break. And one final thing you're going to be going to the stewards for a VSC infringement do you have any idea what that might be about? Well it must have been close with uh with Oscar yeah. Just the restart? Yep. Okay all right thank you very much let's open this to the floor name and publication please. Philip Clarion from Motorsport for Lando please um sounds like it was always a plan to swap positions so how surprised were you that the call came so late because it's not just being put under pressure but also the safety car could have made it really tricky at the end? Um yeah I mean we spoke through many different scenarios um like Oscar said it was tough to do that much earlier because the guys behind were pretty close um I think there was one lap but it's always it's hard to suddenly kind of plan that and um and execute it well so I think we did the best job we could uh you know we won both cars up there and um of course the safety car but put under a little bit of threat and we were lucky we didn't have to do it after um but there's always those risks in the beginning of the race middle of the race end of the race it's not a straightforward thing ever so um we planned for it and uh we executed it well. Thanks Lando. Any more from the floor? Yes another one please. Hi hello Pedro from band Max uh your first race here with Red Bull was 2016 was a rainy race and you did everything spectacular even a save from the wall do you think that tomorrow with the rain your chances of winning are higher? It's difficult to tell um also in the rain anything can happen you know it's always quite chaotic so um yeah we just have to wait and see of course what what happens tomorrow. But Max would you prefer a wet or a dry race? A dry wet is fine. Both all right thank you next one. Hello for Max uh John from Agencia EFE from Spain. Max uh what would you think of um the possibility of having Franco Colapinto as a teammate given all the reports that were published uh recently? I don't know it's a bit difficult for me to um to answer um you know I'm busy with other things to improve and he's doing a great job you know at the moment uh in Formula One so that's great to see um I understand of course that it's you know very attractive for a lot of teams to to have him so it's up to the team also you know to see what they want to do. Thank you Max. Any more? Yeah another one. Hi Maria from Car Magazine question to both McLaren drivers. I was just wondering what can we take from today's race in terms of teamwork that can be useful for tomorrow's Grand Prix? Thank you. I don't know I mean it could be completely different tomorrow um you know it's very very rare you have exactly the same scenario I think uh you know we've spoken for months now uh about working together and doing what's right for the team and you know that includes both of us as drivers in the team um so yeah I mean we'll see what scenario we have in qualifying where we qualify and then we'll see what situation we're in in the race but um it's not you know we've probably spent months planning a million scenarios now but until you actually get into the race and see what you have it's very very tough to do but I think you know we've showed multiple times in both directions that we'll help each other out when we need to. Oscar said it well enough. Okay any more? Yeah another one. Philip Graham from Motorsport for all three uh if you want um there was a lot a lot of comments yesterday about the new surface and how bumpy it was um how bad was it today and how what was the track evolution and especially when it rains on a new surface like this how slippery do you think it's going to be? Let's go in order uh um yeah normally the rain is not great in these conditions um just because it's quite it's still a very fresh surface there's a lot of oil and a lot of yeah things that make it slippery so um I'm not expecting it to be uh easy whatsoever but provides good grip on a day like today you know it felt actually quite quite quick today so um you have that the bumps I mean they're not gone overnight so uh um less than ideal I you know I don't know how the tracks are made exactly but um in in how the cars are forced to be made in nowadays uh every driver on the grid has complained you know um the cars we had a few years ago you could get away with more of these things and you almost noticed it a lot less the cars are made to be low like that's it that is the regulation the teams have to make them like that um and therefore the things have to change around it one of those things is the tracks because uh how it was yesterday especially um make things pretty pretty difficult for everyone you know and it doesn't just put um us under more um physical discomfort I'm not saying pain but I'm just saying less than ideal bumps and stuff you know for your head and your whole body um and also the car you know the car has to withstand a lot of bumps and hits and things like that and it's not it's made to withstand a good amount but um almost as much as yesterday not not really so uh um the FIA know and um they're not happy with it either so uh I know that they want to improve things for the future and they work with us to try and do that um yeah it's it's not good um you know I hope we do something for the next time we come here but you know the grip level is actually quite quite decent just um yeah the the consistency of the surface is very poor it's probably the worst of the year um yeah Austin I'm not sure but it's not far off so um yeah I think something something does need to be done for for next year yeah nothing to add okay another one please hi uh congratulations Oscar for your win my my name is Bruna from Global TV and my question for both of the McLaren drivers just a second my phone is locked sorry um I would like to ask how is my colliding uh approach to manage the short and the long-term objectives now that the championship is coming to an end with four races to go thank you um I don't know what I won but thank you um I mean I think we just demonstrated what the um you know short and long-term objectives are I mean the long-term objectives are to win everything we can so um I think that's quite clear um and in the short term you know there's there's two championships at stake and I'm really only involved in one so um that's that's where I sit with it yeah Oscar said it well um we've helped each other over the last two years um for different things um I think it's one of our strengths is we work very well as a team I don't think there's probably any other team on the grid that work as well so I'm proud about that all of that um but yeah like Oscar said we're fighting for a constructor and we're fighting for drivers um and uh we want to help yeah the whole team achieve both of these these goals um obviously from a driver's point of view it puts us in a slightly different position um I'm not proud to to win a race like I did today so I'm always happy you congratulated Oscar on the win um it's not how I want to yeah I'm not proud of it basically so uh you know I work hard to to go and do a better job in quali later and and put myself in a better vision for the race but um we want to avoid it as much as much as we can uh but at the same time you know we sign up for this we have to work together as a team we get told what to do we have a boss and um