Drivers React After Qualifying | 2025 Belgian Grand Prix

Hey Lando, such small margins out there, but I think as you've said all weekend you've been quick. What do you think made the difference today? I mean, I drove a tiny bit better and I just had a bit of a slipstream. Yesterday I didn't have a slipstream and it cost me like three, three and a half tenths, so it makes a big difference. Yeah, so I didn't have to change much, I just had to kind of drive a little bit better and that was it. I know that pole here isn't obviously the best starting spot as we saw this morning, but still, you've got no one in front of you, you're still optimistic about whatever happens and you could win this race tomorrow. Yeah, of course. I'll be stupid and there's no point in me being here if I didn't think that. So, you know, I'm here to win and whatever the conditions are, that's my target, but yeah, that's it. Oscar, such fine margins out there. Where do you think it was lost out there today? Turn 14, made a pretty big mistake, which was a shame. I felt like the potential was there, which, you know, it's always frustrating when you feel like you can do it and you don't. So, yeah, that's how it goes sometimes, unfortunately, but yeah, just didn't quite nail it as good as yesterday. As you found out this morning, P2's not a bad starting spot. I know the conditions could play havoc and it's a longer race as well, but how are you generally feeling from what you've learned so far about the car this weekend? I mean, I'm feeling good. I feel like the car's been very good. I feel like, in general, I've done a good job, just unfortunately not when it mattered today, but I feel like the pace has been really strong all weekend. So, yeah, confident for tomorrow. Hey, Achal. Well, considering where the deficit's been all weekend, how surprised are you with the pace you've managed to pull out today? I'm very happy. I mean, the lap was extremely good and since the beginning of the season, I don't really have the feeling with this car. I had to set up the car in very extreme ways. I've said it very often and I feel like with the upgrades, it's going in the right direction and it can help me to extract a bit more out of the car without going in such extreme directions. So, that is a positive and for that, I'm very happy. Well, I mean, we opted a little bit, of course, looking ahead for tomorrow, but somehow also the balance didn't really improve with that change and that's a bit weird, especially in Q3, the first set felt awful and then the second set, we tried something else and it just didn't give me any grip starting the lap. So, I already had a lot of wheelspin starting the lap out of the last corner and exactly the same happened out of turn one and I just lost like two turns on my own lap time already, which is, of course, not ideal. And then from there, once we tried to catch up a bit of lap time, because without that problem in turn one, then you look quite okay. You're quite close to the McLarens, but of course, overall, it's not been a very good qualifying. Honestly, it wasn't the most comfortable session. I felt like we made some set-up changes. We realised in sprint race we were quite high up on downforce compared to everyone else, so we dropped the downforce for qualifying, which generally just makes the car a bit more difficult and it became quite sensitive, especially on the tyres. On the last lap of the Q3, we got it into a good place and it always is with the Pirellis. If you start the lap in a good place and you don't slide the tyre too much, it just builds and builds and managed to make a good set from Q2 to Q3 and, yeah, P5 is really happy. So with that kind of car, and I know the weather's an unknown to you, what do you think is possible? Yeah, I mean, I would rather it stay dry now. We struggled a bit until we were stoned in the wet and I don't see why we wouldn't struggle here, if I'm honest. Let's see. Silverstone, we were quite low on downforce and then it started raining this week. We've reduced the downforce but we're still, I think, a little bit on the higher end. I hope that helps us a little bit if it does rain. But if it does rain, qualifying kind of goes out the window, so let's see. Yeah, I mean, it was for sure the maximum. All of my laps felt really strong, but it's clear as a team we've taken a big step backwards this weekend. We don't really know why. One temp slower in Q1, I'd have been almost out. A temp slower in Q3, I'd have been P10. So P6, I feel, is without doubt the maximum we could have achieved. Am I right in thinking you were sixth last year when you won before they took the win away from you? Yeah, I think so. So does that give you a little bit of hope for tomorrow? Yeah. I don't think it'll pan out just like last year, especially as it's wet tomorrow. But, you know, anything can happen. We'll take both positives. But as a team, we just need to assess why we had four podiums in the first six races and we've had one in the last six races. Yeah, I'm very happy with it. Also, a big credit to the team that they brought an upgrade just before qualifying. Yeah, so very happy with that. I certainly feel the massive difference with that and I still have some bits to go. But I mean, even the floor, just the floor was big enough to be in this position. So, yeah, big thanks to the team and they worked hard to bring me to this Grand Prix. So, yeah, and also mechanics as well. The amount of job they've done was pretty hectic and I can't still believe how they were able to make it into qualifying. But everything was good. Yeah, looking forward to tomorrow. Hey, Isaac, obviously great to see you inside Q3, but it was so close between P5 and P10. What's the kind of overriding emotions right now? Yeah, it could have gone worse, but it could have gone quite better. I look at Alex, he's just a tenth away from me and he's P5. So, yeah, you always want more and I feel like I could have done a better job, but it's easy to say afterwards. I think overall it was a great effort through the whole session. Hey, Liam, well, great work making it into Q3. You pleased with the effort? No, not when we see P5 a tenth and a half or whatever it is away. It was a good session from the team to have both cars in Q3 and I think the speed was building. We were learning throughout the session. There were some laps where we didn't necessarily improve but found some things in the car and I think we put it together. Just had a moment at the end of the lap and just lost a bit of time and obviously with these margins it's pretty frustrating. Well, yeah, we need luck sometimes and I feel like I'm a lucky guy. Today it happened to me that Hamilton lost his lap obviously and I managed to go through. I have not made my best Q1 lap and I feel like when I realised that I was going to Q2 I just said I need to take this frustration out of me right now because I was very frustrated at the moment and I said I need to put it aside, focus on what I can do better in Q2 and give my best and honestly it worked out perfectly. So yeah, it was really, really close out there. I think there's some positives that we fixed some issues with the balance of the car but we didn't maximise the potential of that rear wing in that qualifying session. I think yesterday we did so but today I think there are a few things that we need to have a look at because clearly it wasn't perfect. Still, it's a decent starting position, we are only one place away from the top ten which is pretty good so we need to maximise the potential. Yeah, I lost three tenths in Turn 1, my tyres were just totally not ready and after that I managed to bring back and do a very good lap but three and a half tenths in Turn 1 so it's a big shame because we really had the pace to be in Q3. Did you make a few changes to the car with the fact that the weather might get a bit wet tomorrow? Yes, we added a lot of downforce so hopefully it plays into our hands tomorrow. I feel like we did a strong job in all Q1, Q2, we put some strong laps. It's just unfortunate that last run we came out of the garage hoping some people would come with us and no one went and we were the first of the pack so on my last lap I had a 50 second gap ahead of me so I could not catch any slipstream which I think could have put us in Q3 based on the gap there was with P10. It's a shame but on the other side we did the best we could and extremely, extremely tight. Hey Nico, a couple of tenths or so off getting it through today. I think on the fringes in those first runs you were P11, where did that second run, where do you think it went away? Yeah, just losing a bit too much on the straight, I think not close enough to the car in front so missing a bit of the toe effect and yeah, that was two tenths so yeah, all the fine things, the finer things, fine margins so yeah, better feeling though from yesterday and this morning compared to now. Hey Carlos, in that first phase of qualy, it looked like you had the pace that we've seen earlier in this weekend, what happened in the second part where neither of your laps looked good enough? I'm not sure, I need to look into it because it's particularly weird that I went slower in Q2 than what I did in Q1. Yes, there was maybe the sun coming out, a bit of track temp, a bit of, we had to run some used tyres in Q2 that didn't help my rhythm but fundamentally we went slower in Q2 than we were in Q1 and we need to analyse why because in Q1 we were as strong as we were or stronger than the rest of the weekend. Hey Lewis, saw you sitting in the car a little bit after that run, obviously finding out that your lap got deleted, how much does it hurt because it looked like you'd done enough obviously right at the end there? It's incredibly painful, it's turned out to be a pretty bad weekend so far. I know there's been some positives, I know you probably don't want to look at them now but it felt like you were getting a bit more comfortable at the breaks, can you feel like there is something, because anything can happen around this kind of magical track even if it rains tomorrow? I mean anything can happen here, I think, yeah, I mean, I don't know, I have no clue about tomorrow, it's going to be very hard from where I am, so definitely a weekend to forget. Hey Franco, only a tenth or so missing out today, do you know where that lap time was lost out there or was that the most that you could have got out of it? Yeah, I think when you look for one tenth you can normally find it around the lap and yeah, it's very tight out there, it's a pity that we missed by only that little bit, of course, it could have been a bit better, I think the car improved compared to yesterday which is good of course, it did a good step and we are all very tight, so yeah, we just lacked a little bit of pace that would have made us go through, so yeah, focus on tomorrow now and come back stronger. Yeah, I think it's just a difficult period and I just need to get out of this and try to improve for the next one. In terms of just how you felt out there, was it as difficult as it's been all weekend? Yeah, definitely the confidence has been missing, definitely also I struggled to have the same feeling as yesterday, for example, and yeah, just really need to find the light out of the tunnel again. Yeah, it hurts for sure, you know, a little bit disappointed the weekend so far has been not the most competitive one for us and being the last two cars tomorrow, it doesn't reflect I think a little bit our performance in this year, so it is something on this layout, on this track that is a little bit worse for our package and we need to understand that and tomorrow bet a little bit on the wet race to create some opportunities, we understand that on a normal dry race we have no chances to score points, so let's see. Lance, I know that we've been talking about how tough it is around here but that's quite a big gap obviously into Q2, were you surprised just how big it was? No, not really, yeah, so we just didn't have a super quick car today. Have you kind of got any understanding, you and the team, about why it is so tricky to get the best out of the car, because it feels like you've been on an upward trajectory with this car, have you come here, is it circuit specific, is it just maybe you haven't got it quite right with the newest bits that you've got on the car? We'll look into it and see what we can learn.