Toro Rosso
Max Verstappen: “I couldn’t do much today because the drive-through at the start of the race put me on the back-foot, but I think we can be happy with the car’s pace, it was really good! Hopefully we have more luck in the next qualifying and start higher up on the grid in Singapore. It wasn’t one of the easiest races, but I enjoyed some more good overtaking moves and I’m happy with that. I’m sure that if we hadn’t started from last in the race we would’ve finished in the points today. We can be pleased and I now look forward to Singapore, where I’m sure we will be competitive.”
Carlos Sainz: “I’m pretty happy with today’s race, especially with our pace. We were quick, and towards the end of the race I was getting closer and closer to the ones ahead and, even though I didn’t manage to catch them, it felt good to know that we were faster. It’s a shame we didn’t get that final point that I think we deserved, but the five-second penalty I had to complete at the beginning of the race wasn’t ideal. There are many positives to take from today: we finally finished a race after four retirements in a row, something I really needed, and enjoyed some good fights!”
Franz Tost (Team Principal): “Even before coming here to Monza we knew that we would start from the back of the grid. As we didn’t expect to score points at this track, we thought it wasn’t a bad idea to be penalised for engine changes to prevent any potential issues at circuits that suit our car much better. Unfortunately, Max was also given a drive-through penalty for losing part of the bodywork on track yesterday during qualifying, while Carlos got a five-second penalty in today’s race for cutting the first chicane and gaining an advantage. Nevertheless, the pace in the race was very promising and both drivers did a very good job, as well as the whole team, providing a competitive car for a challenging race. If we could’ve started from higher-up on the grid – something we are generally able to achieve - most likely, we would have scored some good points. We are now looking forward to Singapore, where we expect to be really competitive and start a very positive last part of the season.”
Cedrik Staudohar (Renault Sport F1 track support leader): “We expected a tough weekend because of the calculated engine penalties. The most important thing is both drivers made the most of the situation in the race today. We can be pleased with how the engines behaved in the race, and we know that the car is good. It's a shame that Carlos had his 5secs penalty early in the race otherwise we could have scored some points. We have to capitalize on the one hand on reliability for the next few races and on the other hand the tracks we know will suit us better.”
