AlphaTauri
Daniel Ricciardo
"It was a messy race start. I saw quite a big crash in front of me, and there was a lot of debris. I felt like I was getting through it, but at a certain point, I saw a tyre flying in the air, like a frisbee, which was starting to get closer. I checked my mirrors and saw the tyre had hit and damaged my rear wing. Due to the red flag, we returned to the pits, where the team did a great job in repairing the car to be ready to restart the race. Unfortunately, I was told that Oscar (Piastri) and I would be a lap down and had to restart from the pitlane. All the frustration was because we were really fast today. We stayed behind Yuki, helping him score points, but when we had clear air, I felt like the pace I showed was very strong. I think we made some good progress throughout this weekend, and I'm happy with that seeing as it's a track that has never been a strong one for me. I believe I could've contributed quite a lot to the team in scoring points today if only we didn't restart the race one lap down. I'm now looking forward to Las Vegas."
Yuki Tsunoda
"Good job to the team! I'm happy for scoring points, but I definitely could've done more. I made a mistake in Turn 10, which caused me to lose one position, so I'm really sorry to the team. I think more was possible, especially as we were managing some reliability issues that we'll look into. It's such a shame about Daniel as well because he was also really fast. I think we both could've scored points today. Looking at the positive, starting P16 and ending up P9 shows the strong pace of the car and that we've definitely made a big step in the last races since we introduced the upgrades in Austin. We're in a good rhythm now, scoring consecutive points in three weeks, and it's important to keep that momentum for the last two races of the season. We'll keep extracting performance from the car and aim to continue scoring points, to close the gap to Williams who are ahead of us in the Constructors' Championship."
Claudio Balestri, chief engineer (vehicle performance)
"Today's target was to score points and close the gap to Williams, and we did it. The race wasn't an easy one because unfortunately, at the race start, following the Turn 1 incident, Daniel sustained damage on his rear wing from a flying tyre. We decided to stop him and repair the car quickly, while at the same time, the red flag was deployed, and we ended up one lap down with Daniel. Unfortunately, this was basically the end of his race. We sent him back out, waiting for a Safety Car or Red Flag, which never came. Nonetheless, he showed a very competitive pace and allowed us to gather valuable data while finishing P13. For Yuki, the race was different. He was lucky to remain out of trouble at the start and was P10 after the red flag. For the remaining part of the race, Yuki was fighting in the top ten. Unfortunately, we identified a potential clutch issue towards the end of the race, so to make sure we brought the car home, we decided to be conservative with his upshift settings. This meant Yuki was able to finish P9 and score points for the team. We now switch our focus towards the last two races of the season, with the target of improving our position in the Constructors' Championship."
