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Daniel Ricciardo
"Entering the race you always have some optimism, but yesterday's quali hurt, and unfortunately, I think was the shape of today's race. We were stuck in traffic in the race and were simply not quick enough to come through the field. When we were surrounded by the other cars and fighting with them, we struggled a lot to use our pace compared to what we did yesterday in the Sprint with the clean air. Compared to other cars, I think that with our setup we were quite down on straight-line speed. I couldn't do anything and was stuck behind them. We'll definitely be looking into it in our debrief, but generally, we know that we have to qualify better, like I did on Friday, which has also been the mirror of yesterday's Sprint. Taking the positives, the team leaves Miami very happy; I had a good Sprint-qualifying and Sprint in the previous days, and Yuki also got some points today. I'm also genuinely happy for Lando, big congratulations to him, he is a rival but also a friend. I know how talented he is and I knew it was just a matter of time for him to take his first win."
Yuki Tsunoda
"Very happy, what a great job by the team! It's been an incredible week in which we scored in both races. We kind of expected we would have a good performance here but the most important thing is that we achieved it. As a team, we stuck to our plan and didn't make any mistakes today. As for me, overall, I'm happy with my driving even though I made a mistake at the start. I reset myself and kept going, and especially in the last stint where I was just driving by myself, I was pushing and able to achieve similar lap times to the cars in front. The team developed a great car and I appreciate them a lot. The amount of push from the factory is incredible and in the end, we were able to score well-deserved points. We were able to progress quickly from the start of the season, so I'm looking forward to the future. The next race in Imola is kind of another home race for me, so I hope we'll be able to continue our rhythm and achieve a good result in front of our home crowd, especially people from the factory. Everyone is doing a fantastic job and we'll definitely keep pushing!"
Laurent Mekies, team principal
"In its third year, the Miami Grand Prix has established itself as a great event and the popularity of our sport continues to grow at an amazing rate in the USA. Here, alongside exciting track action, the fans are treated to a whole range of shows, concerts and events. We enjoyed contributing to the scene with our one-off livery, which was well-received by the fans.
"We came here with a few updates and they lived up to our expectations; our drivers played a huge part, in extracting the car's performance with a P4 for Daniel and P8 with Yuki at the end of the Sprint race yesterday. It was a great result for the team. I want to thank everyone once again in Faenza and Bicester for their continuous effort, striving for performance. It was particularly gratifying to see Daniel back in great form, demonstrating the skills and determination we know have always been there. Unfortunately, he started on the back foot today from P20. In the second stint, he got stuck in traffic and could not move up the order and had to settle for P15. As for Yuki, his fourth Q3 appearance out of six races this season underlines how consistently he is performing and today, he underlined his maturity with an intelligent, yet aggressive and super quick drive from tenth on the grid to seventh at the flag. Excellent work!
"Next up is our home race in Imola, a 20 km drive from our Faenza headquarters. Having the support of a home crowd, not to mention all our factory-based staff, does give the team an additional boost. We are very much looking forward to it, especially as last year's Emilia-Romagna GP was cancelled, and we hope to keep the momentum and to keep scoring more points."
Guillaume Dezoteux, head of vehicle performance
"Yuki drove a brilliant race and added six points to the bag for a total of 12 here in Miami! This is an amazing result, which rewards the huge amount of work the entire team put together since the start of the season. We arrived here with a good update for the car and we have been able to make the most of the opportunities which appeared in the course of the weekend, in the Sprint with Daniel and the race with Yuki.
"We went long with Yuki in the first stint and decided to not react to Hulkenberg, who pitted on Lap 12. When the Safety Car came out, we were in the ideal position to take it and attack the second part of the race with a new set of hard tyres. A couple of laps after the Safety Car restart Yuki lost position to Hamilton, but he was able to keep Russell behind and create a comfortable gap to finish seventh. For the entire race, he was able to match Mercedes' pace, which is encouraging and shows the progress the car is making. Daniel's race was difficult as he spent most of it in traffic. Starting from the back would never be easy and despite being able to pit during the Safety Car period, he remained in a DRS train for the entire second stint. This is frustrating after the fantastic Sprint race he did yesterday and again, it shows how difficult things become when you end up in traffic and fights with many cars around. We will enjoy this fantastic result with our colleagues back at base and push hard to confirm our progress in our home race in two weeks' time in Imola. Forza VCARB!"
