Team Talk - Sunday in Shanghai

Racing Bulls

Isack Hadjar

"It’s a shame. I’m disappointed as points were definitely expected today. I had a nice start to the race that put us in a good position, but I think my first lap could have been better, to avoid a bit of the chaos. The car worked well all weekend and we had a really strong pace throughout the race. I was also able to stay behind the other cars and follow them closely on the same tyres, so I’m happy with my drive. What happened today was out of my control, but I can't help thinking what it would have been like with a one-stop strategy race. We’ll review everything with the team before going back racing in Japan.”

Yuki Tsunoda

“Very disappointed, I was definitely expecting more. How I ended up in this race is definitely not the way I wanted. We didn’t have as much pace as the Sprint race, we’ll have to analyse that. Strategy is something we have to revise what happened there as well. I can understand the thoughts behind it, but I guess the main learning is how we can prevent those situations for the future. The front wing damage was a bit frustrating, maybe it was debris, we will investigate, but some things are a bit unfortunate. At least I scored points in Sprint race, which is important, we have good pace in the car so, let’s stay positive. Next race is Suzuka and my motivation is naturally coming from inside already.”

Laurent Mekies, Team Principal

“A frustrating Sunday here in Shanghai. It’s the second race in the row where we don’t come out with the points that we felt we could have had based on how fast the car and the drivers were this weekend; so for sure a lot of hard work ahead of us to improve in these areas to ensure we are stronger in the future. Nonetheless, there is still a huge amount of positives to take from this weekend, the pace was outstanding, the guys have been aiming high all weekend with both cars in Q3 and a fantastic Sprint race with Yuki scoring our first points of the season with P6. We have a fast car, with fast drivers, having fought with the big guys for most of the weekend. We will of course be investigating exactly why Yuki’s front wing broke in the closing stages but after this double-header, we can now regroup back in Faenza and Milton Keynes, assess our race execution and return stronger for the next round in Japan, a home race for Yuki and our PU supplier Honda.”