Racing Bulls
Isack Hadjar
“It was a good weekend here in Imola and I’m happy with my performance. I had a difficult start to the race and lost two places; that definitely didn’t help us, and I know I’ll need to work on that to improve it. The pace was strong and I’m really satisfied with the job of tyre management we did throughout the race. There was a point in the race where we were P7 and I thought we were bringing it home, but unfortunately, it was just a shame for us when the safety car came out, so we’ll review everything with the team to understand if we could have done something differently. It feels good getting a couple of points; I’m proud of the team as they did a really good job. Looking at next week, I think that racing in Monaco as a rookie is going to be impressive and very hard, but I’m really excited and I can’t wait to drive an F1 car there for the first time.”
Liam Lawson
“Pretty disappointed for everybody, we just got caught by safety cars today. We had good potential and had pace all weekend but unfortunately we weren’t able to show it and that’s what put us down the back. It’s been a difficult weekend but I’ll keep working hard to turn it around. We are always learning with the car, every weekend I’m getting more used to it, we are heading in the right direction. Monaco is an iconic track and it is my first time, I’m excited to get there; it is very special and will be one to get up to speed with quite quickly. I’m looking forward to going there and getting right back into it."
Laurent Mekies
“After travelling the world for the past three months, it’s been an enjoyable experience to return to Europe and our home race. Thanks for a great job by everyone back in Faenza and Milton Keynes; we ran a few upgrades across both cars, and with the factory just a short distance away, a large number of staff were able to come to the track, with seats in our own dedicated grandstand to see the result of all their hard work. It’s encouraging to see that the changes to the car delivered the pace to put us in the fight in the sharp end of the midfield. Although Isack and Liam know Imola well, neither had raced an F1 car here before and the narrow track, tricky kerbs and waiting gravel traps present a real challenge. Plus, all the drivers had to deal with the unknown of Pirelli’s softest C6 tyre.
“Overall, the performance this weekend was strong, both in Qualifying and in the race, with P9 in both cases for Isack. He drove a brilliant race today, being one of the cars able to manage to go for a near optimum one stop. The first safety car helped us a bit whilst the second one was a bit of a dilemma, as we decided to fit another set of fresh tyres, but got stuck in a DRS train behind Sainz and Russell. We will take the two points and keep working hard as a Team to keep improving in every area, as we have been doing for the past year. Liam’s weekend certainly looked more difficult overall, but we can see that his speed is there in the data, and again today he was particularly unlucky with the safety cars timing. We now head straight to Monaco, a very different type of track, but the lessons learned here will still prove useful, especially as regards to Qualifying, often the key moment on the streets of Monte Carlo.”
