Mercedes
Kimi Antonelli, 3rd
"That was a tough race out there today and I am very happy to have ended it by finishing on the podium. We knew overtaking was going to be difficult, so we were trying to do some things a little bit differently on strategy. Whilst we gave up track position to the McLaren of Lando Norris, we knew we were going to be on the better Soft tyre and trying to chase both him and Lewis (Hamilton) down. I managed to capitalise on the battle between the two of them, passed them both, and take P3. It is a fantastic result for the team after a difficult couple of weekends.
"We have made some really good progress with our update package this weekend. It has proved to be a very useful experiment and one that has provided us with a really good direction to get the best out of it. Obviously, this was a Sprint weekend and after a tough Friday, there was only so much we could do so it wasn’t like we had the car in the perfect window today. That gives us confidence that we can make more improvements in Austin and start to see what it can truly deliver."
George Russell, 9th
"I managed to make good progress in my first stint and get myself onto the fringes of the top 10. We took the opportunity to stop when the Virtual Safety Car came out but sadly, we didn’t get the full benefit of that as it ended as I entered the pit lane. That type of luck sums up my season unfortunately! We fought hard on the Soft tyre but Nico (Hülkenberg) did a good job defending P8 from me.
"We knew tonight was going to be a difficult race given where we were starting and how challenging overtaking is here. To get ourselves back in the points was a decent result but of course it has been a disappointing weekend here in Singapore for me. We will regroup now ahead of Austin and the final six races of the year. We’ve gathered a lot of useful data on the update package and hopefully we can build on that into the closing stages of the season."
Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport
"We knew that it was going to be a difficult race this evening with our cars starting from P4 and P19. Overtaking is notoriously tricky here in Singapore and the race was therefore shaped by strategic decisions. We tasked both cars with needing to make passes on track to gain positions in the closing stages and happily they were able to do that.
"Kimi had the pace to claim the final podium spot, passing both a McLaren and a Ferrari to do so, with George making some great moves throughout the race. He got up to P9 where his progress stalled but it was a good effort, nevertheless. To come away with P3 with Kimi and valuable points from George is a good result in a Grand Prix that we knew was about damage limitation.
"We have spent this weekend comparing the update package with the previous specification and that has been a useful experiment. By qualifying yesterday and as we saw in today’s race, we have managed to get it working much better and saw a little more of its potential. It is no doubt a little trickier to get in the right set-up window, but it clearly has goodness and we need to build on that moving forward."
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director
"Coming away from Singapore with a podium for Kimi and points for George is a solid outcome, particularly given where we started the race. We knew overtaking would be difficult, so a lot of the opportunities were going to come through strategy and making the most of the tyre performance in the closing stages. Kimi drove a very mature race, managed his tyres well, and then had the pace to make the moves that secured the podium. George’s race was always going to be challenging starting from the back, but he fought hard throughout, made some brilliant overtakes and got himself back into the points.
"One of the main objectives this weekend was to continue our evaluation of the update package and build our understanding of how to get the most from it. We learned a lot over the three days and, importantly, saw encouraging signs in both qualifying and race conditions once we were able to move closer to the right operating window.
"By the end of the weekend, Kimi’s package was clearly the faster of the two which gives us confidence that we are heading in the right direction from a development perspective. There is still work to do, but the data we’ve gathered will be valuable as we prepare for Austin. We now have a clearer direction on where the performance is and what we need to focus on to unlock more of its potential over the final races of the season."
