Williams
Carlos Sainz, 12th
“First of all, well done to Kimi. He has done a great job this season so congratulations to him and his team.
“Regarding our Sunday, I had a good first half of the race switching to a one-stop strategy fairly early on. It was working well and we were on the way to maximising what we could today, but the restart was chaos and I lost some ground. We tried to fight back on the last stint but the balance went away from us and overheating worsened the situation. Overall, it’s been another tough weekend, but we’ll take as many learnings as we can from this week into Brazil and keep pushing for the races ahead.”
Alex Albon, 11th
“It was a solid race for us. We went for the two-stop, which may have been the wrong call due to the lack of tyre deg, but the red flag brought us all back into it. I had a really good restart and gained quite a few positions, which I tried to hold onto, but eventually Isack and Ryō overtook me. The pace was decent, all things considered, and the car felt pretty good, so overall I’m quite happy with the weekend.
“Lastly, congratulations to Kimi. He’s driven really impressively for someone so young, and he’s been very relaxed throughout it all. To be so young and to be able to achieve what he's achieved, I have a lot of respect for him. He’s clearly made a big step from last year and he’s a new force to be reckoned with.”
James Vowles, Team Principal
“It’s a shame to be lacking pace, which ultimately meant we couldn't fight for points today, but it was really great work by HPP and the team to make sure that the high altitudes didn't impact us, and we were able to freely race from start to finish, which is probably one of the most difficult races for that. It was harder to overtake than anticipated here, so, it was near enough, just about being in trains of cars.
“Alex had an excellent restart following the red flag, however unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to be fighting in the top 10. We'll review all the learnings we have and come back ready to tackle the last race of the triple header in Brazil.
“A heartfelt congratulations to Kimi and Mercedes. He deserved this championship and won it on merit. He did an outstanding job from start to finish. A deserving champion, and I'm sure the first of many.”
