Podium Interview - Conducted by Arnold Schwarzenegger

Congratulations.
Lewis Hamilton: How do you doing? What an honour to meet you. Arnold Schwarzenegger, man! Wow!

It's wonderful to be here in Melbourne, to be in Australia, and I was just asked to conduct the interviews with the winners here. I'm so excited about it as just for the last two days I was interviewing the fittest, the strongest people, the most energetic people in the world at the Arnold Classic and now I'm interviewing the fastest people in the world. So, Lewis, what does it feel like having won last year's world championship and now winning the first race again.
LH: Well, it's obviously a real pleasure to be here, we have the greatest fans here today, thank you so much for all coming out. My team did an amazing job today and it's an incredible feeling to continue on from last year but also to be up here with you man? I thought you were taller! You were taller in The Terminator.

I'm not wearing my high heels! Let me just ask you how much physical training do you have to do to be in that kind of shape and to go through a race like that?
LH: We all train very hard. People don't actually realise that we are athletes. We have to train a lot. It's incredibly physical in these cars. So I'm very honoured to be up here among these great drivers and with this team that's doing such an amazing job.

Well thank you very much, congratulations. Now a question for you [Nico Rosberg]. What does it feel like being second and do you think you are going to make up [ground] and maybe beat this man this year?
Nico Rosberg: Well, it's a nice feeling to be second today because it's an awesome start to the season for us as a team. Absolutely stunning car they've given us - unbelievable. Lewis has done a fantastic job this weekend. He drove like a world champion all weekend, so couldn't quite beat him but for sure I was trying every single lap, all the way to the maximum, and I will do all year. I will give him a big run for his money and hopefully beat him. Also thank you very much to the organisers, you've done an amazing job this weekend, I'm sure you'll all agree it's been a fantastic weekend for everybody. And also, all of you, you've been great and put on a great atmosphere. Thank you.

How much does concentration have to do with it to win this competition, this race?
NR: Yeah, a lot of it is in the head, of course. Not only in one race but during the whole season, to keep your energy, your focus, but especially during one race. It is very demanding in the head, to not make a single mistake, and it's challenging physically too. It's tough.

Well you've done a great job, congratulations, and I'm looking forward to seeing you in the next race. [Sebastian] what does it feel like now, being with Ferrari?
Sebastian Vettel: It feels great. It's a very, very big honour. I'm very happy. Obviously it's a great start to the season for us. We had a very good winter already; the team has worked phenomenally hard. We can very proud, I said to the guys, thank you very much, grazie mille, abbiamo una machina bella, we have a great car not only in qualifying but for the race as well and it's great to join them and I'm really proud. There's a lot of work ahead of us trying to beat these two and beat Mercedes but I'm sure we will.

How much preparation goes in every day to prepare for a race like this?
SV: It's our job in the end. It's not just turning up the weekends and doing the job, but all week. As Lewis said we have to be fit, so we have to train, we have to look after each here and there. I think I can spare pizza especially this year. It's a full time job.

Congratulations and for sure I will be watching you in the next race. I know [Lewis] that you are going to say now.
LH/AS: 'I'll be back'.

Press Conference

Many congratulations Lewis on a fine 1-2 finish to start the season with and 34th career victory for you, your first win in Melbourne since 2008. The gap throughout the race between yourself and Nico opened and closed between a second-and-a-half and 3.5 seconds but did you feel totally in control from start to finish.
LH: Nico was very quick throughout the race and it was really trying to manage the fuel and all that, and also the tyres, not really knowing where the limit of the tyres is in terms of how far they can go. But once you've got a two-second gap you try to manage that, there's no need to eke out more. But when Nico turned up the heat I was able to react, which was good. Otherwise, it was a phenomenal race for both of us, Nico drove really well. Obviously Sebastian must have done a great job to be where he is today.

Nico, coming to you, there was a message to you to save fuel at one stage in order to attack Lewis at the end of the grand prix. The attack didn't seem to come, but how was it from your point of view and sum up you weekend?
NR: No, no, the attack was most definitely there! Maybe you didn't see it but it was there, for sure, inside the cockpit. But Lewis made no mistakes so it was just not possible to get closer than that, let alone try some of attempt to overtake. It was just a matter of saving a little bit of fuel in the middle of the race to then be able to go full on at the end of the race but I think Lewis did a similar thing. As soon as I started to save a little bit he saved as well, so he could push, so it didn't really help me unfortunately.

Sebastian, congratulations on a podium on your Ferrari debut. You did it largely through strategy. Massa pitted first, you put the hammer down for a couple of laps and it was enough to get you in front. Tell us about the emotion, first of all, on your Ferrari debut and how you achieved it?
SV: It's great. I'm over the moon in many ways. It's great already on the parade lap to see... I don't know, I think the Ferrari flags have been there before but I didn't pay much attention obviously. But it's great the support through the whole weekend. It's an honour to sit in the red car. Obviously when your head's down and you race and you try to push every single lap you don't realise the colour so much but certainly when the chequered flag came out it was great to see and a great feeling, a great reward for the team. I think the car is a lot better than the team had last year. I think we can be very happy as a starting point. Still we lose a lot of time to those guys but I think in the race, potentially, we are a little bit closer than in qualifying trim but overall it's great for sure. Very, very happy, very pleased and very proud of the way the team is tackling the grand prix. The atmosphere is great, the motivation is very high and everyone knows where we want to go. We want to make sure that life is not that easy for those two in the future.