Track Interviews - Conducted by Jenson Button

Congratulations Max Verstappen, you've just won the Mexico City Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen: Yeah, it's been incredible, you know? Of course, unfortunately Checo retired on lap one but the crowd stayed and there have been amazing, so yeah, incredible!

That's great to see. Great the support here for Formula 1 as a whole. Sixteen victories in one season Max. You've just broken your own world record in a season. How does that feel?
MV: I mean, to be honest, we are experiencing an incredible season. And again today, as well of course, we had to start P3, but I think the pace of the car was very, very good. We tried to do a different strategy to everyone else and unfortunately with the red flag we couldn't really show it basically. But nevertheless on those tyres, at the end, I think we were very strong.

So what's in store for Max now? You must have another goal set?
MV: Seventeen, 19, I don't know!

Lewis...
Lewis Hamilton: These guys are amazing! [indicating the crowd]

Lewis just enjoying the atmosphere from the crowd here in this stadium. It's great to see and you seemed so happy when you got out of the car, high-fiving the mechanics and all.
LH: Yeah, I've got to say a big thank you to this incredible crowd. Mexico, they've been giving us these great races here every year. And I genuinely love coming to this city. The food is fantastic and the people are beautiful. So thank you all, gracias. And otherwise, yeah, I mean, I feel fresh. We weren't having to push crazy hard out there. But this is a great result considering we started sixth. I'm really proud of the team. This is a really difficult couple of weeks and to bounce back from a difficult weekend, last weekend with the end result, this is really, really well done.

You put that to bed. You just got a P2, great result. And you guys chose the Medium tyre at the end of the race, which I think most of us [thought] was going to fall off a cliff but you were able to hold on to it.
LH: Yeah, I was thinking it wasn't going to last but I did some real sweet finesse. I was trying to drive like you!

Charles, it's always a difficult weekend and a difficult race when you're fighting with a local hero. Can you just mention what happened in Turn 1?
Charles Leclerc: A lot of booing... A lot of booing. Guys. I mean, honestly, I had nowhere to go. So I was a bit in between the two Red Bulls and unfortunately I touched Checo, but I had nowhere to go. It's life. It damaged my car and unfortunately it ended the race of Checo. But yeah, on our end, we maximised our race. It's life and of course I'm disappointed to end the race of Checo like that, but I really didn't do it on purpose and I had nowhere to go.

Yeah, three into one in that corner is very difficult. What did you think when the race was red-flagged half way through and you had to do that whole start process again, because they've not been your strong point this year, Ferrari, as a team.
CL: Yeah, we struggled a little bit with a Hard after the restart. Lewis was really quick on the Medium and then they managed to have really good degradation. So yeah, they were just better today and it's life.

Press Conference

Max, very well done to you. From Turn 1 onwards, this victory never looked in doubt. How did it feel from inside the cockpit?
MV: Yeah, I think that start definitely made it a bit easier for me in the first stint as well. Also, because I was going to do a two-stop, so yeah, that, of course, gave me those extra couple seconds that would look great on the plot anyway, if we would have made it happen. So, yeah, just the tyres around here, it's always very hard to manage, but I think we had quite decent pace in them. And then of course, we opted to box a bit earlier. And yeah, I think also on the Hard tyre, we were quite competitive and I closed a lot of that that pit stop back down. So yeah, I think it would have been quite interesting to the end, you know, to see how much faster I could have gone a new set of Hard tyres. Yeah, I think the strategy was looking great. But then of course, we had the red flag. So basically, everything that we did, we could throw in the bin and start over. But again, it was all about having a good start and trying to keep the lead into Turn 1, which we did. And after that it was just pace management to the end to keep the tyres alive, looking after the car, the brakes, you know, everything.

It was two excellent starts from you this afternoon. Can you talk us through the first one? You got away very well, but how nervous were you being three wide going into Turn 1?
MV: No, not nervous at all. I mean, it's not the first time that I've been two-wide or three-wide into Turn 1 here. But also, I mean, we all trust each other. And of course, we're all on the limit, braking into the corner, but it was all fine, I think. But then yeah, of course, I saw on my outside that something happened. But yeah, luckily, on the inside, we could stay out of trouble.

You mentioned the red flag period. Did you have any concerns about the Hard tyre and the restart?
MV: Well, for me, it was quite clear that we had to do the last stint on that Hard tyre. Luckily, it had only done one lap. So that helped. But of course in the start, normally, the Hard tyres is a bit more difficult to get off the line, but we actually had quite a decent start on that tyre as well.

And Max, final one from me. Another record falls your way this afternoon. Sweet 16, your 16th win of this season. It's been 31 wins since the start of last season, which is as many as Nigel Mansell scored in his entire career. Just give us your thoughts, please?
MV: It's been another incredible season. I mean, the car has been unbelievable to drive in most places. So, you know, when you then, as a team, work really well together and you try not to make too many mistakes over the whole season, then you can achieve something like this. So of course, I'm very proud of the achievement, because I think after last year, when I won 15, I was like, 'well, if I can ever try and replicate something like that, I will be very happy' and now we are here with 16. So yeah, just very happy with everyone's performance in the team, you know, for the whole year for basically not making a lot of mistakes.

Very well done. Thank you, Max. Lewis, if we can come to you. Great race by you today. Another second place. This one, you get to keep. Just how much satisfaction did this give you?
LH: [Laughs] So far! Don't speak too soon! But yeah, congrats to Max. Yeah, great day. I was not expecting to be up here with these guys. Difficult weekend, it started out, but yeah, I just kept my nose clean at the beginning of the race and then just really trying to manage the tyres and maximise and progress forwards. And when I noticed that I had the pace on Carlos, I knew that with the undercut, it really worked quite well. So, the team did a great job I think with strategy. And then of course the red flag probably played into our hands in terms of getting onto the fresher tyre at the end. But I just I didn't know if whether or not the Medium would make it that long. I was trying to see if I could close the gap to Max but he was long gone and I could only just about equal his times. But great result for the team, really proud of everyone.

Given that you weren't that happy with the car during practice, where was it better today? What have you changed?
LH: Didn't change... Well, we didn't change anything obviously since qualifying. I think the car is just quite peaky in qualifying on light fuel. But when you put a load of fuel in it, the car just handles nicer. Just nice to drive and I think we struck a really nice set-up this weekend and particularly today for the race. Then, other than that, it's just really good tyre management. And so yeah, I generally enjoyed it. It's not the most physical of races, being that you can't push all the way, you're saving. You're doing 200, 300 metres of lift and coast to keep the car cool and stop it from failing. So, yeah, but I was I was definitely hoping maybe there'll be an opportunity to get closer to Max, but maybe next week.

Lewis, you talk about tyre management, you set the fastest lap of the race on the final lap on those Mediums. Does that suggest you could have pushed a little bit harder than you actually did during that stint?
LH: Yeah, for sure. I could have pushed a little bit harder but I did at one time try to see, okay, I think I've saved enough, let me see if I can try and close this gap to Max. I think it was like 10 laps to go, and I did a 22.0 and Max did a 21.9. I was like, ah, I'll leave it. He was just cruising at 21.9. So yeah, so I thought I'd leave it there. And also, I had to be cautious, just careful because obviously my tyres... if I really pushed them for the last 10 laps, they probably would have opened up, and who knows, maybe Charles would have caught me up. So, I just had to be cautious with that.

There wasn't much lift and coast from you on Lap 40 when you passed Charles Leclerc. Talk us through that move.
LH: Yeah, honestly, this weekend, we've been very, very slow on the straight. In general, we've were quite draggy on the straights more often than not but this weekend, you know, like yesterday, we were losing like two-and-a-half tenths just into Turn 1 before we even start braking. So, these guys were very slippery on the straights so, trying to follow closely through Turns 16 and 17 was, was really the only way that I could get close enough and have an opportunity to make the DRS impactful. And yeah, finally, I pressed every button on the steering wheel, maximum power. And I didn't know how far across he was going to go. But split second decision, I decided to go to the right. There's just enough space there but Charles was really fair. But yeah, great racing.

Check out our Sunday gallery from Mexico City here.