Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Tom McCullough, Mario Isola and Diego Ioverno

Tom, why don't we start with you. FP1 looked promising for the team. Is the car performing better at Interlagos than it was in Mexico last weekend?
Tom McCullough: I think the short answer to that is 'yes' - but you really only get to find out the real answer come Qualifying, and the rest of the events. The Sprint format is a bit unusual, you don't know what people are doing with fuel loads, engine modes, all of those things. Based on two pretty tough Qualifying sessions, we attack this one to give the drivers a good shot. Unfortunately, Fernando ended-up with a puncture and having to save tyres, so he didn't get to run anything but the Hard tyre today - but again, he was reasonably happy with the car, so early days, but looking a bit better.

Looking a bit better. So, what did the post-race debriefs in Mexico reveal about the problems you had there? Do you fully understand it now?
TM: I think we have a really good understanding of the car on track. Aerodynamically, that's one of the strengths of the team, to actually understand what the car's doing. We have been quite aggressive with some developments, a few races ago, introducing them at the Sprint, really research and development for next year's car in some ideas. That means it's quite hard to optimise the car at a race weekend, especially in a Sprint format. We unfortunately had a few problems in Free Practice One in Austin too. We're definitely learning. We've put a lot good data in the bank for next year. This weekend, we've just got our focus on operationally executing a strong weekend in the now, rather than gathering data for the future.

Tom, this is the last time we get you in an FIA press conference this year. So, can I ask you to just reflect on the season so far. What conclusions do you draw when you look at 2023 as a whole?
TM: We're obviously a bit disappointed with some of the form at the end of the year, but if you actually step back and look at where we were last year, where we started the year. As a team we are growing, we are really growing quickly, that's never pain-free. It always takes a while to get to work with new people. We're also in the process of, during this year, I think just after the Spanish Grand Prix, we moved into building one of three of our new factory. It was a worksite for the start of the year when we initially moved in. We only moved in upstairs, downstairs was still being finished. Now, building one is totally finished. building three, the new wind tunnel is making really good progress, and they've started now on building two as well. So, we're in a huge growth phase, we're up against some top, top teams. All nine teams that we're fighting against are top, top teams. We 're trying to fight the ones right at the front. We did that at the start of the year. Have we developed as well as them during the year? No. Are we a bit disappointed with that? Yes. But, I think, the learning and the way the team's growing, is really positive for the future.

Tell us more about the learning. What have you learned with this car, this year, that you can apply in 2024?
TM: Going back to the first test in Bahrain, obviously when Lance had his injury, Felipe driving for us. The morning of the third day, I think it was, we did a race simulation. We were just trying to give him some experience, if he needed to race. It was quite poor track conditions. He went out, and it was the first time we thought: 'this car's pretty good'. Obviously Felipe is pretty good too but I think Russell was doing a race simulation at the same time and we were basically the same, if not quicker with Felipe driving. Then Fernando did a race simulation. We were pretty confident that, over the winter, using our development tools, we'd put together a really good car. We obviously started strong. We've got a few directions which, in hindsight, you wouldn't do - but that's engineering. I think that learning has been key. We have a real solid understanding of where we need to go and a whole group of people who haven't worked together before, working together, gelling, respecting each other. There's a great atmosphere among the technical team. We all want to do better, but we're all working well together. I think that's just going to help us going forwards.

And can you talk about the drivers now? Fernando Alonso, seven podiums. Lance Stroll, best of fourth in Australia. What sort of seasons have they had, from your point of view.
TM: I think what we've seen from both our drivers is that, if we give them a good car, if we operationally execute well at a weekend, if they don't have any unfortunate circumstances, they can get us good points. Our main issue hasn't been the drivers this year: our issues have been not always delivering a strong-enough car and, sometimes, having a failure here, a strategy decision there. A Qualifying risk her and there that has backfired on us. Fernando is new to the team. He's a force of nature, some of you have worked with him before, but he's been fantastic. He's pushing us. He's so motivated. He's so understanding that it's hard, doing what we're doing. It's not easy developing a car in Formula 1 against some very good teams, and he has been amazing. I obviously didn't know him before but you work closely with him and his ability to sense the car, to tell you what's good. Keeping calm, as well. I thought it could get harder than it has done. But yeah, he's been fantastic. Lance we obviously know well, we've known him for the last few seasons. He was really on the back foot at the start of the year. When the car was competitive, he was scoring the points. He's had, and it's easy to say 'bad luck', but right from race three, when he's having an exhaust failure, and not getting the points he deserved there. There's been quite a few circumstances again recently. In Suzuka, we had a rear wing failure, nothing he's doing wrong, but at the end of the day on the days when the car's been able to score good points, he's often not been able to do that, which has not really been down to him, so we know if we give either of our drivers a good car, they'll get us the points.

Final one from me. Is the car good enough for points this weekend here in Brazil?
TM: I really think so. It's obviously a Sprint event format. The main race is going to be interested here. It always is, from a tyre degradation and... probably not a one-stop race. But I think we've got a good understanding of how to get the most out of our current car. We'll really just focusing, these next few races, on trying to get as many points as we can do, rather than doing too many R&D projects in front of you all at the track.

Alessandro, let's come to you now. Can we throw it back to Mexico, first of all. It promised much after Qualifying but the race turned into frustration for you. Valtteri put it down to circumstances and a bit of bad luck. What's your read on what happened on Sunday?
Alessandro Alunni Bravi: First of all, let me say sorry for my delay in joining the press conference, to you and all the journalists. It was a strange weekend for us. I think that, as most of the teams this season, we missed something in terms of understanding the tyres with different track configurations and different track temperatures. We were competitive on Friday, and also in qualifying, being able to be in Q3 with both cars but in the race, I think that race performance was not at the same level. So, it was not just because we have been in the DRS train for most of the race with Valtteri but Valtteri was unable to attack or defend, so we were missing something in terms of performance. We didn't have a problem with the tyres degradation. We were able to extend, for instance with Valtteri the first stint, until lap 32, so one lap before... or the same lap of the Safety Car. Of course, this has jeopardised our strategy. We could have been better but I don't think this was the main factor. We simply miss some performance during the race. We need to investigate and to understand this, because this has been a recurring problem during this season, where we have been alternatively quick in qualifying and the race and vice versa. So, this is part of the analysis that we need to do, and where we need to go through the car understanding for next season, because I don't think that this situation will change if we are not able to fix, with proper technical solutions, this problem.

Before we talk about next season, what about this weekend? We've just had the one and only practice session here at Interlagos. Do the long runs look better here?
AAB: Difficult to read into this session for the long runs because we use our tyres and we don't know if this will be really representative for the race or the main race tyres. So, I think that we rely more on our stints on the medium tyres and the soft tyres. We are, I would say, there's still a lot of work to do. We don't think that we are really far, but Q3, for me, this race will be quite difficult. It's not a matter of car balance, it's the overall package that we need to improve. We are lacking of grip, especially in high-speed corners. This has been one of our weakness points this season. So, we started not far but we didn't have the feeling that we are as strong as the last race in Qualifying.

Alessandro, how does 2024 look? I mean, James Key joined, what, six weeks ago now? How are things going back in Hinwil?
AAB: First of all, we are really happy about having James on board. He started the first week of September, so he's also contributing to next year's car, to our C44 car. We review completely the project, together with him, thanks to his experience we went through an in-depth analysis of all the areas of the car, taking decisions. So, the next year car will not be an evolution of this year's car, because we think that there are some limits in this concept that we cannot exploit further. So, we will really have as completely new car from chassis to suspension, everything, all the areas. Of course, it's easy to identify the problems, but then you need to be able to fix it. So, we are working hard, the group is growing. We have new appointments that are joining, and that will be able to contribute also to next year's car but the answer will be given to all of us next year in Bahrain.

And, same question that I asked Tom: can we get your thoughts on the performances of both of your drivers Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu?
AAB: I think that what Tom says is correct also for us. If we are able to provide a performing car to our drivers, there they can deliver. But it's really a matter of giving them everything that they need to perform. There is no issue with our drivers, they are experienced, we have seen that they can contribute with points. But the matter is to have a stronger car with more performance in any track condition, with every tyre temperature, with... you know, all the elements. This has been our weakest point. Too many up and downs and not consistent throughout the season.