05/09/2020
NEWS STORY
Max Verstappen: "From our side we have not really had a good weekend so far and we seem to struggle to find the perfect balance with low downforce on the car. It becomes more difficult to hold on through the corners and we lack grip, which resulted in P5 today. You can say that we are slightly down on power but that is no excuse as there are other things we need to fine tune on a track like this and clearly we are also lacking a bit of pace through the corners. I tried everything I could, we tried all the wing levels that are possible to run at Monza but the end lap time was the same. In the race normally we are a bit more competitive and I think a podium is still possible tomorrow. It won't be easy to overtake and we are all very close from P3 to P10 but I expect we can still fight for P3 and we won't talk about Mercedes, they're on another level. Monza is a very special type of track and when we go back to a more normal layout, I expect to see us back in P3 again."
Alex Albon: "As we expected it was another messy and hectic qualifying around here which made it difficult to do your lap just at the right time. Overall it has been a tricky weekend for us as a Team and we're obviously disappointed with the result in qualifying today but personally speaking I've been happier with the car here. It's been a smoother weekend for me and of course P9 doesn't really show that but we're a good step closer to Max and that's positive. As a Team we're further down than we want to be and coming here we knew it was going to be a difficult weekend as these low downforce types of circuit don't suit us as well as they do the others just like we saw in Spa. The McLarens are very strong on the straights and the Racing Points also came from nowhere today but at the same time we hoped to have a bit more time in hand. There are a few corners which we just haven't quite hooked up and so we're losing time there compared to those around us but our race pace is a bit stronger and hopefully with tyre deg here we can do something tomorrow but we are not expecting an easy race."
Christian Horner: "It was a pretty average qualifying for us and Mercedes are a long way ahead but a tenth or two thereafter makes a huge difference and we didn't have the cleanest of runs, especially with Alex losing a few lap times. The car has not been particularly happy here and fifth for Max is a bit frustrating as it was so close to third but we didn't expect to be fighting for pole. Meanwhile, Alex is only a couple of tenths behind Max but with such a tight pack that puts him in P9 so he'll have work to do in tomorrow's race. We have a bit to look at tonight but we know both of our drivers are good racers and they will be on the attack tomorrow which should make Turn 1 interesting. A track like this hasn't been our strongest venue and so we'll work on understanding and improving the areas we're lacking in so that we can get the most possible out of tomorrow's race."