Tag Archives: Max Verstappen

McLaren Formula 1 boss Andrea Stella says he and the rest of his team are still “trying to process” their achievement in winning the 2024 World Championship.

The team secured its first title since 1998 with victory for Lando Norris in Abu Dhabi, finishing the season 14 points clear of rivals Ferrari.

Stella stayed on with the race team to oversee Tuesday’s test before returning to the Woking factory.

“It’s been a mix of thoughts and emotions,” he told this writer before heading home. “I think we are all trying to process more rationally what we have achieved.

“I’ve spent definitely a few hours trying to reply to all the messages for which I’m really very grateful to everyone that wanted to express their congratulations and say well done to myself and to the team.

“And also I’ve spent as much time as possible speaking to as many people as possible in the team.

“I think we are all processing that it’s a phenomenal achievement. And if anything, from what I hear from our people, especially at the factory, it’s even better than what they thought.

“I have to say that the celebrations in the garage were the best celebrations in the garage that I’ve had in my career, even if I had thankfully many opportunities to celebrate when I was at Ferrari.

“And this one at McLaren was the most intense, the most spontaneous, the most energetic celebrations in the garage that that I could witness and be part of.”

Regarding further events back at the factory he added: “Definitely, there’s a few appointments planned to celebrate together with the team.

“But while we celebrate, we have already started our conversations that if we want to keep this kind of success, we have to do better in the future. What we have done so far may not be enough for the level of F1 nowadays.”

On Saturday evening before the race Stella acknowledged that Abu Dhabi had been the site of the low point of his career, when Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso lost the title at the final round due to a wrong strategy call.

On race day last weekend Alonso reminded Stella about their shared defeat.

“I told him before the race what Abu Dhabi took from our hands in 2010,” Alonso said after the flag. “And hopefully today, it give something back to you. And it did. So happy for him, he deserves it.”

Asked about the 2010 disappointment Stella agreed that he now had a better feeling about the track.

“I’m certainly a bit more in peace with Abu Dhabi now,” he said. “While Abu Dhabi 2010 remains the most painful experience for me professionally in F1, at the same time over time I think myself and Fernando have become more and more proud of what we have achieved in the 2010 season.

“And I think that experience has given us the toughness, the learning, and all those qualities that you sometimes learn only when you lose something, rather than winning.

“And I think in what we are today, even in this year’s achievement in 2024 there is some of the toughness, the learning, the pride that we took from that experience.

“And definitely I have to say, this is a very personal note, but in any of my personal, professional and personal achievements, there will always be something coming from my collaboration with Fernando.

“Because working with him, you take so much away. You take so much that makes you better, that this becomes a resource in your future experience, even when you don’t work with Fernando anymore.”

Mercedes technical director James Allison says the team enjoyed a “fantastic run” with Lewis Hamilton despite the frustration of the lack of a “fairy tale ending” with a win or podium in the 2024 Abu Dhabi finale.

Hamilton started his final race with the team from only 16^th on the grid after hitting a loose bollard in Q1.

However after starting on the hard tyres he moved up to fourth, passing team mate George Russell on the final lap, before an emotional celebration on the grid after the flag.

“I think it would be very hard to summarise such a complex set of feelings,” said Allison when asked about Hamilton’s departure.

“We would of course love this whole season, let alone the last race, to be more of a fairy tale ending to a partnership that has set all the benchmarks in F1. 

“It would have been fitting if we could have finished on the podium, at the very least or ideally on the top step, but that was not to be.

“That said, I think it could not have been more well handled by Lewis and by the team and I think that owes a massive amount to the respect that there is between Lewis and the team and the huge amount of appreciation for everything we have achieved together.”

Allison admitted that it had been a difficult weekend for both Hamilton and the team, with the stray bollard restricting to him to what was initially P18 but which became 16^th on the final grid. 

However Hamilton did his best to motivate the team, despite his personal frustration.

“Qualifying was a difficult time for Lewis in this event with his run-in with the bollard,” he said.

“He was disappointed, we were even more disappointed for him, and yet in the debrief afterwards when we were down in the mouth he was telling us, ‘Look, put your chins up, we’re going to make the most of tomorrow and remember all the times when we’ve got this right together.’

“I think that is what it feels like. We have had some difficult seasons recently, but over the span of this relationship no other driver-team partnership has come close to matching what we have done together.

“It has just been a fantastic run for all of us, and we could not wish him more well than we did on that last day together.”

Allison indicated that but for the bollard Hamilton could have been in top three contention.

 “It is possible, yes,” he said. “I think he had been pretty speedy during the weekend prior, and was feeling confident in the car.

“The gaps actually between P5 and the front row were quite small, and had he wiggled his way into Q2 without the untimely intervention of the bollard then I think he would have had a strong qualifying session overall, and then would have been obviously much better placed to fight in the race than eventually he was.”

Regarding Hamilton’s charging race Allison said: “He was running a race which started hard and went medium. Most people in front of him were doing the opposite. They started medium and went hard.

“The hard was a slower tyre until it had done 30-odd laps. Eventually its durability means that it overtakes the medium, but for the large part of its life it is slower than the medium tyre. 

 “At the beginning of the race he looks comparatively less shiny on the slower rubber, but then when he puts on the medium and his car really sort of comes to life.

“At the very moment that some of the people in front of him are bolting on the hards and suffering the slightly slower tyre, you get the sort of compounding effect of him picking up his pace while the others are muted in pace on a slightly slower tyre.”

Pierre Gasly achieved the three targets he set himself in Abu Dhabi by guaranteeing Alpine sixth place in the constructors’ World Championship and passing Nico Hulkenberg for 10^th in the drivers’ version – as well as making it to the end of the season without causing any damage.

Gasly started the season finale from fifth on the grid and jumped up to third at the start after Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri tangled in front of him.

Subsequently the faster cars of George Russell, Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and the recovering Verstappen all passed him, but crucially the Frenchman stayed in front of Haas driver Hulkenberg on his way to seventh place.

As well as securing sixth in the championship for Haas he moved ahead of Hulkenberg by one point.

“I was obviously in third, and that was nice,” he said of the early laps. “And I thought I’m in third, I have George in between me and Nico. It’s better to keep him there! But he wasn’t too keen on staying behind me, so I had to fight him quite hard.

“And then after, I must say, Lewis and Charles were incredibly fast. I knew the target was, anyway, the Haas and Nico and the entire race, he was within two seconds, keeping a lot of pressure.

“So I could not afford to do any mistakes, and even with the tyres, really trying to keep them until the end of the race, which was very tough, because we made a very long stint on hards. But we made it happen.”

Regarding his personal targets for the race he said: “Sixth in the constructors, I nicked 10th in the drivers’ championship from Nico in the last in the last race.

“That was the clear target. There were three targets to get sixth in the constructors’, 10th in the drivers’, and keep my nose clean so that we still have zero dollars damage. And yeah, we all completed the targets.”

Team principal Oliver Oakes stressed that beating Hulkenberg was more important than the overall race result.

“The first lap was quite welcome when we did Turn 1 and went, okay, this is good!” he said.

“A little bit apprehensive with Mercedes behind, he [Russell] kept us honest. Our race today was against Nico. I think obviously there was good and bad from that, we probably could have been greedy and tried to push on in the first stint.

“But I think obviously covering Nico off was the main focus today. And I think credit to the guys and girls for the calls for that.”

Lewis Hamilton says his dramatic last lap move on Mercedes team mate George Russell in Abu Dhabi was a case of “now or never” after his successful chase.

Hamilton was on a different strategy to rivals, having started from 16^th on the hard tyres and run a long opening stint.

In the latter part of the race he had to close the gap to fourth place Russell before passing him with a dramatic round the outside move on the last lap.

In Las Vegas Hamilton put in a similar charge from 10^th on the grid, but he couldn’t quite catch leader Russell on that occasion.

“He was driving great,” said Hamilton. “Obviously, he started a lot further ahead than I did, so to catch the 14 seconds was tough. He was putting in good laps. And so it took perfection, like I had to really put together the best laps I could possibly do.

“Obviously, in Vegas, I was catching for a period of time and then stopped. So I was trying to make sure that I kept taking chunks out of that gap.

“I only caught him right at that last lap, and I was like, it’s now or never, so I just went for it.”

The race also saw Hamilton’s race engineer Peter Bonnington call for “Hammertime” for the final time.

“When he told me, I was like, I can’t remember the last time he told me Hammertime!,” said Hamilton. “So I remember I told Bono to say Hammertime back in the first year together, I was like, don’t tell me just go faster. I said tell me it’s hammer time, and I know what it is.

“What a roller coaster ride I’ve had with Bono. He’s been one of my closest friends for many years, and it’s something I didn’t expect to I didn’t expect to have, because he worked with Michael Schumacher, he’s worked with great drivers.

“For the longest he stood by me, and for an engineer to stick with someone, as frustrating and painful as it can sometimes be, he stood by me every single day without fail.”

Asked if such a drive gave him confidence heading into 2025 he said: “It’s not that I needed it for the confidence. I’ve always had the confidence, but definitely, really nice to finish off with a strong, hard battle and no mistakes, solid drive.

“It’s been a really, really turbulent year, probably the longest year in my life, I would say, because we’ve known it from the beginning that we’re leaving, and it’s like a relationship when you’ve told your whoever the counterpart is that you’re leaving, but you’re living together for a whole year! Lots of ups and downs emotionally. But we finished off I think on a high today.”

Max Verstappen says he made a quick apology to Oscar Piastri after their clash in the Abu Dhabi GP to “avoid any weird feelings” between the pair heading into the winter break.

Verstappen hit Piastri at the first corner, causing both drivers to spin.  The Dutchman received a 10-second penalty for the incident, but still managed to recover to finish sixth.

Piastri was further delated by a separate clash with Franco Colapinto and a penalty of his own, and eventually finished 10^th.

Although unhappy with his penalty Verstappen made sure to speak to Piastri after the flag.

“The launch was good, and then I tried to grab the inside,” he said. “And I quickly realised, once I committed to it, that the gap was closing. I wanted to try and get out of it, because I didn’t want imagine of course a crash with Oscar.

“But unfortunately, we still clipped each other, but I already apologised to Oscar. There’s no way you want it to happen.

“And especially not with him, he’s a great guy. It happened, it’s just a bit unfortunate.”

Asked about the leeway normally given to first lap incidents he said: “Honestly, I don’t want to talk about it. I’m just happy that the season is over. For me, the most important thing that I had to do is just apologise to Oscar, because I have nothing to gain, nothing to lose.

“I went for it. It didn’t work out. And especially also for him, that we both spun, it’s not nice. He’s a friend of mine, so I don’t want to have any weird feelings or whatever going into the break.”

Regarding the consistency of recent penalties he added: “I don’t understand anything anymore, but it’s fine, whatever. I’m not going to get angry about stuff like that.

“It’s not worth my time. Just have a break. Like I said, the most important thing is that I apologised to Oscar, and that’s it.”

He acknowledged that Piastri wouldn’t have seen him as he headed into the first corner.

“I think when you’re in that position, you’re focusing on the car ahead,” he said. “You commit. That’s how I feel it as well, when you saw first or second, you never really looked behind. I went for it, and then I realised shit he doesn’t see me there.

“So I was trying to get out of it, but then we still clipped. And of course, that is on me, but I was expecting maybe 20 seconds, 30 seconds, I don’t know, stop-and-go. So maybe something to talk about for next time.”

Regarding how costly the incident might have proved to McLaren’s title hopes he added: “I don’t do these things on purpose. That’s racing as well, right? It doesn’t only happen here, throughout the whole season you can blame things, that’s how you win or lose a championship.”

Fred Vasseur says he’s “proud of the step” made by Ferrari in 2024 but stresses that the team still has to improve in every area heading into the new season.

The Maranello outfit finished just 14 points adrift of McLaren after a year that saw Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz share five victories.

Vasseur, who took over as Ferrari boss at the start of 2023, stressed that the team made good progress, but can’t now stand still.

“A good one, but not enough!,” he said when asked about the team’s season. “I think that if you compare with one year ago, it’s huge step forward on every single KPI [key performance indicator], everything is great, and with a good one in terms of pit stop strategy, reliability, we improved it everywhere.

“And even the term of pure performance. It’s true that at the end, 14 points are missing. And I think if you are 80 or 100 points behind, you don’t feel the frustration. At least tonight, I have tons of races in my mind where we lost 14 points this season, but it is like it is.

“McLaren also had some issues, and it’s just that we have to do a better job next year. But I’m also quite proud of the step that we did.”

Vasseur made it clear that several weekends had been particularly expensive for the team.

“I think on the paper Canada was a good one for us,” he said. “And we came back from Canada with a double zero. That was a bit harsh. And we had three or four races in a row with the upgrade, when we struggled a little bit.

“This period, I think we lost something like 80 or 90 points on McLaren. Then we had a tough weekend like Baku, even if we did a P2 with Charles, but I think we were in a position to do a much better job than only P2.

“Singapore was a tough one, with the two car ninth and tenth in quali, I think we could expect much better. But this is true also for McLaren now, if you have a look at I think that McLaren, if you go through the season, you can find tons of points, but my job is also to try to minimise these losses.”

Vasseur stressed that one of the positives of the season was the way the team reacted in adversity.

“What is giving me confidence is more the step that we did compared to one year ago, the capacity that we had to react in the tough moment of the season,” he said.

“Because it’s where you can see that the team is working as a team. When you are winning, everybody is nice, everybody’s best friends.

“I would say that this kind of weekend are quite easy to manage. It’s when you are in the tough moment that the reaction is important. And we reacted each time very, very well. In June we came back as soon as possible with solutions.

“Everybody was pushing in the same direction, and quite also pleased with the reaction of the drivers. We had a tough weekend in Vegas, and they acted very, very, very well, and I think it’s why we were so performant this weekend.”

He added: “I think it was that the fact that we improved, and that we were able to react in the tough moments. Because to have a good dynamic, positive dynamic, to do good results, it’s one thing.

“But to react when you are in the shit, like we were in Spain, Austria, it’s quite important for the future of the team. It’s on this kind of reaction that we are building up the future, the trust that we can have each other. And I think it was the most important step of the season.”

Vasseur also paid tribute to the departing Sainz, who starts his Williams career with a filming day on Monday.

“I asked to everybody, at least on track, to be focused on 2024 until the end,” he said. “And I asked the same to Carlos, beginning of the season.

“And I think we did very well. And he did very well. He was amazing all the season, even when he was discussing with other teams, he stayed very professional, very dedicated, and he did a brilliant job.”

Oscar Piastri admits that the opening laps of the Abu Dhabi GP were “pretty miserable” as he was sent tumbling down the order.

At the start he was knocked into a spin by Max Verstappen, and then as he tried to recover he hit the Williams of Franco Colapinto, and picked up a 10-second penalty.

By the flag he had recovered to 10^th place, while victory for Lando Norris guaranteed that McLaren won the World Championship.

“Pretty miserable!”, said Piastri when asked by this writer about the opening laps. “Obviously Turn 1 was what it was. And I think on the restart with Franco, I need to look at it back, I think I just misjudged where everyone was going to brake.

“A lot of moves going on towards the braking zone. And yeah, I just think I got it wrong. So yep, that set me up for a pretty tough race and tough evening.

“But I think in the grand scheme of things, that doesn’t really matter at the moment, and just very, very proud of the whole team and what we’ve been able to achieve this year.”

Piastri accepted Verstappen’s apology for the incident.

“I think for me there was no overlap into the corner,” he said. “Max came and apologised, and the penalty speaks for itself. So it is what it is.

“Obviously, at that point, I knew I needed to try and get my way back through. I knew it was going to be going to be tough, but once I had come together with Colapinto that was pretty much the nail on the coffin for my race.

“So not the best way to end off the season for myself, but for the team couldn’t have obviously been any better.

“I’ll definitely ride the high of that and have a good off-season, like I’m sure the rest of the team will, and make sure we come in strong next year.”

Piastri admitted that being part of a title-winning team will take time to process.

“I’m sure it’ll take a little bit to sink in, as my own personal victories often take time to sink in,” he said.

“I think the junior championships I won, it didn’t sink in until sometimes days or weeks later. And I’m sure this is going to be a similar thing.

“I’m sure once we see everybody in the factory, and see the smile on everyone’s face, it’ll really start to sink in. As drivers obviously we have our eyes very firmly set on becoming drivers’ World Champions.

“But it’s also very clear how much the constructors’ championship means. And I think when we get to celebrate that with the hundreds and thousands of people back at back at McLaren, together with Mercedes HPP, that’s when it will really sink in, and the sense of pride will be there.”

Carlos Sainz admitted that he had “mixed feelings” after landing second place in the Abu Dhabi GP while Ferrari just missed out on the constructors’ title.

Sainz and team mate Charles Leclerc made the podium, but victory for Lando Norris ensured that McLaren held on to its advantage in the points.

The Spaniard will now have his first taste of the Williams FW46 in a 200kms filming day in Abu Dhabi on Monday afternoon, before he completes a full test day with the team on Tuesday.

“Obviously a bit of mixed feelings, I’m not going to lie,” said Sainz. “I think we all came into this race trying to win the constructors’ championship, and ultimately we didn’t manage to do it.

“McLaren have put together a very strong weekend. Lando hasn’t put a foot wrong all race and all weekend. And in the end, congratulations to them, because they deserve it.

“On my side, I tried to do everything I could to keep within reach of McLaren. Before the race we knew that McLaren might have one or two tenths of pace on us and that was enough to pull a bit of a gap before the pit stops or during the race to have a bit of a buffer and not to feel too much pressure.”

Sainz admitted that he thought Oscar Piastri’s first lap incident might have opened the door for Ferrari.

“I think I had a very strong first stint,” he said. “I managed to keep [Norris] within reach and within pressure margins, especially when I was told Charles was coming in a good comeback.

“Oscar had obviously that incident in lap one, I thought we might have a bit of a chance, but then little-by-little it started to fade.

“When we put on the hard tyres, like we’ve seen in many cases this year, the McLaren upped the pace a bit, and they started pulling away two/three tenths per lap, and that was enough for them to have that safety margin, and bring it home.

“And from our side, I think we did everything we could. Both Charles and I have given absolutely everything this weekend. It hasn’t been an easy weekend for me, obviously, knowing it was the last one.

“But I did the best I could to stay focused and to do the maximum that the car could do today, I think.”

He agreed that the realisation that it was his final race for Ferrari had an impact.
 
“Strange,” he said. “A bit emotional, I’m not going to lie. Probably, I would say it was more emotional the last time that I jumped in the car, in the grid. I knew that was obviously going to be my last race with a group of people that I’ve enjoyed these last four years.

“The last time that I would jump in a Ferrari car, probably, and I was just feeling emotional. I tried to remind myself to try and enjoy the race as much as possible and to give the absolute maximum for this team.”
 
Sainz admitted that he was already thinking about his first laps for Williams.

“I’m not going to lie, my last laps, as much as I was pushing like hell for this team I was already starting to feel things in the car and trying to say, remember how this feels. because tomorrow and Tuesday I need to remember why is this car quick in this corner and why does it feel good?

“Because I know probably what I’m going to find tomorrow and Tuesday needs some margin of improvement in the corners that I was feeling the car. So this just sums up that I’m already looking also ahead. I’m extremely motivated for the challenge that I have ahead of me.

“Today is a day to try and enjoy as much as possible with the team as my last day in red. We still have some days in Maranello coming up, but obviously my competitive mind is already looking forward to Monday and Tuesday and to see how I can make that Williams car faster.”

Lando Norris admitted that the thought the World Championship was “not looking as likely) after team mate Oscar Piastri was nudged into a spin by Max Verstappen on the first lap in Abu Dhabi.

The incident left Norris on his own out front with no margin for error while Ferrari drivers Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc were set to bag big points.

In the end victory for Norris was enough to secure the championship despite the Ferrari drivers securing the other podium places.

“Today was a very special day for all of us,” said Norris. “It was ours to lose today and I’m sure at certain moments people thought that it was not far away from being lost. Two Ferraris up there, and Charles doing a great job to get back to the podium.

“Oscar was super unlucky. He got taken out in Turn 1. So for a minute, my heart was like, ‘Oh God, it’s not looking as likely’. But if I just kept my head down and kept focused, I knew I could deliver and do what I’d got to do.”

Norris made it clear he was proud of his contribution to the title success.

“The bigger picture of us winning a championship for the first time in 26 years,” he said. You wouldn’t have thought that when you say the name McLaren. It feels wrong to say that they’ve not won a championship in 26 years.

“But for me to be part of that, for Oscar to be part of it, is something we’re incredibly proud of. And delivering that for the team has put the biggest smile as possible on everyone’s face.

“This is the biggest reward you can give back to everyone who designs the car, builds the car, gets the partners. Everyone has played such a big part, so just proud. Pride is my biggest thing. Of course, I’m happy I finished the season this way, but I’m way more happy for the team than I am for myself.”