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F3 - Post Race 2 Press Conference

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08.09.19

F3 - 2019 Race of Monza - Post Race 2 Press Conference

THOUGHTS FROM TSUNODA, LAWSON AND HUGHES

FIA Formula 3: Yuki Tsunoda, F3 race winner. How does that sound?

Yuki Tsunoda: Honestly I'm really happy. I aimed to be first here right from the beginning of the season, but the beginning of the race was really difficult. This is the first time here, I just try hard at every round to get a good result, so for my first win at Monza is good. The conditions were great for me, the track conditions were really mixing around, so it was difficult but I'm really happy to win. I'd like to dedicate my first win to Anthoine Hubert.

FIA Formula 3: It can really be seen that you've picked up the pace, that you've found something in how to make it work in F3. What do you think that is?

Yuki: Before Budapest, in the summer break, and we looked at the races we'd done before that and how we could work on making our results better in qualifying. I had really struggled during qualifying at the start of the season. I'd like to thank everyone in the team for their work. I've also tried to improve warming up the tyres. I think that's the main thing that I've changed a lot since qualifying in Budapest. It helps a lot. But still, I have more to improve. I've made big mistakes sometimes during qualifying so I want to improve on that and take pole position in Russia. I've never been there before. I think there may have been four or five circuits that I'd never been to before this season, so it's really difficult, but I've enjoyed the season and being in the team. It's really good.

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FIA Formula 3: Liam Lawson, welcome back to the podium. A great P2 today. You had the pace and you really fought for that second place. How was it from the car?

Liam Lawson: If I'm honest it's definitely disappointing to finish P2 today. Normally I'd be really happy with this but I think we had the pace to win the race today. It was all down to the start. I wasn't really sure how to get the car off the line, and what I thought would work didn't, so I got a really bad start. From there I basically just had to really push hard and use a lot of the tyres. I used a lot more of the tyres than I wanted to be honest. I would have liked to have saved a lot more for the end of the race. I had such a big gap to the leaders that I had to really push to try and catch them. By the time I got to Yuki, over most of the lap we were still quick enough but it was the slower corners where I just didn't have any traction. I had no rears left. I'm a little bit disappointed. To be honest a lot of this year has been really frustrating trying to really maximise quali and when we do we never seem to have the right race pace. We're quite often leaving the track quite confused on how to really improve. We're still working really hard on it. I was just lucky to have the opportunity of a wet race today.

FIA Formula 3: Maybe you will have that opportunity again in Sochi at the end of the month?

Liam: I hope so. That would be nice. Obviously it's much more of an opportunity for us to score podiums when it is wet. But we do need to work on our dry race car.

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FIA Formula 3: Jake Hughes, P3 today but that will not have been what you were aiming for after such a strong start. How was it from the car?

Jake Hughes: The start was really strong. I got straight into the lead at Turn 1 and tried to make a little bit of a gap in the early laps. When the track was wet I was really strong and I wasn't really pushing that hard, aware that the track was drying. You could see the steam coming of the surface, so I was aware that I would have to keep the tyres and that's what I was doing. But still, I was making a gap to the cars behind. When the track really dried and there was a dry line I was really struggling, especially in the last sector. I was always susceptible to these guys on the straight line. They were a lot quicker than me in Parabolica with their tyres. At that point I was trying to stay on the podium because I think even Richard [Verschoor] looked quicker than me, and in the last two or three laps I don't know if my tyres got better or if theirs got worse, but I started to come back a bit. I think I did my fastest lap in the last lap but it was a dry track so everyone probably did. I'm a little bit disappointed. Obviously when you're in the lead for so long to finish third, but considering how qualifying went and I started Race 1 from 18th I think it's a good recovery.

FIA Formula 3: Looking ahead to the final round of the season at the end of the month in Sochi, you have the experience there and you know the track, what can we expect from you?

Jake: Hopefully I'll be at the front. To be honest I say this a lot, but every weekend apart from Silverstone we've had pace to be there and for other reasons we've just not done it. I was quickest in practice at Spa and I was really confident to get pole, but then there was all the mess in qualifying. Then there was a mess during qualifying here. Then we had to work out the penalty which I still think is a bit ridiculous to be honest, but there we go. Since Budapest when we had two podiums I still feel like we could have done the same at the last two tracks, but it wasn't to be. Going to Sochi, I know it, but I think the car is really strong in all formats so hopefully if we can just get a clean qualifying I think we'll be fine.