TEAM REPRESENTATIVES: Frédéric VASSEUR (Ferrari), Steve NIELSEN (Alpine), Mario ISOLA (Pirelli)

Q: Mario, perhaps we could start with you. One of the big tech stories coming into this weekend is the 25-lap limit on each set of tyres. Can we start by you telling us why you've imposed that limit?

Mario ISOLA: Yeah. That comes from last year. As you know, we had a couple of punctures during the race, but after the race, we also analysed the tyres used, as we always do. And it was clear that they were worn at 100% or even more. There was already an indication on Saturday after the Sprint, with 25–26 laps they were quite worn. So, during the race, going up to 34–35 laps basically was pushing the tyres to run on a high severity circuit without a tread. And when you are running without tread, there is a big risk of puncture. You damage the construction. So, we made the proposal to the Sporting Committee in March to limit the mileage, and then we decided to go in this direction.

Q: We've been here before a couple of years ago. It was an 18-lap limit, right? Why the increase to 25 this time?

MI: Because it was a different issue. Two years ago, it was a damage on the sidewall caused by the kerbs. Then we made some analysis on tyres, and we asked for modification of the kerbs, which the circuit did. It was successful, so we didn't find the damage on the sidewall, on the compound of the sidewall. But in that case, it was a different problem with the excessive wear, especially on the front left.

Q: Let’s throw it forward to 2026. Like the teams, Pirelli has been juggling the current season with developments for '26. Just how difficult has it been for you to develop those new compounds and tyres without a 2026 car on which to test them?

MI: It is a situation we know from the past, when we had to move from 13 to 18-inch, or with the wider tyres in 2017. It was important to work with the teams, not only on track but also with the virtual model of the tyre and with the help of the teams and their simulators. We had feedback on the expected performance of the car. So, we have worked in parallel between the virtual environment and testing on track with the mule cars. Now we have finalised the development. Construction was homologated in September, and now we’ve just decided the compounds for next year. So let’s see in Abu Dhabi.

Q: You’re testing them in Abu Dhabi in a couple of weeks' time. What are the headlines for us about the new compounds?

MI: Basically, we decided to homologate five compounds from C1 to C5 because we found compounds with a good delta lap time between them. Not knowing the cars, obviously we wanted to have a delta that is slightly bigger than the current one. They are well spaced in terms of degradation. So, the idea was to have the flexibility to move softer or harder depending on what we find in the first races of next season.

Q: Steve, why don't we come to you now? While we're talking 2026, tell us what's going on in Enstone at the minute with regards to next year's car?

Steve NIELSEN: Well, probably like all the other teams, Enstone's a hive of activity. If you go in all the departments, all you'll see is parts for next year's car – chassis and gearboxes and all sorts of stuff. I think we’re about to go into what is, certainly in my memory, one of the shortest winter breaks. Somebody told me yesterday that from the chequered flag in Abu Dhabi to the first time our car goes on the track is 36 days, and that includes the compulsory winter shutdown. So, work that would normally have taken place over two or three months has been compressed into literally four weeks. The overlap between finishing racing in 2025 and producing the 2026 car is massive. We are racing here this year, but Enstone is completely on 2026 and has been for some time.

Q: I can understand that. But how important is it to end this '25 season with a bit of positive momentum? We've seen an upswing in performance at the last couple of races. Has that been track specific, or have you found something with the car?

SN: I think it’s a combination of quite a few things, honestly. It’s an upswing because the bar’s been set pretty low for us recently, which is not great. It’s not where we want to be. It is true that the last couple of races we picked up a bit. It’s probably something to do with track temperature – cooler temperatures in Brazil, certainly cooler in Las Vegas. Temperatures are a bit higher here, so that might hurt us more than we’d like. But of course, we want to go into the winter with a nice result and a positive feeling for our workforce, our sponsors, and everybody else. The amount of work ahead of us in the winter is massive, but it's a bit of a springboard if at the last race, or the last few races, you have some nice results. So, we're trying.

Q: Steve, you've now been back at the team for three months. What has impressed you the most about what you've found at Enstone?

FV: The weather!

SN: The weather you say? [laughs] I mean, it’s a cliché, but it’s a racing team. It's full of people with racing spirit. It’s had mixed results recently, but I think there’s a passion and a will to put it back to where it has been in the past. The dedication is huge, from the top to the bottom of the company. It’s my job to coordinate that, strengthen the areas that are good, re-strengthen the areas where we are weak, and bring some common sense and consistency to the management. There’s been too many changes over the last few years at Enstone. I don't criticise any of my predecessors, but it's time for patience, common sense, and consistency. We want the team to be better, and patience and Formula 1 don't go well together, but that’s the task. We have to spend the next few years building, and it’s a slow, grinding process. It’s F1 – there are no magic bullets. You just have to fix a million details – in place, people. More than anything, it’s a people business. So, I've kind of relearned that lesson, if you like.

Q: Fred, coming to you now. Your drivers’ comments in the media in recent weeks have attracted a lot of attention. Let’s start by talking about that. How difficult has it been for you to manage that situation?

Fred VASSEUR: Well, honestly, I perfectly understand the frustration of the drivers after a crash, or even more when they are not responsible, or a difficult performance. We have exactly the same frustration in the garage or on the pit wall. The most important is to react after the frustration. I think, honestly, the frustration sometimes is good. The most important thing is to be able to react from the Monday morning and to be focused on the next one, on the next year also, and on the future. You can’t imagine, and I would be even more frustrated, if the drivers were happy when we have a tough weekend.

Q: But when you've discussed it with the drivers and the attention they’re bringing to the team in that way, how did those conversations go? Were they apologetic? What did they say?

FV: I don't think we went so far. It was not a drama, honestly. You know my two drivers – they are like they are, and I perfectly accept this. I’m fully aligned with this frustration – we have exactly the same on the pit wall. When you have a crash in Brazil and Charles is out of the race because Piastri and Antonelli are crashing together, for sure we have huge frustration. We put so much effort during the season to try to fight for P2, and in one tenth of a second you are losing a potential P2. It’s huge. Or when you don’t have the good race because we have a technical issue or whatever. But this frustration, I think, is part of the DNA of what we are doing. Then from driver to driver, there have different ways to express their frustration, but everybody has exactly the same.

Q: You're 53 points behind Mercedes, 13 behind Red Bull. Let's talk about that Constructors’ Championship battle. How do you see it playing out over these last couple of weekends?

FV: I would prefer to be P2 with some points ahead of the others, but honestly, I'm not paying attention to this gap. I even didn't know last year when we arrived in Abu Dhabi what was the gap with McLaren, and you told me in the press conference. We have to be focused on ourselves to do the best that we can in the next two weekends. We have two-and-a-half races to go, and we still have some good points on the table. Let’s be focused on ourselves to try to do the best, and we’ll see in Abu Dhabi where we are.

Q: Fred, final one from me. This is the last time you're going to be in a press conference this year. Can you reflect for a moment on the 2025 season, why it panned out as it did, and at what point in the season did you realise that perhaps it was going to be tougher than you were hoping for?

FV: We didn’t start in the best way with the double disqualification in China. This cost us tons of points compared to our direct competitors. Quite early in the season, McLaren was so dominating in the first four or five events that we realised it would be very difficult for 2025. It meant that we decided very early in the season – I think it was the end of April – to switch to '26. It was a tough call. Perhaps I also underestimated a little bit the call on the psychological side, because when you still have 20 races to go, or 18 races to go, and you know that you won’t bring any aero development, it's quite tough to manage psychologically. But overall, we continued to push. We brought some mechanical upgrades, and we are trying to do a better job operationally, and this is the DNA of our sport. We have to accept this. It was a call, and I’m still confident with the call that we made. Now let’s fight for P2 with these conditions.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Diletta Colombo – AutoMoto.it) A question for Flavio. Pierre has done an outstanding job in what has been a very difficult season for your team. Do you feel like he's the right person to steer the team into the future?

FB: Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely, yes.

Q: (Stuart Codling – Autosport) Question for Mario. You said five compounds for 2026. That means the C6 experiment is over. Could you explain in a little more detail the thought process behind dropping the C6 and not progressing with that idea? Because it's one of those things that seemed like a good idea at the time.

Mario ISOLA: Yeah. Simply because the C6 that we found was too close to the C5, and we already saw this year that when they are so close and there is no clear difference, it's a little bit useless to bring both. So, homologating the C6 was an automatic way to skip one level – that means C3, C4, C5, or C3, C4, C6. At that point, it's useless to have an extra compound. So, we will continue to look for a C6 for 2027 as soon as we have an idea on the performance of the cars next year. And obviously, next year we can test with the current cars, with the proper cars, and we will have better feedback.

Q: (Leonid Kliuev – Grande Prêmio) Question to Steve and Fred. Adrian Newey was, of course, confirmed as Team Principal for 2026. How does it change the dynamics and collaboration between you guys, between team principals?

Steve NIELSEN: Do you want me to go? Honestly, not at all, I don't think. As Fred’s already said, I think we're quite inward-looking. We have the structure we have for our own reasons. I’m sure other people have different structures for their own reasons. But in terms of interaction – I think that was your question – I don't think it changes anything for us, honestly.

FV: Nothing to add.

Q: (Diletta Colombo – AutoMoto) Question for Fred. You mentioned before how tough this season has been for your team, but are there any positives to take from 2025?

FV: Yes. You have always positives, even in a tough season. I think we had a decent recovery in terms of performance. We were back on the podium – Mexico, Austin. I would say São Paulo we were not far away. That means we were on the right way. It’s good for the team, at least for the psychological side. You always improve a little bit everywhere, in every single area. It's the best preparation for 2026. But the most important of this call that you mentioned is that we agreed quite early that we would put a maximum of energy on the future. That means then we have to react as a team, even when you have tough weekends, to come back Monday morning at the factory and continue to push and develop and work all together. I understood the question from Tom, but honestly, we had a good reaction to tough sessions and tough weekends. Let's see next year if we did a good job this season also.

Q: (Ian Parkes – RacingNews365) Another question for you, Fred. Looking at Lewis specifically, it's obviously been a very difficult year for him, as we all know. But positively, what has he brought to the team that's had a good impact? And additionally, what do you want to see more from him going forward into next season?

FV: The season was difficult. I think it’s a mathematical contestation, not a feeling. But the most important is the reaction. The most important is the energy that you are putting in to push the team again and again, to try to understand what the issues are and to fix them – and it’s details by details. For sure, we knew that it would be difficult from the first quarter of the season. But at the end of the day, when we had podiums in a row one month ago, I think it's the job of everybody. It's not the job of one driver or one engineer. It's the job of 1,500 people at the factory, from the two drivers, from all the engineers. Collectively, the reaction was good, and Lewis is part of the reaction, for sure.

Q: (Jack Smith – Motorsport Monday) A question for Steve. Before Franco was confirmed for next season, one of the things he told us in Mexico was that he feels he could prove himself by being in a preseason situation for the first time, having not done that with either you or Williams. Aside from what you feel he can offer on track and in race conditions, what do you think he can offer the team in terms of development of the 2026 car in next year’s preseason testing?

SN: Well, tricky to answer because I'm not sure what we're going to face in 2026 preseason testing yet. The car’s not on the track. Franco is early in his career. He's learning. He has some weekends where I’m sure he would look back and maybe do things differently, and other weekends which are more successful. But it’s learning – it's like learning anything for the first time. He’s on that journey, and we're going to help him with that. But specifically, to identify what issues we may have in preseason 2026 – I don't know the answer yet. I’m not sure anybody does.

Q: (Gianluigi Paolucci – F1Generale.com) A question for Fred. Did you expect the kind of performance you had in FP1 here?

Fred VASSEUR: Well, I think we don't have to pay too much attention to FP1. This is true from the beginning of the season at every single event. On our side, we had some issues with the power steering. It's not a secret – Charles was vocal on the radio. We have to fix it for the Sprint Quali now, but it's OK-ish now. If you look at last year – I think it was a relevant classification – all over the weekend the order changed each session. That means the field is so tight that with different conditions, different levels of wind, different track time... Last year we had five sessions and five different classifications. It means we need to keep this mindset, be open-minded, and try to adapt the car to the next session, not to the previous one. Let’s see what we can do for Sprint Quali.

Q: Mario, can I just bring you in on a 2026 matter? You're staying with the 18 inches, but the tyres are going to be narrower. How’s that been affecting performance during testing?

Mario ISOLA: We had to redesign completely the tyre with a new profile, optimising the footprint. Obviously, because of the new aero package, we expect higher speeds on the straight, but at the same level of load – or similar – in cornering. That means that overheating could be an issue. We have worked to try to minimise the overheating, that we know drivers don’t like that, while keeping some thermal degradation. So the targets were clear, but obviously on a smaller size, it’s a little bit more difficult unless you don’t penalise the performance quite a lot. That is not the target, obviously.

Q: (Christian Menath – Motorsport-Magazin.com) Question for the two team representatives. There was a meeting yesterday about driving guidelines. What is the way you want to go forward with it – destroy the guidelines and just rely on the system and the expertise of the stewards, or keep improving the guidelines?

FV:  I think we are all a bit schizophrenic. We want to have consistency – that means in this case, you need to have guidelines and to follow the guidelines. But at one stage, we also want to introduce a human factor able to judge – not just to follow the guidelines. At one stage the situation becomes difficult. This is also coming, I think, compared to the past, from the fact that the field is closer probably, and we have more often these kinds of situations. But I think to keep a human factor in the decision makes sense. Because it's not just about having the wheel nut one millimetre in front of the mirror or below the mirror – for the drivers, it's very difficult to assess whether they have the front axle ahead of the mirror or not. Honestly, it’s quite impossible when you are in the car. At the end of the day, having a human factor is important. But we have to accept that the decision can be a bit different if it's not just a mathematical approach.

SN: Yeah, I'd agree with Fred, honestly. OK, I'd mostly agree with Fred then. [laughs] No two situations are the same. And as Fred said, there’s always going to be a human factor. I think this is a sport that wants to measure everything to the nth degree and have an exact science. When you have human judgment involved, there are going to be variations. I think we just accept that as part of the sport, to be honest. There’s always going to be differences of opinion. It’s not only in this sport – it happens in other sports as well. And I think we just trust in the FIA. They’ve got fine people doing it, and we’re happy with it.

Q: (Ian Parkes – RacingNews365) Fred, another question for you. You mentioned earlier that you opted to shut down development in April, and you mentioned you underestimated the psychological impact that had on the team, and it was tough to manage. Just what processes and steps were put in place following that decision to manage that impact? And how much of an impact did it have on the drivers, and has that resulted in their performance as well on track?

FV: Yeah. First, this decision was shared by everybody in the team. At one stage, you look at the championship and say: OK, it will be very difficult to come back on McLaren with the delta pace, the delta points. So you say: OK, let’s focus the resources we have in the wind tunnel on 2026. On the other hand, we can still continue to develop the mechanical side and bring some upgrades on the car, except aero. And that’s what we did – and it was a good exercise, honestly. For sure, the drivers were part of this decision. They are fully committed to the project. It’s something we have to share altogether. In this kind of situation, you have to act as a team, and that’s what we did in that stage of the season.

Q: (Luke Smith – The Athletic) Fred, another one for you. Just picking up on Steve’s point about the very, very short off-season this year. How much of an added challenge is that? And did that factor as well into the decision to switch early to ’26, because it’s going to be such a tight turnaround?

FV: No, because you do the reverse planning from T1 [2026]. That means we have to release everything a bit earlier than we did last year. For sure, the fact that you have now the mandatory shutdown at Christmas – it’s good for us and for the family. But we just have to anticipate everything by 10 days. The exercise is the same. It’s more for track operations that it’s difficult because it’s not after the chequered flag. The week after the chequered flag we still have the tests in Bahrain and Abu Dhabi – that means it's not 36 days, it's seven days less. But no – when I say this, I’m not speaking about me or the drivers. I’m speaking first about the mechanics. It’s much more difficult for them than for everybody else. We have to think about them. It’s true this exercise will be tricky.

Q: Fred, Steve, can we expand on that? You talk about it being tough on the mechanics. Of course, there's no test team anymore in Formula 1. It's going to be the race teams that are testing the cars in January at Barcelona. How do you ensure that everyone gets enough rest after what's been a long 24-race season?

SN: Well, you have to forward plan. As I think Fred just said, you can’t wait till the chequered flag and then decide what you're going to do. So, we’ve been looking at that sort of stuff – staff rotation and so on – months out, in order to make sure that we've got the workforce available to build cars and go testing. We're building next year's car in December. I've never known that before. So it’s a completely different way of looking at it. But that work and scheduling starts months before.

FV: Yes. It’s true that during the racing season, you can imagine having a kind of rotation for the test. We’ll have to bring everybody because we’ll probably have some night shifts also. That means all the mechanics will be in Barcelona and Bahrain. Let’s think about them – what we can do to give them some free time during the sessions and so on. And keep in mind – we are doing the best job in the world.

Q: (Ian Parkes – RacingNews365) Mario, Tom mentioned earlier that next year's tyres haven’t had the 2026 car to run on. What plans are in place for next season to get a better understanding of how the tyres are interacting with the cars? Are there any plans in place, and how quickly can you react should changes need to be made?

Mario ISOLA: Next year we have the usual plan of 40 days with all the teams. The plan has already been defined and shared with the teams. The point is that for sure we cannot change the allocation for the first five races. We are producing the tyres for all the pre-season tests, and logistics is a nightmare also for us because we had to start the production as soon as possible to supply the tyres to the pre-season test – which is not only three days, but nine – plus the first five races that are overseas. So, the allocation has been defined already. But depending on the results of the first five races, we can change in the second part of the year. If we want to go a bit harder or softer, we have at least flexibility.

ENDS