DRIVERS
 
1 – George RUSSELL (Mercedes) 
2 – Charles LECLERC (Ferrari)
3 – Lewis HAMILTON (Ferrari) 
 
TRACK INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Ho-Pin Tung)
 
Q: George, winner of the Sprint race here in Shanghai. Those looked like a very dicey first few laps again.
George RUSSELL: Yeah, I just spoke with Charles and we were like ‘well, actually, this was pretty fun in the end’. So, a lot of strategy at play, and how you do the overtakes. It’s not easy. I hope it was a fun race to watch. Usually, the Sprint races are pretty boring, and then I got everything under control, Safety Car, but yeah, really happy to get the win.
 
Q: Yeah, you say it's not easy. From the outside it obviously looks very easy, but can you describe how difficult it is from in the car for you? I feel a lot of wind here as well, for example.
GR: Yeah, I mean, it's really windy at the moment. It's not easy because this first corner is so long, and it only takes one lap of pushing too much and you can destroy your front-left tyre. So, it was just sort of managing, especially when we were battling, you know, Lewis did an amazing job in the early laps. He caught me off guard. Twenty years' experience, so yeah, I’ve still got a little bit to learn there.
 
Q: Can we expect more from you in qualifying and tomorrow?
GR: I mean, I hope we can bring more but yesterday was a really great day. Ferrari again seemed to be offset in qualifying but really close to us in race pace. So ultimately, we probably need to find a bit of improvement for the race.
 
Q: Thank you. Good luck. Charles, from P6 to P2, what a race. Obviously much has been said about energy management, but I think you already recognised the left-front was critical here because you saw your managing in the beginning.
Charles LECLERC: Yeah, I was managing quite a bit, but I'm pretty happy with the race. I think the pace was quite strong. We had a bit of fighting which made me lose time maybe to George, and then it was difficult to catch up. But it's good to see that our race pace is more similar to the Mercedes than our qualifying pace. Yeah, pretty happy with the car today.
 
Q: Yeah, I've got to ask, on the restart, exit of Turn 14, the hairpin, huge snap there, oversteer. What happened?
CL: I think the tyres were a little bit colder than what I expected. I saw George actually having a snap. I was like, ‘Okay, this is probably my opportunity to take the lead,’ so I tried to go a bit more aggressive on throttle, but I had the same rear grip as George, so I nearly lost it. But luckily, yeah, didn't completely lose it, and then also the last corner was very poor grip.
 
Q: Lewis, P3, what entertainment from you in the first few laps. Great start again, and then the battle Turn 1, 2, 3, amazing.
Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah, mega job. NI hao. A big thank you to the team for us to be able to be in this position fighting with the Mercedes at the front. It was a close battle at the beginning. Their speed on the straights is just a little bit too much at the moment, but I think I put up a good fight. But I killed my left tyre, so I wasn't able to hold on to position.
 
Q: Yeah, I see you standing here with a smile. How much nicer are these cars to drive? How much better do they suit your driving style this year?
LH: I don't know. It feels, it's just a much better car that we've designed and we've been a part of developing it, so definitely a lot happier in it. And of course I was in the lead at one point, so to finish third is not the greatest, but I will try harder again tomorrow.
 
PRESS CONFERENCE 
 
Q: George, very well done to you. It was incredibly exciting to watch. Just how tough was it to keep these Ferraris behind you?
GR: I mean, Lewis did an amazing job in the early stages. I saw his move on Lando in my mirrors at Turn 1, 2, and then… Yeah, there was a lot of headwind through 7 and 8, and he just sort of took advantage of that and caught me napping really, so that wasn't good enough on my side. However, the early laps were good fun, and Charles and I were just saying, it's pretty exciting racing. I think we had different deployment strategies. I was faster down the back straight, they were then faster into Turn 1, and it just was really challenging just to pull away, and all at the same time trying to manage the front-left tyre because it's really cold out there. Turn 1 is so long, you just push it too hard for one lap and you can kill that tyre. So you're sort of managing all of these different aspects, but I really enjoyed the race.
 
Q: Alright, very well done to you. Charles, I'll come to you. It was a very eventful one for you. What pleased you most about the performance of the car?
CL: Well, I think just the overall feeling with the car. The results are not really what I'm looking at, and it's not what satisfies me, because P2 remains a P2 and I want to be on the top step of the podium. But the feeling was very positive yesterday in Sprint Qualifying. Unfortunately, with the issue on the back, or not the issue, the not optimised power unit on the back straight, it cost us a lot. So yeah, to just find the feeling again today and to be back where we should be is a good step forward.
 
Q: Very well done to you. Lewis, we'll come to you. Great job as well. Just how much confidence does today's Sprint give you for the rest of the weekend?
LH: Yeah, I mean, the team have done a great job this weekend. The car has been feeling great, and as they both said, it was so much fun in the race. This is the first time I'd really done a long run this weekend as well, so unfortunately struggled with my left-front tyre, which ultimately demoted me to third. But nonetheless, to have two Ferraris up here I think is really a testament to all the great work everyone's doing back at the factory and everyone here at the track. So, I hope we can make some steps closer maybe to Mercedes in quali and then yeah, looking forward to tomorrow.
 
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
 
Q: (Diletta Colombo – AutoMoto.it) A question for George. Based on what we've seen today, do you think that Ferrari could be a threat in the race tomorrow?
GR: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we're a little bit surprised by our qualifying strength and potentially their lack of pace compared to what we expect. But the race pace, it looks really close between, between us. We saw this last week and said it in Melbourne. I think if they were on the same strategy as me, I'm not convinced I would have won the race. And again today, you know, it was a real tussle between us, and I was pushing at the end of those last three laps and Charles finished the race 0.7s behind me. With one more lap, again, you know, it would have been a fight. So yeah, we just need to keep pushing. It's not a walk in the park for sure.
 
Q: (Stuart Codling – Autosport) Charles, could you just talk us through the moments immediately before the restart? It looked like you got a bit of wheelspin. You'd made the query to the pit wall a little bit before then, so what actually happened there?
CL: You mean the snap I got out of 14? Yeah, I mean, that was a very scary moment. I thought that that was it. I saw George having a snap and I was like, ‘Okay, that's an opportunity for me to be super close for the restart and hopefully take the lead.’ So, I was quite confident I would have rear grip. However, when I went on throttle, I completely lost the car, ten times more than the snap George had in front, and I nearly lost it. Yeah, it's one of those snaps that you don't want any more degree of snap because otherwise you cannot catch it. I was full lock and luckily, I caught it back. And then the same thing happened in the last corner where George lost a bit of grip and I was like, ‘Okay, another opportunity to try and get closer,’ and I just had the same moment. So, there was just very poor grip in these first two corners with the tyres after the Safety Car.
 
Q: (Jon Noble – The Race) George, it's the second weekend running where you've decided to be dominant in qualifying and you've been trapped in a kind of yo-yo race over the opening stint. What do you think is the limiting factor that changes the dynamics in those first few laps, and what was the element that kind of, you pulled the trigger on and were able to kind of break through and break that one-second gap here? Was it tyres against the Ferrari, or was it you need to charge up the battery more to get clear?
GR: I've got to be honest, I think both times it's been me. I've been pretty cautious. I was very cautious in Melbourne because, you know, first race of the season with a brand new car, brand new tyres, brand new engine, and I don't think anybody knew what to expect. You do all of these simulations. And then again today, I thought I was pretty safe and comfortable. I think the Ferraris were deploying more into Turn 7, and I looked into my mirror out of Turn 6 and I had a bit of a gap to Lewis, so I just thought, ‘Right, I'll just manage the tyre a little bit and not kill it on the opening lap of the race,’ and he just caught me off guard. So, I don't know what would have happened if I'd have been able to lead lap one on both of those occasions. And then yeah, I'm not too sure how I just managed to break away as soon as I got into the lead. I saw I had a really strong last corner. Lewis was catching me down the straights, but it just wasn't quite enough that lap, and I pushed really hard, just broke away by a little bit. And then Charles was obviously, so I think Charles was maybe managing a little bit at the beginning, so that also helps. And that was something we were thinking about at the start of this year. Lewis last week, it felt like he was managing a bit and letting Charles and I tussle it out, and then he was ready to pounce. And then today it was Charles. It was, you know, Lewis and I were tussling and Charles was ready to pounce. So yeah, there's a lot going on, but it makes it quite fun and definitely feels more like a go-kart racing in the past, like the top three, top four drivers are all in contention. And I don't ever remember Formula 1 being like that, where you can have three or four cars all fighting for the same position truly on track.
 
Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) Just following on from that, I guess, George, were you always confident that you'd be able to get the move done on Lewis? Lewis, how sort of confident were you that you'd be able to hold George off, or did you just think it was just going to be too difficult in the end?
GR: I wasn't that confident it would be possible because Lewis's pace was really strong and he did a really great couple of laps. And yeah, it just feels like there are a lot of opportunities with these cars to get the overtake. I always felt confident I'd be able to pass, but I wasn't confident I'd be able to hold it, and that was pretty evident in the beginning.
LH: Yeah, I mean, we went into the race knowing that they had a big advantage pace-wise, so I knew that he was going to come by at some point. So, I was just trying to keep him at bay for as much as I could, and in doing so my left front opened up because I had to push a lot harder. You know, they've got three tenths to half a second advantage on us in pure race pace, I also believe, and that shows once they get in clear air, then they often pull away. But yeah, still was really good fun.
 
Q: (Carlo Platella – FormulaPassion.it) Question to the Ferrari drivers. Do you think that the fact that the gap in the races is smaller than in qualifying from Mercedes is more down to energy approach or maybe also to tyre management?
Charles LECLERC: On tyre management, I don't think we have that much of an advantage. I think we've progressed massively over the last few years for sure. Then the qualifying-to-race gap, the optimisation of our system, maybe there's a little bit in that. However, there's a big part I don't think we can explain just yet. So, this is something we are working on to understand from where it's coming. But it's a huge difference in qualifying and there's nothing in our car that kind of explains it, and it's strange also that in the race we are then suddenly back in the game. I don't know. These rules are quite complex, so there are many things we need to look at and try to connect the dots, but at the moment I don't think we have the full explanation.
LH: The difference is, I mean, I was with Mercedes for a long, long time, so I know how it works there. In qualifying they have another mode that they're able to go to, a bit like a ‘party mode’ back in the day, and once they get to Q2 they switch that on, and we don't have that. So, whatever that is. And then in the race they obviously don't have that mode, so they still obviously have an advantage overall. We've got to figure out what that is, but there's something more they're able to extract, particularly in Q2. You see in Q1 we're not that far away, and then all of a sudden it's like a huge step. A tenth in Q1 behind, I think it was, and then all of a sudden it's seven tenths or another half a second. It's a big step.
 
Q: (Luke Smith – The Athletic) Lewis, one for you. You talked on Thursday about the trip you went on with your mum before this weekend. It's Mother's Day in the UK tomorrow as well. She's on-site this weekend on the grid, in the garage, so how special is it to share this weekend with her at the track, and any success you can get, will that be made all the sweeter?
LH: It's really nice to have her here. She was here many, many years ago. But the trip we had at the beginning of the week was one of the most special times in my life. So, I'm really grateful that she's taken the time out of her life to be on the road with me. I'm sure she's excited to get home to her dogs and to my niece and nephew, but it's been fun and we haven't got sick of each other, which has been good.
 
Q: (Adam Cooper – Adam Cooper F1) Obviously, everyone's getting better at starts. You got away quite well today, but do you still have safety concerns about the guy ahead not getting away cleanly? Obviously, Lewis, you had to get around Kimi, and you guys wouldn't have seen, but Max barely moved, everybody had to get around him.
GR: I think the issues of Melbourne, at least on my side, we found workarounds. However, it's just, like on the formation lap you're doing all these different switch changes and driving styles, and it's just unnecessarily complicated. However, the starts are still challenging. I mean, last year Shanghai was the second-grippiest start of the season, and you still see a lot of people struggling. So, when you get to other places where the grip is lower, I think we're going to still see cars spinning the tyres and struggling to get off the grid. But I don't necessarily think it's down to any safety [concern]. There isn't really a straightforward fix, and I think that's just the nature of these cars and tyres, to be honest.
CL: I agree with everything that George said. It's a bit trickier to be in the optimum window for the start with this engine, but I think as more time will go on, more teams will find fixes. And yeah, I think we are on the good side of things for now, but I'm pretty sure everybody will catch up. And as I said, I think when teams, all the manufacturers, are doing good starts and they are in the optimum window, I don't think there's that much difference between the cars, so I don't expect it to be a problem for a long time.
LH: I mean, I think it's more exciting, you know, when we all get off exactly the same it's boring. So, and I don't think it's dangerous. There are some people that have taken, if you're developing an engine, they've taken certain decisions in order to get power. We took specific decisions, or our team did, to make sure we got good starts. But as Charles said, today George got just as good a start as I did, and so I think it will eventually fizzle out and be similar.
 
ENDS