© Jiri Krenek for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
Here is the transcript of the post 2024 Spanish Grand Prix Qualifying parc fermé interviews and press conference Lewis Hamilton.
TRACK INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Marc Gene)
Q: Lewis Hamilton, you have a lot of supporters everywhere you go. Big crowd. Today, I guess you are happy to be P3. Were you expecting more? How happy are you with your lap and with your position for qualifying?
Lewis HAMILTON: I’m really happy. Firstly, thank you everyone. So, so happy to be here and super grateful to be up in the top three. It’s been quite a difficult year so a huge amount of work from everyone back at the factory and finally we’re starting to see those incremental steps moving closer to the guys ahead. I didn’t expect us to be fighting for pole necessarily but every now and then it looked like there were bits there and maybe we’ll be close and so to be there I’m just grateful.
Q: So can we say really that you’ve made, as a team, a big step in the last few grands prix? It looked like in Canada. That is a confirmation, I guess. That’s a very demanding track.
LH: Yeah, we’ve made huge steps forwards. And it’s really just down to every single individual back at the factory who’s pushing in design, pushing in making the new parts that we get to bring as early as possible to these races. And slowly the car is crafting into a racing machine that we can hopefully fight the guys at the front. So George did a great job as well today. So hopefully tomorrow we can apply pressure on the two cars ahead.
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PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Alright. Very well done today. Thank you. And Lewis, welcome back to the top three. It’s good to have you back in here. How sweet has today been for you from a performance point of view?
LH: I think it’s been OK. It’s good to be back up here. I miss being on this sofa, although it’s not from IKEA. But generally, it’s great to see that we’re progressing. Really, you’ve seen over the last couple of races that we’re slowly climbing closer to the guys up front. So I think there’s a little bit more performance in the car today, but it’s really on the knife edge. So we’ve got some improvements to make to the car. But yeah, as I said, I’m really happy to be P3, it is a pretty good spot to be in for the start with that long straight down to Turn 1.
Q: And Lewis, you’re just a tenth of a second off pole position. Did you expect to be that close coming in?
LH: Three tenths off. Yeah, so it’s a pretty big chunk. For a track like this, it’s not too bad. I think, as I said, through the lap, there’s a little bit of time, I think. It probably could have been two tenths, but still they have a slight advantage. But for us to be that close on the track like this is a real good showing that we’re going in the right direction. As I said, we’ve got some improvements that we need to bring over the next few races in order for us to be properly in range of those guys.
Q: OK, so you’re three tenths off pole, but do you think you can challenge for the victory tomorrow?
LH: I think it would be very difficult. I think these two will be very quick, but position is everything so I think we’ll… You know, also there’s two of us, so hopefully we can apply pressure as a team to both of the cars ahead in order to maybe play out something in strategy and slowly climb up. I think it’s all about degradation tomorrow and how you look after the tyres, so we won’t know until we get into that first run.
Q: I was going to say, what was your deg like during practice?
LH: It was pretty decent. I don’t know if it was as good as Max’s, but I’ll try and make it better tomorrow.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Pilar Celebrovsky – The Paddock Magazine) Congratulations, Lewis, welcome back. You have mentioned you don’t really feel you have the pace to fight for the victory, but how realistic is to believe that you could fight for the podium considering you have one Red Bull and two Ferraris behind in terms of pace?
LH: I think the bigger concern probably is the Ferraris behind us. Obviously, we were all within half a tenth, I think, from third to fifth. I think it was fifth or sixth. And they had an upgrade this weekend, so I think their long pace look quite strong. So I think it’s more working together as a team and trying to hold position at least. If we happen to have more pace available to us and we’re able to hold on to these guys, then it’s game on. But we really won’t know until tomorrow. And degradation is always the key here. And when you have a really good rear end, you can save your balance, but you can save the rear tyres. So that’s going to be key for tomorrow.
Q: (Alex Kalinauckas – Autosport) There’s been various occasions so far this season where you’ve looked really quite strong in practice and then come qualifying, it’s not come together. Not the case at this event. I just wondered what do you think made the difference this time?
LH: I still feel like I lost performance going into the, you know… I still lost a little bit going into quali. It’s all about perspective. Maybe they just moved forwards, but I definitely feel like there was a little bit more. But just as you start to push the car, it doesn’t like it. So in practice, when you leave a little bit of margin, the car feels quite nice. But it’s when you start to really lean on it to try and get that extra bit of lap time out where we really struggle. And I think it’s all in the tyres. So you saw in P1, I was seven tenths down due to an issue with the blankets. And then we got it sorted for the following sessions. So, it puts you a little bit on the back foot. But yeah, otherwise, the car, as I said, it’s good that we’re up here and it’s the best qualifying I’ve had this year, so I’m really grateful for it.
Q: (Vladimir Rogovets – SB Belarus Segodniya) This track today hasn’t the last chicane and you have today good result. is it better without chicane? it is better for you or for your car?
LH: I’ve not driven this car on the old track, but I think we’ve been relatively good in the low speed. So, I don’t know, I think these last two corners are more enjoyable. The last corner is full gas at 280 or something like that kilometres an hour, which is amazing. And it’s really, really challenging, on the knife edge, heart in your mouth sort of corner. So much, much better than the small chicane that we used to have. And I think it is better to follow and should provide better racing. I think it did already last year. So whether or not our car is as good as theirs in the high speed, I’ll look at the data, but it’s probably relatively close.
Source: FIA.com
