CANADIAN GRAND PRIX
MONTRÉAL
SUNDAY DRIVER QUOTES
09 JUNE 2013
Infiniti Red Bull Racing
Sebastian Vettel
“It’s great to win today. I was pushing very hard, especially at the beginning of the race – I had a
moment when I hit the wall, but I didn’t feel it; I was trying to get away from the field, as you don’t know
what will happen towards the end. It turned out that we could control things in the later stages, but you
don’t know that, so I was just trying to push all the time and stay in the rhythm. It was good to see that
we were quick in all conditions this weekend and had speed in the race. We had average tyre wear,
which hasn’t always been the case for us, so we have made a step forward there. It’s nice to win here,
as it’s a very special race. Not just the track, but the whole city enjoys the race and it’s a nice
atmosphere.”
Mark Webber
“I got a sensational start, but I didn’t have too many places to go. I went to the middle and Bottas and
Nico were there, so I went to the other side and lost some momentum. We are certainly getting our
starts sorted, but so far there’s been no opportunity to show how good they have been! We lost some
time with Nico in the first stint, and the car was getting hot behind him in the slip stream. Once I got in
free air, the car was handling much better. Then we had the incident with Giedo van der Garde which
caused some front wing damage and made it more difficult; the whole top section of the wing was gone
on the left hand side, so it didn’t help from then on. I don’t know what he was doing. We had a lot of
blue flags as we approached the hair pin and I rolled to the inside, giving him plenty of space so he
knew I was there, but when we got to the apex he tried to hit it; I don’t know what was going on with
that. There were some positives from today, but it would have been nicer to have finished a bit further
up the road.”
Scuderia Ferrari
Fernando Alonso
“At the end of an extremely complicated weekend, this second place tastes like a win, because we
were competitive and managed to fight with the front running drivers. You never feel in danger with
them, because, even wheel to wheel at 320 kilometres per hour, they have the necessary intelligence
and experience to know to leave a margin of safety. The overtaking moves on the two Mercedes had
an almost identical dynamic, although maybe the pass on Hamilton was more intense because we
were running at the same pace, while with Rosberg, I knew it was only a matter of the laps going by,
thanks to the advantage of having the Medium tyres, while he was on the Supersoft. In terms of points
this is a great result: now we only have Vettel ahead of us, who was untouchable here and deserved
the victory. Even if he has increased his lead, there’s still a long way to go in the championship and
there’s plenty of time to catch up. I don’t know if I could have done better if I’d started further up.
Qualifying, even in the wet, is our weak point and an aspect we absolutely must improve on: we are
working very hard on that, both back home and at the track.”
Felipe Massa
“I am very happy with my race today, which was a real battle from start to finish. After going off the
track yesterday, I knew it wouldn’t be easy starting from sixteenth place, but I also knew I had a good
car and I tackled the race on the attack, managing to pull off several nice passing moves. However,
because of a problem with graining, I lost precious time behind Sutil in the Force India: that’s why I
think a strategy based on using two sets of Medium tyres would have seen me gain at least one or
two places. Even if I can’t be satisfied with this result it was still a positive day, in which we showed
we had a good pace and that we were able to fight. Now I’m looking ahead to the next race with a lot
of confidence, because Silverstone is very similar to Shanghai and Barcelona, where our car worked
very well”.
Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
Sergio Perez
“This wasn’t the race we were hoping to have. We tried our best to try and score a few points, but it was
impossible to do any better than we did out there today. It’s a pity, because the car felt quite good
during our installation laps. But the car didn’t work that well on the Option tyre, and we struggled to find
enough grip. At Silverstone, I hope we can make a step forward. We brought some upgrades to this
race, but didn’t really get the running we needed to verify them. Hopefully, they’ll work better at
Silverstone.”
Jenson Button
“This wasn’t the best race for us as a team. It’s particularly tough because this circuit is usually very
good to us. With hindsight, I think we’d have been better off starting on the Prime tyre, rather than the
Option. During my first stint, all the two-stoppers pitted ahead of me, then came back to overtake me,
so it was a bit tricky. However, we showed today that, irrespective of strategy, we wouldn’t have gone
any faster. Our car tends to work better on fast and flowing circuits – such as Malaysia or China – so
I’m looking forward to my home race at Silverstone at the end of the month. We tried some new parts
this weekend, but they weren’t really suited for this type of circuit – they should work better at
Silverstone, so I’m feeling positive about the future.”
Lotus F1 Team
Kimi Räikkönen
“My race didn’t start very well and then my brakes were fading with the pedal going soft; similar to the
problem we had on Friday. It wasn’t ideal but at least the brakes were good enough to slow me down
for the corners. Unfortunately though it meant I lost a lot of time and wasn’t able to attack, plus we lost a
few seconds in the pit stop which obviously didn’t help either. Most of my race was just following the
cars in front and defending from those behind, so not the most enjoyable day nor the most enjoyable
result. It’s been a bad weekend, but at least we scored a few points.”
Romain Grosjean
“It was always going to be a tough race coming from the back, but it’s still disappointing to miss out on
the points. Things were looking good until we switched to the option tyres, but they dropped off far
quicker than we expected which forced us to stop again. Sadly that effectively put an end to our race as
by that time there was no way back. After a promising start on Friday it’s not been the best weekend,
but we had good pace last year at Silverstone so we’ll come back looking to put things right.”
Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team
Lewis Hamilton
“The car felt fantastic today and I had good grip for the low-speed corners but we just weren’t quite
on the pace of Seb and Fernando. I was on the maximum that I could possibly drive and we got
absolutely everything out of the car today. It would have been nice to have kept second place of
course but Fernando was very quick today and it was difficult to keep him behind. I got close to
taking the place back but he was just that little bit too fast. Still I’m very pleased with third place and it
was a strong points-scoring day for the team with Nico’s fifth place as well. We’ve taken a step up in
the Constructors’ Championship which is great for the team and gives us a nice boost going into
Silverstone.”
Nico Rosberg
“I think fifth place was probably my optimum today and, even if my race had gone perfectly, I wasn’t
able to match the pace of the guys in front. The guys had a difficult decision to make at the first stop:
we were worried about the warm-up of the harder tyres, so we went for the option to protect my track
position against Webber and Alonso, but in hindsight it would probably have been better to go the
other way because I could have run a longer second stint. I scored some good points and we know
that there are areas where we can still improve our performance. But looking back to where we were
a month ago, we have made some good steps forward, and it was great for Lewis to be on the
podium again. We are heading in the right direction and looking forward to the next race at
Silverstone, in front of our team-mates from Brackley and Brixworth.”
Sauber F1 Team
Nico Hülkenberg
“It’s disappointing to finish a race like this. Lapping can be troublesome, but these guys are racing too
and have things happenings in the race, the same as us. I lapped Giedo van der Garde and braked. At
first I didn’t feel anything until I came out of the corner and realised the car wasn’t going straight, so we
decided to stop. Even after we lost positions at the start of the race, we didn’t really have the pace
today. I was fighting for 14th and couldn’t do much more. Of course this is not an ideal way to end a
race, but in the end we wouldn’t have gained much more.”
Esteban Gutiérrez
“For the entire race the car was difficult to drive, and I was always pushing to the limit. Right from the
start everyone was closing in. The first set of tyres was difficult to drive on and a one stop would have
been impossible. When I came out from my second pit stop into the fist corner, I went over one of the
bumps, the front locked up and I couldn’t stop.”
Sahara Force India Formula 1 Team
Paul Di Resta
“To finish the race in seventh having started 17th is a great result and a top job by the team. I didn’t
manage to get any long run data on Friday so it feels extra sweet to make this one-stop strategy work
with a very long stint on the mediums. It also feels good to come back so strong after a difficult
qualifying session. The tyres lasted very well, the lap times were competitive and the team told me it
was my decision about when to make my stop. As soon as I felt the tyres starting to drop off, I came in.
Then it was a case of looking after the supersofts for the final few laps.”
Adrian Sutil
“That race was quite an adventure so it’s good to come away with a point given everything that
happened. I had a spin when I tried to overtake Bottas, which cost me quite a few positions and I was
lucky nobody hit me when I was in the middle of the track. I dropped back and the pack was bunched
together, which is when Maldonado ran into the back of me and damaged my rear wing. Even with all
those things I was running in eighth until the drive-through penalty. I don’t think it was a fair penalty
because I too had to lap so many cars today and it sometimes took one or two laps, and that’s normal
for this circuit. The penalty cost me two positions and three points.”
Williams F1 Team
Valtteri Bottas
“We fought hard to try and secure some points today but ultimately we just didn’t have the pace in
the car. I didn’t get a great start which allowed a few cars to jump me on the first lap, and in the dry
conditions we simply couldn’t match the level of competitiveness we showed yesterday. The tyre
wear in the first stint was also high which made it tough to stay in the top ten. Nevertheless I feel like
I have learnt a lot from the race today and as a team we can take positives from the weekend.
Hopefully we can continue to make progress and have a stronger race at Silverstone with the home
crowd cheering us on.”
Pastor Maldonado
“We were expecting a better result today in the race. We knew we didn’t have the top speed to
challenge at the front, but we struggled for pace right from the beginning of the race. The car felt
better in the wet conditions compared to the dry hot weather we saw today so we need to understand
why. After the good result with Valtteri yesterday, it was a tough weekend for us to end with neither
car in the points. There are now three weeks until the next race so we need to keep working to
improve our overall race performance.”
Scuderia Toro Rosso
Jean-Éric Vergne
“Incredible! I’m very happy. The best result for me of course, but also the highest finishing position
since Vettel’s results for the team in 2008. It is even more satisfying, because it was a normal race in
the dry, with no one going out in front of me so we achieved this position fair and square. It’s a great
result for the team as we are making progress race by race and it’s very encouraging for the rest of the
season. It wasn’t too complicated, because we had the pace to maintain that position, although we did
not have the speed of those ahead. I passed Bottas and Raikkonen and from then I managed my race,
keeping an eye on Sutil who was behind me for much of the time. That meant I could never ease up
until the flag. After finishing eighth in Monaco, this result on another difficult track has boosted my
confidence and I feel I have progressed as a driver. We must continue to push hard on the
development of the car, starting with the next race at Silverstone, so that we can aim even higher than
this.”
Daniel Ricciardo
“I got a really good start, making up two positions off the line and then I was on the outside for Turn 2,
which meant Hulkenberg took me back. When he ran wide at the chicane, I was ahead of him again
and I gained another place when Sutil went off. At that point, I felt we could have a good race, but after
just four laps, the car was oversteering like crazy and I couldn’t manage the tyres anymore. As the race
went on, we tried to improve the car balance and maybe we improved it a bit, but our pace was really
slow. We didn’t change so much on the car since Friday, so why we were so slow is a mystery to me at
the moment.”
Caterham F1 Team
Charles Pic
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Giedo van der Garde
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Marussia F1 Team
Jules Bianchi
“It was good to be able to enjoy a dry race today because we were back on the pace we were showing
earlier in the weekend in similar conditions. It was a little bit daunting to know we were planning a one
stop strategy and would have to go so long on the Medium tyre, but my engineers and I kept in close
contact and worked together to ensure we could manage the tyre life as we needed to. Although we
had to be quite careful, in the end we got to 40 laps no problem, although it was good to switch to the
Supersoft and be able to secure position. I think the result is quite pleasing and we are back where we
need to be in terms of the competition. We hope for good things from our next step in Silverstone,
where we will be aiming for a good performance in an important race for the Team.”
Max Chilton
“We got a good start but struggled on the first lap, then after a few laps we were able to see that our
strategy was going to play out well for us. We started on the Medium tyre and ran long for just under 40
laps. I was quite pleased with how well we were managing the tyres even late on in that stint, so a good
job from my engineers who were working with me to achieve that, enabling me to still be able to push
hard on the last few laps before we pitted for the Supersoft. The early part of the second stint worked
well but later on I was struggling with the tyre wear and I wasn’t able to defend my position from Pic. It
was good to add to our tally of two-car finishes though and we can feel optimistic as we head towards a
very important race for the Team and for me – our home race, the British Grand Prix.”
