In ‘This is what the teams think…’, F1Maximum focuses on some of the smaller teams in Formula 1: McLaren, AlphaTauri, Alpine, Aston Martin, Williams, Alfa Romeo and Haas. Below you can read what the drivers of the respective racing stables have to say about their recent performance on the track.

Aston Martin

Lance Stroll was a great qualifier and finished seventh Best among others. “The car was really good. We found a lot of grip and the car gave me confidence. We’ve made good progress with the car recently and we’re strong on Saturday. I really enjoyed it even though the conditions were tricky with the wind. It looks like we’ll start from fifth place as there were some penalties for the coming cars, which means a good Sunday.” We are in the mix to get the result.”

Sebastian Vettel trailed in Q2 with the twelfth fastest time. “The car had a lot of pace, so I was disappointed with my final qualifying result. I wasn’t happy with my lap in Q2 and struggled to find confidence at the back. Sector one was very tricky in the tailwind and I lost time immediately when it turned into the back three, so I lost a bit of time that whole series. . Small margins made the difference, so I missed Q3.’

McLaren

Lando Norris finished eighth in qualifying and was very satisfied. “I’m very happy, especially with my Q3 lap. Some people have grid penalties on Sunday, which put me up a few places in the opening phase. I think it will be difficult to hold on to the position, but I’m happy with the qualifying and the work we all did, now we focus on Sunday,” said Britain.

However, his team-mate Daniel Ricciardo fell behind in Q1. “I’m not happy with my qualifying. We struggled a lot with the back of the car and made some moments in the first sector. We obviously didn’t overcome it. We have to find out why, but during the race there will be opportunities to overtake and show some more. We’ll do our best for Sunday’s race.’

Alpine

Fernando Alonso qualified well and finished ninth. “It was very difficult in the windy conditions and the car was a bit difficult to drive on Saturday, especially in the fast corners. I’m still happy with the result because reaching Q3 was our goal going into the session. Unfortunately we have a grid penalty and it would have been better to start higher than fourteenth. .but I think we can still get some good points.

Esteban Ocon’s qualifying session ended quickly, however, failing to win Q1. “It was a difficult day for us. It’s difficult to be behind in Q1, especially because we have a competitive car. The conditions were difficult and to be honest, I didn’t feel like I was in the car all weekend. Definitely work to find out what exactly went wrong during qualifying. As for the race, again Let’s do our best to score points.

Alfa Romeo

Valtteri Bottas entered the third quarter on Saturday. “The target was to get into the top ten and we achieved that. We knew the improvements we brought this weekend would give us a boost and we needed a small performance boost to get us back into Q3. We need to score on Sunday to fight for sixth place in the championship, which is very important for us. .

Guanyu Zhou was actually already in Q3, but then had to deal with track limitations. He also has a grid penalty and must start in nineteen. “As I missed VT3 due to technical problems, I had to give it my all for the whole qualifying session and I was happy to get into Q2. I’m upset because my lap was scrapped which would have brought us to Q3. I’m looking forward to Sunday, even if we start at the back. I think it’s possible to overtake here. I think, so hopefully we can have a good race and get both cars in the points.”

Williams

Alexander Alban finished eleventh in qualifying and eighth due to grid penalties. “It was quite unexpected if I’m honest. It’s been a really tough weekend to qualify and the wind has been really tough on the track and difficult to read. We’ve made some changes to qualifying from VT3 which didn’t feel like they helped much at first but we saw improvements as the session progressed. Very happy, so looking forward to Sunday.’

Nicolas Latifi had the lowest qualification and finished last. “It was a really tough session, the wind picked up quite a bit. I didn’t play the right lap on that last lap and I got caught by a few minutes. It’s hard to say what to expect on Sunday, but the conditions will be tough with the heat and the wind. We’ll try to make the most of it.

AlphaTauri

Pierre Gasly was clearly unhappy in qualifying and finished thirteenth. “I was happy with the car until qualifying and of course there was a possibility to get to Q3, that’s why I was frustrated. I struggled with the brakes and couldn’t get the temperature in. Looking at Sunday, I don’t see why we can’t fight for points, I’m sure we can make up for it. .”

Yuki Tsunoda was also not satisfied with his fifteenth place finish in qualifying. “I am disappointed with our performance in the qualifiers. Of course I went over the track limits on my last lap but I don’t think it made a big difference, we just didn’t have the pace to get to Q3. We’ll see what else we can get out of the car and try to get points as far as possible in the race.”

Rabbit

Both drivers of the American racing standings failed to advance to Q2. Kevin Magnussen finished sixteenth. “I lost three-tenths because of the bump in the middle. After that bump I lost the rear, so it was a bit unfortunate. It’s a new day on Sunday, it’s a track where you can overtake in the race, so if we have the pace we can fight back.

Mick Schumacher crossed the line for the nineteenth time. “The pace was good, we had a car that could have been converted into a Q2 with the potential for a Q3, so it’s a real shame we couldn’t show it. I spun because it was so windy and bumpy. It’s a shame because we didn’t know what the potential was, but based on gut feeling it was high.