Conducted by Guenther Steiner

Carlos, fantastic result. I mean, this was vamos, Carlos! This was vamos. This was the maximum you could get. First of all, how do you feel, because of your appendicitis? How do you feel? I see you're pretty fit, but tell me.
Carlos Sainz: Yeah, thank you. Thanks very much. It was a really good race. I felt really good out there. Of course, a bit stiff and especially physically. It wasn't the easiest, but I was lucky that I was more or less on my own and I could manage my pace, manage the tyres, manage everything. And it wasn't the toughest race of all. But yeah, very happy, very proud of the team. Happy to be in a 1-2 with Charles here. It shows that the hard work pays off. And yeah, life sometimes is crazy, you know. What happened at the beginning of the year, then the podium in Bahrain, then the appendix, the comeback, the win. It's a roller coaster, but I loved it, and yeah, I'm extremely happy.

Yeah, I'm sure it was made easier by leading out there, your appendix, your pain, everything. It's just a great feeling.
CS: I think I will recommend all the drivers to take it out this winter!

If I were you, I wouldn't do that, because maybe they can go faster as well. But when you were behind Max at the start of the race, did you see that he had a struggle when you overtook him? It didn't seem that he was struggling. You just drove past once you got the DRS. So could you see something or not?
CS: I don't know. I felt like I could keep up with him on the first lap and try and take DRS, just to make sure that... DRS around here is super powerful. Then he lost the car into Turns 3 and there was my chance to get close and attempt an overtake. And then as soon as he was behind, I think he started struggling with the brakes and that was it for him. A pity because we would have had, I think, a very good fight for P1 today. But, you know, I'm happy to take the win. He's had plenty of them. So, yeah, happy to be back here.

Absolutely. You won the race. He didn't lose it. You won it, you know. So, at what stage did you know that you are out there to go and win it?
CS: I think from lap two, when I was leading, I said with the pace I had yesterday, I knew I could get it done, especially in clean air, manage the tyres. I could get it done. Then obviously the risk of Safety Car and red flag here was always in the back of my mind. But luckily it was a clean race and not too much happened. Obviously, sorry for George there at the end. It looked like a big one. I hope he's OK. And yeah, I could finish the race, win it, bring it home. A great feeling.

I'm sure you'll go out and party with the Ferrari guys after this one and two. Congratulations again, Carlos. Congratulations to you as well, Charles. Fantastic second place podium, a 1-2 for Ferrari, must be great for the whole team and you must be proud of what you achieved today.
Charles Leclerc: Yeah, it feels good mostly for the team, of course. I mean, first and second didn't happen since Bahrain 2022, which are very good memories we have. And it's amazing to be able to do that. Carlos has had an incredible weekend to come back after his surgery. He's done an amazing race. On my side, I struggled a bit more in the second stint with the first Hard. There, I don't know, I didn't manage the tyres well. But then the last stint was more positive. But first and second was the best we could do.

Did you at any stage think you can attack Carlos or was it always pretty sure that you cannot get to him but you could hold off the McLarens?
CL: Not really, because in the first stint, we had to protect behind, so we had to stop a bit earlier, and then from that moment onwards, Carlos was very fast, and with my tyres, I was struggling. I think that as soon as we stopped at the first stop, then for me it was clear. But again, Carlos has done a better job all weekend. So, I mean, at least from qualifying to the race, and he definitely deserves that victory. So I'm really happy for him. I'm really happy for the team. It's really good points. We came into the weekend telling ourselves that we need to maximize our points, and there's nothing we could have done better. So really happy about this.

I wish you a nice evening, parting with the boys.
CL: Thank you very much.

Good job, Lando, congratulations on the podium. Must feel good to be the second force this weekend as a team, you know, and especially for the team, it's great. So, out there at any stage, did you think you can get to P2?
Lando Norris: No, it was a very good day for us. I'm very happy, proud of the team. P3 and P4 is a lot of points in the championship, so that's the first thing. We missed out on Charles. I think our pace was a little bit better. He undercut us in the first stint, so maybe a little bit of hope for second place. I think our pace was strong enough today. But Ferrari and Carlos did a very good job, so hats off to them. They've been fast all weekend. I felt good. I felt like I could manage the tyres very well today, and that was a good step. Probably wasn't expecting to be on the podium, so I'm very happy.

I was expecting you on the podium, you know. I said McLaren would be on the podium. But you must be confident now for the team going forward to be in a good position always to fight for podiums.
LN: Yes. I mean, it's clear that this circuit suits us a little bit more. So we've been able to push and unlock a little bit of speed. But it's still another step to Ferrari and Red Bull, they're one or two steps ahead of us still, so we need to catch up. But it's clear that we're getting closer and a day like today proves exactly that. So, a big thanks to all in McLaren. We're getting closer to our target. It's nice to be back on the podium again and hopefully we can have many more.

Press Conference

What a race, Carlos. Many congratulations. Given everything you've been through these past two weeks post-operation, what does this mean?
CS: Yeah, thank you very much. But yeah, and I think it's not only the last two weeks. It's the whole start to the year in general, how the year started with the news of the non-renewal. Then you get yourself fit. You get yourself ready for the start of the season, pushing flat out. And then you get to Bahrain. You do a good podium. You say, 'OK, now the season is starting well and I can keep the momentum going'. And suddenly, boom, they're missing a race in Jeddah and the operation. Long days in bed, not knowing if I was going to be back in time. Obviously, a lot of unknowns. Am I going to be back fit? Am I going to be back feeling still good with the car? And then suddenly you come back and win. So, yes, what I said on the radio - life is a roller coaster sometimes, but it can be really nice and good to you sometimes. Just letting it sink in and enjoying the moment.

How apprehensive were you coming into the race? About your fitness over 58 laps?
CS: How nervous I was? I was confident about the first half of the race that I was going to be OK because it's more or less the laps that I did on Friday. Obviously, the second half of the race was a bit of an unknown. But yeah, once I got up in front and I had a gap, you can manage everything. You can manage yourself, you can manage the tyres, you have less pressure. You can choose your places where to push and not to push you know, and everything becomes a lot easier. So yeah, I'm not going to lie, the last five or 10 laps I was a bit stiff and tired but nothing that was slowing me down too much.

Well, tell us a little bit more about the race now and particularly those opening couple of laps and the moment you passed Max Verstappen for the lead of the grand prix.
CS: Yeah, I got a decent start from the dirty side of the grid, but obviously couldn't put Max under pressure into Turn 1, but from there on it was a kind of a very strategic first lap and a half where you are wanting to protect the tyre from opening up the graining. But at the same time, I knew this weekend and this race, I could have the pace to challenge Max. And I thought to myself, with how powerful the DRS is around here, if I get myself within the DRS range after lap one, we can put him a bit under pressure. I think he did a mistake into Turn 3 that allowed me to stay within the DRS and I could feel myself being pretty quick. And then, yeah, I don't know when his brakes started to go, but yeah, in dirty air, obviously, it's not the same than in clean air with a big gap.

He said in the pen a little bit earlier that he had a problem with the brakes from the start. When did it become evident for you that he had a problem?
CS: I don't know. I saw him... obviously pushing on lap one and I was like, 'OK, I'm going to push with him too and challenge in the car'. But obviously it could have been the brakes, as he said. So, yeah, I don't know, honestly, but it felt good to pass him, with brake issues or not, because it is tough, you know, to pass Max on track and the Red Bull, But it's what we've said from the beginning - if you are there and you can put Red Bull under pressure, you can sometimes get it done. But you need to be there, and we need to be there more often if we want to win.

Do you feel Ferrari have got closer to Red Bull this weekend, or do you feel they weren't maximising their package? What's the feeling in Maranello?
CS: I think our car really worked really well this weekend. But I think it's going to be tough to keep it up there in every track until we bring an upgrade to close that gap that we saw in Bahrain and Jeddah. But around Australia, from lap one, it felt like a race-winning car. And even if Red Bull were also quick and were on pole, that 59 in quali wasn't out of reach for us. And I think we just... Yeah, there will be tracks where we are strong like we saw last year. And this year it seems like our race pace is better even on those tracks that we are stronger. And together with a good development programme, I hope that we can challenge Red Bull more often.

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