Part 1: Oliver Bearman, Franco Colapinto and Zhou Guanyu.

Q: Ollie, why don't we start with you? Welcome back to Formula 1 and a full race weekend for you this time. What are your expectations coming into this one?
Oliver Bearman: Yeah, it's nice to be back, first of all. Of course, not the circumstances I would have hoped, but nonetheless, it's a great opportunity to build up my experience, get a full weekend under my belt, like you said. With some notice this time. I've known it was coming, which is helpful. And yeah, I just want to use it to really build up step by step and enjoy it as well.

Q: How much difference does the notice period make? Because of course you were parachuted in on Saturday morning in Saudi Arabia at Ferrari. You've had a couple of weeks now to build up to this. What have you been doing in that time?
OB: Yeah, of course, knowing that I'm going to race is a big help. Also, the fact that I'm going to do FP1 and FP2, that's going to help me a lot, just to build it up. And, you know, another street track, I'll have time to build it up, not have to take any risk. And yeah, of course, I've been training hard, but I've been doing that anyway because I'm racing next year. Yeah, just continuing the training process and making sure I'm as ready as possible.

Q: And tell us about Baku. You have a tremendous record here, having won both Formula 2 races here last year. It's a tricky track, but one that you go very well at. Are you excited to be making your first full weekend Grand Prix appearance at this racetrack?
OB: Yeah, like you said, last year went pretty well. And yeah, I was excited to come here in F2. And of course, to make the step to F1 for this weekend is a great experience. I'm really looking forward to it. I got a lot of confidence at this track last year. From the outside, it was a very clean weekend. On the inside, I hit the wall every single session. So I'm going to be trying to tone that down a little bit. And yeah, just have a clean weekend and enjoy it as well.

Q: Is that the goal? Just have a clean weekend and enjoy it, and what will be, will be?
OB: Yeah, exactly. I just want to build up step by step, because we have time to do that. In F2, you have to be straight on the pace, take a lot of risk, with just one session. We have three of them this weekend. So I just want to maximise myself and gain experience. It's going to be the most sessions I've done in F1 in a single time. I've never done an FP2 session before. I've done all the others, but not FP2. So yeah, it'll just be a case of building it up. And enjoyment is coming anyway. So yeah.

Q: Best of luck to you. Thank you, Ollie. Franco, if we could come to you now. Before we talk about Baku, can we throw it back a couple of weeks to Monza? How do you reflect on that first Grand Prix weekend?
Franco Colapinto: It was very special. It's amazing to see here so many people. In F2, there were so little, and now it's full! But I'm very happy to be here. It was a very special moment in my career. Of course, you always work for that goal and that dream, since you are very little. And to have achieved it in Monza... It's very late notice. I was in the sim for F2, preparing the race of Monza, with the MP team. Suddenly, I got a call that I had to go to England and I did the best prep I could, but it was very little. Unfortunately, I didn't have a lot of experience in the Formula 1 car. So I had to learn quite a lot of things very quick. I had a lot of information coming in from all the team members. And they were super helpful. They were really, really helpful. It helped me to process everything a little bit quicker, to do that learning process quicker. And I think part of the good performance that I had in Monza was due to my engineers, due to the mechanics, due to the warm welcome that everyone has been giving me in the team. Alex has been very, very helpful as well, very supportive and I'm just very happy to be in this team, honestly. It's an amazing family. It's, of course, not the best circumstances. I know Logan was very close to all the team members and it's very sad, but of course you never choose when you get to Formula 1 and it was very special for me. It was something I was not waiting for. I was still training a lot and I was, since the beginning of the year, trying to get ready in case a Formula 1 race was coming in and I think I did the job in Monza. Of course, super grateful with the opportunity Williams gave me. The chance, the trust that James put, you know, to put a young driver again in the seat in Williams, that is something that represents the team, represents Williams. To put the young drivers and give them an opportunity, it was amazing to see and amazing to be there after so many years without an Argentine driver on the grid for it to be me the one joining the Formula 1 grid was just an amazing feeling and very special during Monza.

Q: You did a great job. What was the biggest thing you learned at Monza?
FC: I did learn so, so much stuff. But to be honest, we were going into the race with a lot of question marks. I hadn't done more than eight laps in a row in a Formula 1 car before that. And then suddenly, they put me into 53. And it was very tough. And there were many circumstances that I was not sure what I had to do. And I was learning during the race. And we went step by step. I think that was the most important part to be building on during the race weekend. We did a good job up until Quali. I did a little mistake and I missed the chance to go into Q2, but it was still a very special weekend. The race was, as I said before, a lot of question marks and we did the job. Just bounced back very strong after a tough Quali and I showed with the team, you know, that gave me the trust to put me there and they are doing a lot of effort these last few races that, you know, I could do a job. The team is, of course, working forward and hoping to be scoring more points soon. So it's great to see that I might help them in the future.

Q: Now, you've never been to Baku, never raced here. What is the approach? What are the goals for this weekend?
FC: The goal is to build up slowly. I think it's very similar to Monza. Monza, I didn't know the car. Now I don't know the track. So it's still one thing to learn only. As Ollie said before, three FPS, it's more than enough I think for us to learn the track. I haven't been on many street tracks, but I hope to have done enough prep in the simulator and to have worked really hard with the team to done enough to be on the pace quick. The reality is that I don't know the next seven races. And we know that it's going to be tough. And it was part of the risk. And it's going to be a great experience as well to know these last seven races of the year that I haven't been racing in. And F2 doesn't race as well in the next six. So I know it's going to be tough. But I'm doing a lot of work and a lot of prep to be ready for it. Of course, I think we have a really good car to be able to score points. And I'm going to try to do the best I can. I think go step by step, session by session, and then see where we end up.

Q: Best of luck to you. Zhou, can we just start by giving some advice? Neither of these two has been here in a Formula 1 car before. Any advice for them?
Zhou Guanyu: Honestly, I think just enjoy the weekend because I think... especially, I think, for Ollie who has already done a whole weekend. He know how this is feeling. And for Franco, I think he will just enjoy all the races, like I did in my first season. I mean you know like the circumstances are different but I think every driver especially in F2 really wants to take that chance and here is the perfect platform for them to shine and have a nice future. So, yeah, I just wish them all the best but not to go too fast though and stay behind.

Q: Why don't we talk about the performance of Sauber? The team said there were a lot of learnings over the Monza weekend. What were they? Where are you at in terms of performance at the moment?
ZG: You know, every weekend we're like... Obviously we're having a similar package for a few races in a row now, but like every weekend we're trying to extract as much as we could. Like together with me and my teammate, we try to have a different set up to understand what is needed for the current situation to make a bigger step even for the next coming races, or for the future development. So it's a tough situation at the moment, just because I think we don't really have the pace for fighting anywhere close to the top 10. And we keep the, let's say, motivation high and we want to learn as much as we could in every circumstance and to understanding therefore, high downforce track, low downforce track, and then see how it goes. Also, here in Baku and Singapore, because I think the last two races, the coming two, will be completely different circumstances. But yeah, it's a difficult one to give a very high expectation, but we are trying to work in each individual areas that current weakness and trying to solve that. And hopefully that can give us better coming up races. And in terms of performance, we can be fighting more close up.

Q: Well, what about this weekend? I mean, it's a unique track layout here, isn't it? You've got the 2.2-kilometre straight and then it's a street track the rest of the way. Will that make things better for you or not?
ZG: I think it makes us more hopeful for sure for the race. I think the race will never end until the last laps. And for us in the past, I think this not being one of the tracks we've been especially struggling a lot with and we're just hoping with what we have this year so far that can give us a better overall performance and in terms of using as much as we could with the benefits of the current car. And yeah, the rest we need to go step by step from FP1 and see how it goes. And I think the most important is a lot of circumstances or tracks we go to when the car, you put that on ground, it is working well and then you have a really good weekend. So we just need a few more of these, back like the beginning of the season, and then we should be in a much better position.

Questions From The Floor

Q: (Harry Benjamin - Sky Sports F1) Questions to Olie. I just want to focus on the notice period you mentioned there. Obviously, you've had a couple of weeks in comparison to being parachuted into Saudi. But was it only a couple of weeks? Did you have a little bit longer? Because Kevin's been on 11 points for a fair while. A ban was highly likely before the end of the year. I'm just wondering if the team or Ayao said anything to you longer than a couple of weeks ago, just to start getting ready before the end of the season, just in case?
OB: Well, I mean, my preparations have been kind of looking towards next year, since the announcement that I'll be racing with the team next year. And it has been a while that Kevin's been close to a race ban. So I knew it was a potential possibility to jump in the car at any point. And yeah, if I could have chosen, it would be one that doesn't clash with F2, but you know, you don't choose when to jump in F1 and every opportunity is one that you take. But yeah, I've been really preparing for next year and part of that means that I'm ready also now. So it's another great opportunity to show how I've improved and what I can do.