Today's press conference with James Vowles, Andrea Stella and Mario Isola.

We're at a very iconic racetrack. Question to all of you, first of all, let's get a bit of colour about being here in Brazil. James, if we could start with you. Best memory of Interlagos, first of all, please?
James Vowles: I mean, mine's probably a long time ago. It's not Williams, I'm afraid, but it was 2009. Because this is where I won the championship for the first time with Jenson and as a constructor as well. There's a number of championships won here, and you can see why and it just always accumulates in this fantastic race. And it's exactly the same thing on that particular weekend as well. I'll remember it for the rest of my life. But it's one of those tracks that's iconic.

Thank you. Andrea?
Andrea Stella: Actually, my memories go even farther away because my best memory is 2007 when we won the championship with Kimi. It was quite a dramatic event because actually the result was only confirmed around midnight because there were some investigations after the race. That was the positive side of the outcome. The year after we were champions just for 38 seconds and then Hamilton took the title. Year 2006, it was the last race of Michael at Ferrari. I think personally that's the strongest race pace I've ever seen because he was one lap down following an incident and then he finished fourth. So there's quite a lot going on here. I think if there's not a documentary about Interlagos, we should definitely do it.

Thanks, Andrea. Mario?
Mario Isola: I think it's a bit more recent. 2016 was a very exciting race. It was wet, with Max recovering a lot of positions and a lot of action on track, with Massa that crashed, and then it was supposed to be his last race. So a mix of emotions and it was as a spectator. Obviously we win all the championships, so... It was a nice race!

Alright, Mario, thank you for that. James, let's come back to you now. It's been a frustrating month for Williams, just one point from three races. Where's the potential of the car at the moment?
JV: We have the ability to score points every weekend. We have to reflect on the fact that that midfield battle is incredibly tight. In the case of Mexico, there were sort of four or five teams, all of us within, I think it was about 30, 40 milliseconds of each other. You have to get everything right. The frustration is, we have the car pace, but we haven't always delivered for various mechanisms. So, in the case of Mexico, that really was a race incident. There's nothing you can do about it. At the start of the race, three doesn't fit into two. We had a second incident in FP1. And all of those just set you back during the course of the weekend. But even with that together, Alex was still able to put that car right up there into that ninth place. And based on Franco's race pace, we had the potential to score good points. And it's the same back in Austin. It's a tale of a brilliant drive from Franco, brilliant overtake from Franco on Fernando, and good recovery. But again, accident at the beginning of the race, because we are just bunched together and all of us are fighting for the same meter, just put Alex out of the race. So we haven't maximised anything over the last two weekends, and it's frustrating. Getting a fast car is more difficult and we have a good foundation to work from. and again, it looks good this morning.

So a change of luck is what Williams needs as much as anything?
JV: This is where I'm going to have a bit of turmoil myself, because I don't believe in good or bad luck. I really don't. I think you create it through structure, through process, through just delivering the car to be in the right place on the right track at a certain point. But I'm struggling to come to terms with what happened in Mexico as a result of that, but I think it's really our job is... Head down. We've got a quick enough car. Just make sure we execute as well as we can and let points come our way.

So if we look at your closest battle in the World Championship, the Teams' Championship, three points between you and Alpine, who do you think has the faster car at the moment?
JV: They've done some impressive... Pierre's been really good in qualifying the last few events. But in the race, we've generally been able to basically get ahead of them every time. So I think still on what I consider the important metric, race pace, we're fine. We're ahead of them but it's not far away.

Can we talk drivers and specifically Franco Colapinto? Is he still making great improvements from race to race? What are you seeing?
JV: Without doubt and there's more to come from him as well and that's to be expected. It would be easy to forget, when you look at the performances in Mexico, in Austin, that he's only been with us for a handful of races in Formula 1, but he has. And as you'll know with all of the greats - there's one, Piastri next door - you keep building across time. You don't finish your learning in four or five races. And there's a tremendous [amount] more to come from him.

What does the future team-wise hold for him? I mean, should an opportunity arise elsewhere? He said yesterday in the press conference, the 'normal thing', and I'm quoting him there, would be for you to let him go. Is that the reality? Will you let him go if there's another opportunity?
JV: The best I can say is this: we are exploring possibilities with a number of teams that are interested at the moment. And beyond there, it would be wrong to do anything more than speculate here. There's nothing to really communicate beyond that point. When there is, I'll happily talk about it because he's an exceptional driver. And I really mean that. Go look outside. There was tens of thousands of individuals here to support a driver that's been in our championship for five races. He's doing an outstanding job on track. And as I've said from the very beginning, earn your position and elements will come your way. But beyond there, I think especially when we look at the fact he's a 21-year-old and my responsibility is also towards him and making sure we do the right thing, I want to make sure that when we have news, come to the world, but there really isn't much to talk about right now.

Would you want him on a bungee back to Williams?
JV: It's the same conversation we've just had. In any circumstance, I want to make sure we understand what others are interested in, and then we'll form our basis as to what's the best solution for everyone.

Alright, James, thank you for that. I'm sure there'll be more questions in a minute. Andrea, can we come to you? Let's talk about the world title fights. First of all, the Drivers' Championship. How's Lando dealing with the added pressure of battling Max Verstappen? Have you seen him grow as a driver in the last few races?
AS: Definitely. I think Lando is coping with this situation of being in the fight for the championship in a way that we are enjoying, first of all, I would say. He's now a very mature driver. Fast, the race craft keeps improving all the time. The attitude, the learning from every situation, which we can appreciate almost on a race by race timescale. I think Lando is definitely now a mature driver to succeed in this kind of fight, which is a fight against one of the best drivers, I think, in the history of Formula 1. Titles, looking at the titles that Max has achieved, then I think this is universally recognised. So we just keep telling Lando all the time, like, keep doing what we are doing, let's keep improving all the time, let's become the best version of ourselves, race after race.

You mentioned race craft, you say keep doing what you're doing, but would you like him to do anything different in his wheel-to-wheel racing with Max Verstappen?
AS: Not at all. You know, when I say keep doing what we are doing, I obviously mean this in a broad sense, but definitely I also mean this in a very specific sense. I think we got some learning, for instance, from Austria. We got a little too close. And the points we're missing from Austria, because of having had a proper collision and then being knocked out of the race, are points that we regret. We don't really regret many other points in this season, potentially the one in Austin. where we still believe that the final classification isn't correct, but we respect the work of the stewards. We have tried with a right of review to find some correction of that situation that happened in Austin. This didn't happen. We move on. Yeah, so I think from Lando's point of view, that's the way it should be going racing. Lando reflects, also, in the way he goes racing, our own values. We race fair, we race in a correct way, we race in a sportsmanlike way. And then ultimately in this kind of close fights, there's a third party that is the stewarding. We trust the stewarding. I think in Mexico this worked very well and we had good racing.

And in the Constructors' Championship, how do you see the threat from Ferrari? Does your 29-point advantage give you a margin for error?
AS: No margin at all. No margin at all. 29 points with four races to go against Ferrari and Red Bull. First of all, we talk about Ferrari and Red Bull, like the world champion team, Red Bull. Ferrari, a team that have been in contention for the world championship for many years. Ferrari in particular recently with a very fast car. two solid drivers. In Formula 1, you don't really lean on these kind of margins. The only thing you can do is just stay focused on yourself, execute at the best of your potential, race weekends, and then really look at the classification after the race in Abu Dhabi.

Okay, thank you, Andrea. I'm sure there'll be more questions for you in a minute. Mario, coming to you now. First of all, what are the teams and drivers saying about the new track surface here at Interlagos? Lando's fastest lap in FP1, already faster than pole position last year.
MI: Yeah, we were expecting these lap times because we, as usual, we measured the roughness of the circuit. It's much smoother compared to last year, but the level of grip is still in line with last year. Not very high, but more or less the same. So we were expecting similar lap times, also a lot of track evolution. I heard some comments about bumps, but honestly, it's not a detail that we consider in our measurement. I'm expecting, as I said, a lot of track evolution and maybe a few issues if it is wet. It seems we have a chance of rain tomorrow in the afternoon and Sunday during the race because this bitumen on top is, in general, is creating a slippery surface when the asphalt is so new.

Check out our Friday gallery from Sao Paulo here.