Part 1: Lewis Hamilton, Oscar Piastri and Carlos Sainz

Q: Carlos, let's kick things off with you. Your last weekend as a Ferrari driver for now. How are you going to look back on your time with the team?
Carlos Sainz: Well, definitely, well, first of all, I think this weekend is going to be quite emotional, quite intense, not only because of it being the last weekend, but also for how much is at stake with the Constructors' title. At the same time, it's been a tough year in general with a lot going on in the background. I think I have to be quite happy, quite proud of how I handled every situation through the year and how I managed to push myself to get to the end of the year still in good shape, in good form and ready to fight for that.

Q: Let's talk about the Constructors' Championship. You and Ferrari are 21 points behind McLaren. How do you see the competitive order this weekend?
CS: I think it's honestly very tight between us, but not only between Ferrari, McLaren, but also Mercedes and Red Bull. I think we are all within a couple of tenths of each other. And depending on the track, depending on the tyre compound we use, depending on the track characteristics, the wind, the conditions, one car will come out on top that weekend. And last weekend looked like it was going to be the McLaren. In the end, it was Max. the other weekend, George, the other weekend, me in Mexico, or again, Max in the wet in Brazil. It's almost like it's so tight across the top four teams that you cannot pick one before a weekend. And I think we're all waiting to practice to see who suddenly seems the strongest that weekend.

Q: What would it mean to you to leave Ferrari as Constructors' Champion?
CS: Would mean everything to me, honestly. It's, I think, the best way to say goodbye to my home these last four years and to the team that I've given my absolute best to for the last four years and I've enjoyed every single moment with them. And to say goodbye with a Constructors' title, I think, would be the perfect sign off, the perfect goodbye. I am also honest with you saying that it's still not a long shot, but it is a difficult one. Being 21 points behind two of the fastest drivers and one of the fastest teams and recovering those 21 points in one weekend requires perfection from our side and probably not optimal weekend or a bad weekend from their side. It's still going to be difficult, but I've seen worse things in racing happen before, and we're going to give it our best shot.

Q: All right. Carlos, good luck. Thank you for that. Oscar, well, let's kick off about the Constructors' Championship. What is the mood in the camp at McLaren?
Oscar Piastri: I think still confident. Like Carlos said, we're still in a good spot in terms of the lead we have. I think it's going to be a very tightly fought weekend between probably the top four teams, not just us and Ferrari, which means that some of the other teams can potentially play a role in deciding the championship. So let's see. We're going to focus on ourselves and try and get the most out of our game our car that we have and I guess see where we end up. But I think we're in a good spot and still confident.

Q: With so much at stake, does this race weekend feel different to previous ones this year?
CS: Yes and no. I think through some of the races in the second half of the season, especially when we were starting to take some points out of Max, there was kind of the urgency to make sure that was still happening for the Drivers' Championship. And I think, you know, now it's obviously a similar scenario for the Constructors. You know, Qatar didn't end exactly how we wanted as a team but I think the confidence is still there. And yes, of course, there's a lot riding on this weekend, it's obvious, but I think the best way of tackling it is just how we have done and trying to get the most out of our car, because I think it's very early now to start keeping both eyes on what Ferrari do. We need to keep at least one eye, probably both for now, on our own performance.

Q: Irrespective of what happens in the Constructors' Championship, how will you personally look back on 2024?
OP: I think a good improvement from my rookie season. but still room to go. I think a few races at the start of the season, a few races more recently have not gone as well as I would have liked. And I think also as a team, there's some races through the year that we would have liked to have executed a bit better. But I think, especially in the middle part of the year, I was very happy with the level I was performing at and I think I showed some pretty clear progress from last season. I think mainly in qualifying, I've made life too difficult for myself this year. But I think last year in a lot of the races, I wouldn't have had the tools to get back through. Whereas this year, I feel like I have. So I think on a personal note, it's been a good improvement. But yeah, still some room to go.

Q: Alright, Oscar, thank you for that. Best of luck to you this weekend. Lewis, welcome. Your last weekend as a Mercedes driver, how are the emotions?
Lewis Hamilton: Pretty calm at the moment. Feeling positive and excited just to give it all this weekend. Every moment, like through the year, it's been, you know, every single race has been obviously the last time I'll race and be in that specific place with the team and I think today, already from like the briefings that we've had, like, you're sitting there and you're realising these are the last moments with the team, which is... It's hard to describe the feeling. It's not the greatest, of course, but I think mostly I'm just really proud of what we've achieved. And I have so much pride in this team.

Q: Can I ask you more about that? Because when you look back at your 12 years with Mercedes, all 246 races, what's going to be your abiding memory?
LH: I think it's the smiles, when we've had the success. I think it's those moments. Like I remember one particular engineer, for example, I remember our first win in Australia in 2014, I think it was Australia, and I just remember him being in tears when we were on the podium. It's those moments that I take with me. It's the emotions that we had in Silverstone this year. It's all the good bits. Naturally, you mostly remember the good bits. And I think it's just the... I'm just incredibly proud, but also just so grateful to every single individual, both that are here at the track, but also back at the factory that have just worked tirelessly and, you know, been supporting me for all these years from day one.

Q: Lewis, how different does this moment feel to when you left McLaren at the end of 2012?
LH: If I'm honest, I don't really remember the... Obviously, I remember meeting Niki. And I remember making the decision. But I don't really remember the final days, if I'm really honest. I don't really know. I've got a really bad memory, as you know. It definitely wasn't as painful and difficult as this year has been in terms of the emotions. And I think because it was at the end of the year, it was much quicker and there wasn't enough time for it to really settle in for anyone, I think, within the team. Yeah, this one is much more emotional because I've been with the team so long and we've been through so much together.

Questions From The Floor

Q: (Craig Slater - Sky Sports) A question for Lewis. You kind of alluded to it there, Lewis. It's been a long goodbye. You knew from the start of the year you'd be leaving. So did the team... I think Toto said he anticipated maybe a bumpy road. Did it get awkward at any point, now we're at the end of that road? And was it the key relationships enduring which enabled it to... It's looked on the surface as if it's been OK throughout the year in terms of keeping a kind of balance within the team and not having any kind of fallouts or friction?
LH: I mean, the first meeting with Toto at the beginning of the year was awkward, of course. So it was awkward from the get-go, to the day after when I took some of the team paintballing. And they had just found out. So I mean, there's been loads of moments through the year... Yeah, I got lots of shots from people, yeah, loads of bruises. Yeah, people went in on me that day! I think ultimately I anticipated it would be difficult, but massively underestimated how difficult it would be. And it was straining on the relationship very early on, took time for people to get past it. And then just for my own self, it's been a very emotional year for me. And I think I've not been at my best in handling and dealing with those emotions. And I think this year, and so many of you have been here my whole career, so some of you, I think, you've all seen the worst of me and seen the best of me and I'm not going to apologise for either because I'm only human and I don't always get it right, and I would definitely would say this year's been one of the worst in terms of handling that from my side, which I'll work on trying to be better at. But I hope the good and the highs far outweigh the negatives and how I've handled it or behaved. And as I said, I just remember the good times, you know. I've built some incredible relationships. We've gone through. If you imagine, when you're going when you're going through a season together with so many people, you know, not only on those race weekends where you're riding the highs and lows together, but in their personal lives, through marriages, through divorces, through loss of family members, through cancer, through all sorts. You're going through these journeys with these people. So it's a really beautiful journey you go on together. And being that it was so long, the emotions run so deep.

Q: (Nelson Valkenburg - Viaplay) We started this week with the news that we're going to lose the Dutch Grand Prix after 2026. A lot of you have driven at Zandvoort a lot - I know Lewis, in particular, in 2005, winning the Masters of F3. But a question for all three of you. Should a track like Zandvoort be able to stay on the calendar or given the financial difficulties they have, is it a logical question now that they leave?
CS: I think it's a very delicate matter. You know, I don't understand fully the whole picture of why Zandvoort may or may not stay longer than the 2026 season. I think as a whole, the sport has definitely moved towards having more races outside of Europe than in Europe. Probably for economic and obviously political and economic reasons for the sport. In an ideal world, In my opinion, the Formula 1 season should have around 20 races. Out of those 20 races, I strongly believe six to eight of them should be in Europe because that's where the sport comes from. And all of the others should remain rotational. If Zandvoort cannot keep the budget to run a Formula 1 race when some other races can, it doesn't mean I think Zandvoort should completely disappear from the calendar, but maybe come back every two or three years back to a calendar to give all the Dutch fans and all the supporter of Max the opportunity to watch Max live, you know, and the same would apply to Spain, the same would apply to the UK if that's ever the case. So, yeah, find ways to, even if these old school circuits, European circuits that maybe don't have the big budgets that outside of Europe, they have these budgets, still find a way to give them the opportunity to keep coming back to a calendar now and then. I don't know if it's doable or not, but in my ideal F1 calendar scenario, I would try and fit that in.