PART TWO – Nico HÜLKENBERG (Kick Sauber), Carlos SAINZ (Williams), Lewis HAMILTON (Ferrari)
Q: Nico, can we start with you, and can we start with a clarification? When are the celebrations? The statisticians don’t agree when your 250th race is going to be. Is it this weekend? Is it next weekend?
Nico HÜLKENBERG: You tell me. Whenever you want! When do you want it to be?
Q: I’ve asked you the question. So, should we say it’s this weekend? When are you celebrating?
NH: I think celebrating on a race weekend is tough. Maybe Sunday night—hopefully Sunday night next weekend. But looks like it’s next weekend.
Carlos SAINZ: Why is there a doubt?
NH: It’s just, you know, a few races I did but didn’t start the race. So, it’s three or four.
Q: Wind the clock back, Nico, to 2010. When you started out on this journey, could you have imagined 250 races?
NH: Yes and no. I think it’s something, you know, as a driver, you don’t really think about so much. You just race, you live in the present, you do your best, you keep grinding, you keep showing up. And, you know, it was good fun. I would do it all over again. Obviously good days and bad days, but all in all, a great industry to be in. Worked with a lot of great people, made friends, and still enjoying myself.
Q: Best season?
NH: This one, of course.
Q: Can we elaborate on that? Let’s talk about 2025 and the way the team has ramped up as the season’s gone on. How satisfying has that been?
NH: Yeah, it’s been also, you know, with ups and downs obviously, as is usual for every kind of midfield team—you have those swings. We started on the back foot, not in the best position, then recovered from Barcelona onwards, turned things around, got a grip on the season. Obviously put in a few nice highlights, few big results for us. All in all, I think good progress. You feel like something is growing and cooking in the background. As a team, I think we’ve really connected and improved on many areas, many things. Obviously always more to improve, more to work on, but it’s been enjoyable and I look forward to the next 12 months.
Q: How has that progress you talk about changed the vibe inside the team?
NH: The vibe’s good. Obviously, when you have results, when you’re racing for points, you’re battling, it’s a different feeling. Everyone is happy and engaged, and it brings a certain vibe and environment. I think you shouldn’t forget where the team came from last year, which was obviously a very difficult season for them. And we kind of worked our way out of that a little bit, dug ourselves out, it rewarded us with many strong races this year and with a car that’s competitive in the midfield for most of the season. So, yeah, we’ve come a long way and need to keep doing what we’re doing.
Q: Carlos, another really strong weekend for you in Vegas. Given where you started that race, were you hoping for a little bit more come Saturday night?
Carlos SAINZ: No, not really. I think starting from P3 from a crazy qualifying, the moment you know the race is going to be dry, the normal thing is to go backwards—especially if the top cars are starting next to you, which was the case. I think in Baku I was starting P2, but the McLarens, the Mercedes and the Ferraris were not even in Q3, or they were towards the back end of Q3. Some crashed, some had their issues, and in Baku I could hold on to the podium. But in Vegas, they were starting too close to me. They had two to four tenths pace advantage, and over 50 laps that’s a lot of seconds of race time that they’re going to catch at some point. So, no, I was quite happy with the race. I think the second midfield car was quite far behind, so I think we did everything we could to get the maximum points for the team that race.
Q: You’ve spoken in the past about Qatar being potentially a difficult weekend. Why?
CS: Well, it’s just at the speed range where every track we go to, we’re the slowest on those sorts of corners. It’s 150 to 200 km/h, medium-speed, high-speed corners—fourth, fifth, sixth gear. Every track we go to, we see the GPS data, and we tend to be one of the slowest cars or one of the slowest teams. And in Qatar, you only have those corners. So, unless we come up with something magical in terms of setup that switches the car on for this kind of corners—which we cannot switch on in other tracks—I’m afraid it’s going to be the most or one of the most difficult weekends of the season. Having said that, I think it’s a great opportunity for the team and for myself to learn why we are weak in this kind of corners, why our car doesn’t like this kind of corners, and still try to execute a good weekend in a difficult track.
Q: Last one from me. Can we just get your reflections on year one at Williams? Have you exceeded your pre-season expectations?
CS: It’s a difficult question. I think expectations are always high but going into this year I tried to get them in check, knowing it was going to be a difficult year for me—coming obviously from a top team, getting back into the midfield and not knowing exactly what kind of car Williams was going to deliver for this year. But honestly speaking, I think if you would have told me when I signed my Williams contract back in the summer of 2024 that this year there would be a podium, fifth in the Constructors’—which we’re trying to seal soon—only a couple of tenths off the top teams in a lot of tracks, another podium in a Sprint, plenty of points for both Alex and me… I think I would have signed even quicker. So, I think it’s a good first year—not perfect because we’ve gone through, like every midfield team, a lot of ups and downs. I’ve had to readapt myself back to racing a bit more in the midfield. And for sure, it hasn’t been a perfect year, but we’ve had a lot of good highlights and good moments, better moments than I would have probably even dreamed or wished for.
Q: Thank you, Carlos. And, Lewis, can we continue this theme with you? How do you look back on your first season with Ferrari?
Lewis HAMILTON: I don’t. Just look forwards.
Q: Just talk about it a little bit…
LH: There’s not really much to say. The results have shown. There are some positives to take from it, and you just move forwards.
Q: What positives can you take from this season?
LH: Gelled with the team and there’s amazing passion within the team. And just going to focus on next year.
Q: What’s the biggest thing you’ve learned in the last 12 months or so?
LH: Probably just rebounding. Just getting back up.
Q: Can we reflect very quickly on something you said after the race on Saturday evening in Vegas about not looking forward to next season. You’ve had a few days to reflect, the adrenaline is no longer in your body—do you still feel the same way now?
LH: I think probably I’d be surprised if the other drivers are excited about next year at the end of a season, because usually you don’t have a lot of energy at the end of a season. You’re looking forward to time with family and stuff. That’s really it. But, I mean, look—that was just in the heat of frustration. Often, there’s a lot of frustration at the end of the races, particularly when they haven’t gone well. So, no, I’m excited to see what the team build next year and to continue to build on with them.
Q: If the car performs better at these final couple of race weekends, will that change your outlook?
LH: No.
Q: What’s possible, do you think, in Qatar this weekend?
LH: I don’t know. I think the car should be pretty decent in the areas that Carlos was mentioning, in terms of speed profile. I think our car should be pretty good in those areas. Might be hard to keep up with the Red Bull, but I’m hoping for a better weekend.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (David Croft – Sky Sports F1) There is a drivers’ meeting tonight discussing driving standards guidelines. As we have three hugely experienced drivers with us, one of whom celebrates his 250th grand prix next week, what would you like to see change in those driving standards guidelines that isn’t quite right at the moment?
CS: I’ll go…. GPDA! I think first, we need to sit together, analyse quite a few of the incidents. I think there’s been quite a lot of division in opinion between drivers, FIA, Stewards—just different ways to judge different incidents. This year, there’s been quite a bit of confusion regarding a few of them. We need to sit together and go through them and analyse them calmly, out of the heat of the moment, like we are now on a Thursday before a race and try to hopefully come up with a better solution for the future. My personal opinion – and here I’m not talking from a GPDA perspective, just as Carlos Sainz – is that there’s potential to do better and that the guidelines themselves have created more problems than solutions in a lot of issues that have happened this year in the way we judge incidents. There’s been barely any room for racing incidents this year. It’s always been either white or black because we’ve been supported by the guidelines, and the guidelines haven’t allowed racing incidents to be judged as racing incidents because there was always a tyre in front or behind a mirror or a front or rear tyre—whatever the guidelines say, I don’t know them by heart. It’s been, in that sense, not a successful implementation of those guidelines. But that’s what we need to discuss that’s why we need to sit together and see if there’s any other solution.
Q: Lewis? Nico?
LH: He answered it well.
NH: (no response)
Q: (Rui Chagas – DAZN Portugal) Question for Nico. We had three rookies here just before you, and I think it’s unanimous that they always say they learn with their teammate and so on. Have you learned anything with Gabi, as he’s a rookie as well, or has he helped push you throughout the season?
NH: Absolutely. I mean, being a rookie doesn’t mean you can’t perform or you don’t know how to drive. I mean, we all were rookies at one point. You’ve got to start at one point in F1. And for sure, Gabi’s been very impressive on the driving side—driving inputs, driving techniques as well—it’s something that he’s really strong at. So to be honest, there have been many points this year where I learned from him. We bounce off each other, looking at each other’s data. Just, yeah, absolutely, yes.
Q: (Tom Slafer – DAZN Spain) Question for Carlos. This weekend we have this limit of tyre usage which basically makes it a two-stopper, which is something that Formula 1 is investigating to put in the future for all the races. You can give me your opinion or GPDA’s—whatever you prefer. What do you make of this system?
CS: I think it’s a temporary thing, this 25-lap limit here only for Qatar. I don’t think it would work in the future to put a forced two-stop limit. I’ve seen some comments saying that. I think the races are the best when you have a variety of strategy and it’s between a one and a two, or between a two and a three. But it’s never good when it’s a forced two-stop like we saw in Monaco or here a few years ago, when it was almost like a three-stopper or a four-stopper mandated. Because if in the end, everyone has the same deg, same tyres, it’s not like you can do much with flexibility. And I think the future solution of F1 is having more of a variety of strategies that can work, rather than a mandated number of stops. But I think for here it’s just purely reliability, and we will see.
Q: (Mara Sangiorgio – Sky Sports Italy) A question for Lewis. I was looking at the standings and you and Kimi are very close. You know him, you work with him. How do you see his progress as an opponent this year?
LH: Kimi? I mean, I haven’t worked with Kimi, but I’m enjoying watching him grow as a man and as a driver. I think he’s done an amazing job this year. Particularly in the second half of the season, he’s really stepped it up. So, I’m really happy to see that, and we have a great relationship.
Q: (Panagiotis Seitanidis – ANT1 TV) A question for all three. We have, in two turns ahead, a new era for Formula One. I know you don’t have crystal balls, but what is your gut feeling about where your teams will be next year?
LH: I don’t have a gut feeling. I don’t know. No one knows.
CS: No one knows. I have a good feeling. But no one knows.
NH: Gut feelings are not worth that much. Hopefully a bit stronger than what we are now, but we’ll see.
Q: (Ian Parkes – Racing News 365) Question for you, Lewis. When you had pen in hand about to sign your Ferrari contract, if you’d known then what you know now and the year that you’ve gone through, would you have still gone for it? And if so, why?
LH: Well, firstly, that’s a hypothetical question, so I wouldn’t really go into that. But I would, absolutely. I don’t regret the decision I made joining the team. I know it takes time to build and grow within an organisation, and I expected that. So, yes.
Q: (Jake Boxall-Legge – Autosport) Question for Carlos. You spoke about the driving standards meeting. Slightly existential question: do we really need racing guidelines, and has there been something that you could pinpoint that necessitated the implementation of them?
CS: Again, I’m going to speak as Carlos Sainz, not as GPDA here. I’m going to give you as honest an answer as possible. I think recently after races I’ve seen some analysis done of quite a lot of the incidents. Some of them by Karun Chandhok, some of them by Jolyon Palmer, some of them by Anthony Davidson. And every time I see this analysis that they do and the verdict that they give—from racing drivers that have been recently racing—I think they do a very good analysis and they put the blame correctly most of the time on who actually has the blame or if it’s actually just a racing incident. My future ideal is no guidelines and people that are able to judge these sorts of incidents as well as these three people do after the races. Again, this is just my opinion, but I’m quite impressed at the job some of the broadcasters do after a race with this in-depth analysis of each of the incidents and how they apply blame or no blame into certain scenarios. I think that’s a level of analysis and a level of ‘stewardness’, if you want to call it that way, that I think is very high level. Probably doesn’t mean we’ll agree 100% on the cases that these three ex-drivers give, but I think a lot of times, they are very close—90%, let’s say, correct. And if I had to go and see Formula 1 in the future on the stewarding level, this is more or less the level that I would appreciate.
Q: Carlos, if there were no guidelines, would it change your approach—you being drivers, I mean?
CS: This is where I get lost. Like, I don’t know if we need guidelines or not. I just say that when I see these people taking the time to analyse this sort of incident as a driver—when I see how they do it, the language they speak, how they explain it, and obviously the background they have to make this analysis—I really feel like they understood what happened in that incident, and the judgement they take. This doesn’t mean that the stewards don’t do a good job. It just means that what I see after the race from these people is actually a very high level that I think, without guidelines, they would be able to judge each decision correctly. And there wouldn’t be a bias or anything like that.
Q: (Samarth Kanal – The Race) A question for all three of you. This ground effect era is getting to an end. It’s got some inherent traits like understeer in low-speed corners and things like that. So have you enjoyed driving this era of cars? And are you ready to say good riddance, or is it a sad farewell?
LH: Yeah, I think we’re all excited to see the back end of these ones for sure.
CS: Same. I had a struggle with them in 2022 adapting to this generation, and I’ve had a bit more success later on adapting to it, but it’s not in my nature to drive these cars the way I have to drive them. I actually had to relearn a couple of different skills that I didn’t know I would need to drive a Formula 1 car. And I’m glad it’s over, and hopefully next year I can go back to a more natural driving style.
NH: I think a bit more neutral for me. I don’t mind it. I think just the following, particularly this year, has really become very, very bad. But otherwise—I mean, bit heavy, yes—but in quali, they’re pretty quick. So, I don’t mind it.
Q: (Luke Smith – The Athletic) Lewis, picking up on your mention of the passion you felt within the team this year. Is that one of the brightest points, do you think, through your first season with Ferrari? And the connection with the Tifosi as well—have you found that experience, even through quite a tough year on track?
LH: Yeah. The passion is the most special thing about the brand and the people that work for it. And then the Tifosi—as we travel around the world, the amazing support that we get. I think that probably makes it even harder when we have the more difficult weekends because you can see how passionate, how dedicated, and how hard every single person is working back at the factory, and the results are not reflecting or rewarding them. So, you feel it more. It’s a big emotional bubble that’s quite precious.
Q: (Diletta Colombo – AutoMoto) A question for Lewis. 2026 is full of unknowns, as you said before. But do you think that Ferrari could turn a new leaf as far as the execution and cohesion within the team are concerned?
LH: I definitely think there’s… We have a lot of work to do, for sure, over winter. We’ll analyse the season. There are lots of improvements we need to make collectively, but I think no one’s under any illusion in the team that we all have to play our part. And I believe that we can. So, yeah, I’m hoping we implement and make those changes, along with hopefully a better package next year.
Q: (Leonid Kliuev – Grande Prêmio) One more for Lewis. Are you concerned about the difference in results with Charles? Let’s imagine the car is much stronger next year. How confident are you that you can outperform Charles in that much more rewarding scenario?
LH: I’m not concerned about it. No. Of course, I’ve just been focusing on my side during this period. Obviously, Charles has done a great job. He’s been there for seven years. He’s got a team around him that he’s worked with for many years. So, it’s a well-oiled machine. On my side, it’s a new group of people. For me, it’s a new environment that I’m still getting used to working with. Then I had another new member halfway through the year. So, we’re all working as hard as we can, but getting that to work as well as someone that’s had it for several years is not—you don’t just do it like that. It takes a bit of time.
Q: (Dzhastina Golopolosova – F1Maximaal.nl) One more for Nico. Helmut Marko once said that you could have been Max Verstappen’s teammate, but Perez’s victory in Bahrain changed everything. Have you ever imagined what Formula 1 would look like with Verstappen and Hülkenberg at Red Bull?
NH: Not really, because, you know, I’m not really the dreamer type. It would be different, but, you know, it didn’t happen. I had a few close misses, but at the end of the day, they don’t matter. They don’t count. I am where I am and what happened, happened.
Q: You’re not a dreamer, but how close did it get, that Red Bull deal?
NH: Well, not close enough, obviously.
Q: While I’ve got you, Nico, can we just talk Constructors’ Championship? Sauber currently P9, but you’re only—what is it—five points behind Haas in P7. It’s a transitional year for the team, but how important is that P7?
NH: Well, it’s important for all of them—with Aston and with Haas. We’re in that fight. Two to go, obviously sprint here. Everyone wants to do as well as they can. Same rules apply. Obviously, we’ll all do our best and see who comes out where.
Q: (Ian Parkes – Racing News 365) Carlos, you mentioned how much you enjoy listening to the analysts on the various broadcast channels. Do you feel it would take a driver with a more recent racing mindset, shall we say, to be a representative on the stewards’ panel going forward compared to some of the older generation that are representatives on there now?
CS: Well, I think I need to be very careful with this. I do think there’s older generation people that do a very good job with the stewarding. I don’t want to name any names. I don’t want to be personal with anyone. But I do think there’s people out there doing a very decent job. The only thing I say—and I insist that I don’t want to get into too much analysis here—is that when I hear these people, these young ex-racing drivers doing analysis, they speak a lot of sense. When I read and I say, “If we could have two or three of these judging our racing incidents or our penalties,” I think most of the time these people wouldn’t need guidelines. They would be very honest and very accurate in taking some of the conclusions that we would need them to take. So, I put it out there as an idea. Obviously, nowadays, to come to 24 races, probably you also need a fixed salary. You need the job to be relatively important because it takes a lot of time out of your life. So, we need to look at how to organize that. But again, I don’t want to get into too much analysis here. I just want to say that when I take time to see those back—maybe two days after I go home and it comes up in social media, these people making the analysis—I’m like, I see it exactly the same way. And I think most of the drivers see it in a very similar way. So, it’s an idea.
