Las Vegas Grand Prix Top Three Press Conference

Featuring 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix race winner, George Russell (Mercedes), Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) P2, and Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) P3.

George RUSSELL: You tell me! I'm sure where you're going, it's going to be a good party. So I was planning on flying in a couple of hours, but I'm definitely not getting on that flight. And I'm going to enjoy this evening with all my team. It's been a dream of a weekend. I don't know how we've been so quick, but I'm just riding this wave right now.

GR: Vegas is just a crazy, crazy place. And when you're driving, you see all of this in the background. I can't even describe this place. So to get a victory here, pole position, dominant weekend, 1-2 with Lewis as well, we couldn't have chosen a better place to make this happen.

GR: I was just waiting for something to happen. You know, the two races I've been on pole before, it's always been chaos, rain, dry and always something happening, last race in Brazil you know with the red flag. So, I'm like, I feel confident here, I've got a good gap but I'm just waiting for something to happen and it didn't. So I guess luck has turned and yeah just so happy right now.

Lewis HAMILTON: That was great. Well, firstly, I've got to say a big congratulations to Max, winning the championship, still with several races to go. And if I'd done my job yesterday, it would have been a breeze today. but it's OK, I had fun coming from the back, coming from 10th and the team did a fantastic job. We don't know why we were so quick this weekend but that's the nice. That's the best the car has ever felt, so I'm grateful to have been a part of getting it to that point.

LH: The climate, it's just that the race is so late. So you're going to bed at 5, 6am, waking up and starting your day much later, which is quite difficult. So you don't get a lot of sun during the day, so that really messes with your rhythm. But otherwise, it's cold, yeah. And maybe the reason that we did so well is because it's cold. If we're in a hot climate, that's where we struggle the most.

LH: I mean if the car drives like that in the next couple races then I think we'll be in a good a good spot to challenge the guys up front. And the championship's done, so now it's just all out, fight for the best positions possible.

LH: We both looked a lot younger then didn't we?

Carlos SAINZ: Yeah, it was a bit of a shock, you know, the Mediums. I was expecting to be quite strong on this tyre, but I think it lasted something like eight, nine laps on me. And then from there onwards, it was just a damage limitation race. You know, I was not comfortable with the car, not strong today. I wish I would have been a bit quicker and would have been fighting with George for the win, but we just simply didn't have it in ourselves today. So we came back with a P3, a podium that is not enough for what we expected, but the maximum that we could do today.

CS: No, I was hoping that maybe Vegas had something to offer to me after what happened last year. I'll take a podium for this year as a bit of a vendetta (sic). But, you know, at the same time, yeah, I was looking at every manhole during that race, avoiding them this time. But, yeah, that's things of the past, now focused on the future. I think this race has delivered, again, a pretty good show and looking forward to come back here in the future.

CS: Yeah, and it's been like that for four years. Charles and I have gone wheel to wheel pretty much every, not every race weekend, but every two or three races because we share the same piece of tarmac. We are both very competitive, very close on pace, and we find ourselves always fighting each other at the same time that we fight the Mercedes, the Red Bulls, and the McLarens. I don't think we could have finished more than P3 and P4 today, yeah, it's what it is. We will keep pushing and see if we can keep a good momentum up.

GR: Yeah, absolutely. It's been a real surprise seeing how strong our pace has been and securing the pole yesterday I was so pleased with. And then I think we won the race in stint one. To be honest, stint one was exceptional. And I knew from there on in the only way we would probably lose the victory is if I grained the tyres and opened them up. So it was just a case of managing my pace, managing in the right corners and bringing it home.

GR: Yeah, I think so. It's no secret that we struggle on the bumpy circuits and we have to lift the car quite a lot. We've got to make it much softer. And then we're in a downforce window where we don't have any. And it's not that we just suddenly forget how to set the car up. It's just certain circuits require us to put the car in a window it doesn't like to be. And on tracks like this where it's relatively smooth, we can get the car quite low, quite stiff, with little or no bumps around the track, we fly.

GR: I think we've got a good shot in Qatar, to be honest. Going into this triple header, I had my sights set on Qatar, even to the point that I wanted to take my freshest engine out and put an old engine in for Vegas, to save my best engine for Qatar. And I'm kind of glad we didn't do that now.

GR: I don't know, to be honest. I mean, I don't party that often. I don't know where I need to go, but I'll be going somewhere. This guy walking in will probably have a better idea than me. So where's the party?

LH: I have no clue, man!

GR: Yeah, exceptional. I mean, he had a dominant car at the start of the year and he got the wind when he needed to and then genuinely thought he probably wasn't going to win this championship. And he delivered week in, week out, and got the best result the car was capable of and his rivals didn't. And, you know, I thought it was going to go right to the wire. And, yeah, he won three (sic) races to go. So, you know, huge congrats to him. We just got to make sure that we get ourselves in that fight. And give him a harder time. Because it's about time, I think we feel ready to try and take that challenge to the front.

LH: I had a great time. When you're progressing and moving forward, it's always a great feeling. It felt very much like my old days at Rye House, starting at the back and coming through, so it was great.

LH: Honestly, I don't really remember it. Best of recent [times], of course. We got a really good balance in the car today. It felt a lot better than it was yesterday, particularly Q3 yesterday, but yeah, just phenomenal for the team.

LH: It doesn't really matter, really, does it? At the end of the day, George did a great job, did everything he was supposed to do and I'm happy for him and I'm just grateful I could get back up there to support the team with a 1-2.

LH: I have no idea. I mean, I don't think anyone in the team knows why we were as quick as we were this weekend. And everyone will be happy about it. But I think often in the hotter conditions, we struggle more. When we go into two, maybe Qatar is not so bad because it's a little bit cooler there. And the track is very smooth. So maybe we'll not be too bad at that track. I think we were OK there last year. Abu Dhabi, maybe less so. But we'll see.

LH: He's done a fantastic job. He's not made any mistakes and he's delivered every time and every point he's supposed to. And him and his team have done the best job, again, fourth year in a row. And it definitely got exciting at one point. I think they will be hard to beat next year because they probably started earlier than everyone else developing next year's car as well. But yeah, really happy for him.

CS: Yeah, more challenges, more things going on than maybe what we expected. At the same time, I think today Mercedes was just the quicker car, the quicker package. I think George and Lewis drove a very good race. At the same time that us, we just struggled too much with graining, more than what we were anticipating. And yeah, it meant that we couldn't push on the tyres. We were having to save so much that we couldn't use the pace of the car. And yeah, we were just simply not fast enough. So yeah, not our day.

CS: We just simply didn't execute in general. We just didn't execute a very good race. I think we stayed out one lap too late on Mediums, two laps too late on Hards. And by the time I was going to pit, we had this messy radio communication in the pit entry, which probably made me lose that lap that I was completely grained and I had to let pass Charles plus the two or three seconds that I lost in the pit entry. That means a lot of race time that maybe would have meant we could have ended up fighting Lewis. But yeah, it just shows that in this sport, you need to do things perfectly week in, week out. We've been doing things really well in strategy and on race management all year around. But today wasn't our day. We just didn't do things well and we will have to learn from it and make sure we come back in Qatar stronger.

CS: We just need to go into that trying to maximise whatever we have. I think over the last few weekends we've done a good job. I think today the maximum, yesterday the maximum was a P2 in quali, today the maximum was a P3 in the race. In Qatar, the maximum might be a P5 or a P6 because in that car, with this car in a track like Qatar, I expect to struggle and I expect McLaren and Mercedes to be very strong. probably also even Red Bull, given that they were strong also in quali in Austin. So yeah, I think it's going to be a very challenging weekend for us. That's why today it was important for us to get maximum number of points available, and we kind of did that for the pace that we had.

CS: Yeah, congrats. I think he's driven for four years now at an incredibly high level. I think this year he just dominated whenever he had a dominant car and then he didn't do mistakes and maximize the points that he could get with a less so performing car and just did whatever he had to do in every race. And yeah, congrats because he clearly deserves it.

CS: Yeah, I think he grained the Medium tyres and I managed to get ahead before the pit stop on Mediums. Then I did grain my Hards and he was coming quick behind me and me anticipating what was going to be a situation, because Lewis was straight behind Charles at the time, and I was pretty sure the team was going to ask me to let Charles by because he was quicker at the time. As I was on grained tyres, I asked the team two or three times to box me, to get me out of the way, and get me a new set of Hards to make sure that I wasn't losing a lot of race time by having to let Charles by and then having to fight Lewis at the same time. For some reason we didn't box and I ended up having to let Charles by a lap later than was planned and losing a lot of race time. And by the time I was going to box, then we didn't even box. So I guess he's not happy, but I'm also not happy with the way things were handled at the time. And yeah, I think no one's happy today in the team because we all expected a bit more. I'm on the podium, so at least I got that for the team. But at the same time, I don't think we could have finished much better than P3 and P4 today.

LH: Yeah, great, great performance. It's not that I didn't think I could do it. So, yeah, I've had many races like this, but I'm generally happy to have had the recovery. You know, it's a new day and I just tried to approach it with a positive mindset. and you know to be able to have a car underneath me today, and be able to push and overtake people was such a great feeling. That was honestly one of the most enjoyable races. Yeah, if I'd started pole and just led the way, wouldn't have felt as much fun, for sure. Of course, winning a Grand Prix is always a great thing, but when whoever it is faces adversity and has to battle through, it just feels so much better when you do succeed.

GR: I mean, there's not really anything you can do in these days. Preparation needed to happen beforehand. And it's going to be a challenge for everyone, but we're all in the same boat. So no one's going to be on peak condition personally, but it's just about limiting the losses.

LH: Not really much more to add to that. Not a huge amount... Just get there as soon as you can.

CS: Same, I think, as George said. It is down to the fitness that you've accumulated during the first part of the year and keeping yourself fit and healthy. It will be quite a shock to the body, but If you're fit, you're healthy, and you've managed to keep yourself warm here, don't get any colds, take melatonin whenever you have to take melatonin, and go to sleep whenever you have to go to sleep, it should get it done. But I agree that no one will be in peak form in Qatar.

GR: No, I really wanted to do it, but I was so cold after the race, I thought, like, I'm going to get super ill and this time last year I actually caught pneumonia and I was ill all the way into mid-February after Vegas and Abu Dhabi. So I was like, you know, in the moment I really wanted to do it, but then I was thinking back to the struggles I had this time 12 months ago because it's such a toll on the body. It's from all the champagne, to be honest, why I was soaking wet.

GR: I mean, obviously, it's not great timing at all for the people who are here in the moment. But we're 20 drivers, let's say 4,000 people who do all the F1 races collectively. And there's tens of millions of people who watch at home. So I'd probably say having it back-to-back with Qatar is the biggest challenge. If we have a week off afterwards, I'd say that's probably the only thing realistically that would help.

LH: I think it's great. I mean the race is amazing, so really happy to... Yeah for sure the back-to-back is not the easiest. It's massively challenging for everyone here, and particularly for the people that work in the garages that are on their feet taking the car to pieces now, packing it up and shipping it over, and they won't get a lot of rest. So for them, it's definitely the hardest, but they love it, and I don't even think if you were to ask them to change it, they would do this 10 times over. But the actual race is absolutely fantastic. It's such a great event. They've really, really done a mega job this year. So I can't wait to come back next year.

CS: Yeah, I think it's been a step forward compared to last year. I feel like last year, F1, if anything, was trying a bit too hard to put on too much of a show. It got a bit too much away from Formula 1 and too much into Vegas style. And I feel like this year we've just been just more normal doing our own thing. And it's been a success. It just shows the Formula 1 product works and you don't need to try too hard. And yeah, I'd bring the race a couple hours earlier if I could. I think it would help everyone in the paddock, everyone that does the job in this sport, I think, would put everyone in a healthier, better mood through the weekend. So a couple of hours early race and timings and not a back-to-back with Qatar. That's what I would ask everyone as the next step. For the rest, great circuit to put on a good race, great for overtaking, challenging track. I wouldn't change anything, just those two details. And I think everything will be better.

GR: Enjoy it, to be honest. It's such a special moment. Get into Formula 1, it's... For all of us it's like every step of your journey, you're climbing a ladder. And when you reach F1, that's a huge step and huge pride. And sort of cherish those moments. The driving, to be honest, is probably the easiest part of the job. It's everything else that comes with Formula 1. There's a lot more attention versus F2. It's a big leap in that regard. But just enjoy it.

LH: I don't know. Don't do absolutely everything everyone tells you to do. Ask lots of questions. Take your time. Don't let the negativity get to you because, you know, people are so negative nowadays judging you non-stop. So stay off social media and keep your family and your closest friends close to you because they are the only ones that are your true friends and they're going to be there for you when they go and get stuff.

CS: Lewis' comments and George's are spot on.

GR: Yeah, definitely. Nobody's unbeatable. And you go through these phases where teams and drivers together are dominating and people think if I went up alongside them, I wouldn't be able to compete with them. And you've got to have belief in yourself. I think, you know, the three of us here all believe in ourself. And for me personally, you know, when I teamed up with Lewis, Lewis is the greatest of all time. And, you know, Max is right up there with Lewis. So, Yeah, I absolutely believe in myself that we could fight him in equal machinery.

LH: It really depends whether they have a second-and-a-half advantage at the first race again like they did this year.

CS: As much as I think Max has done an incredible job this year, it just shows the second half of the season, eight drivers within a tenth of each other. We could all beat him week in, week out. He was extremely good, you know, at dominating with a dominant car and extremely good at not making mistakes the second half of the season. And that's what's given him, for me, driver of the year and the championship. But the second half of the season just shows that when we are all in equal, more of an equal machinery, we can all go up against each other and make each other's life difficult. And everyone starts making mistakes when they're under pressure and everyone starts complaining about their car and everyone starts complaining in the media about their car. And, you know, it's all about pressure management and not having that margin. Whenever you don't have a two, three tenths margin on your nearest rival or your teammate, suddenly a pressure ramps up and everyone is human.

LH: It's not about this year. We're talking about youngsters. We're talking about 18-year-olds. And I remember when I was 22 and you're thrown in a deep end. You've been given training as a young driver through the younger series, but you're not most of them. Probably don't have a PR person. The team will have a PR person, but they're not looking out for you. They're looking out for the team. And so you're thrown in the deep end and you're trying to be nice and people take advantage of you. And so my guidance, like if I had a young driver and I was looking after him, I would put a lot of support around him so that people can get to him. And the socials and media and stuff would not be able to affect that young individual's mindset. And I think that protecting that is really important. because then I think it's really about giving people, firstly, them getting the opportunity and not knocking them down when they make mistakes. Which one of you or anyone here, 18 years old, 19 years old, has not made mistakes? And it's just that when you do it in the spotlight, it's really, really, really tough. And so we should be lifting these people up and giving them not just one chance, two chances, just continue to support them and just not slating them because that's just not nice.