Q: Very well done today. Thank you, Lando. Charles, let’s come to you now. Congratulations to you. Your best result since Monaco. Just how much satisfaction do you take, not only from today, but from the weekend as a whole?
Charles LECLERC: Quite a bit. I mean, it’s been a very positive weekend. I think we did not expect to be replicating what we’ve done in Austin. We knew that in Austin we had done the perfect execution, but we also knew that on paper we maybe didn’t have the pace that McLaren or Red Bull had. And to be on the podium at that race was a surprise, but we managed to do that again and one step higher on the podium as well. So it’s been a really strong weekend. I think, as we know already, in terms of pure performance from the car, it’s been quite long that we’ve been switching our minds to 2026, and so that helped us a little bit more into this last part of the season. But by doing perfect executed weekends, we managed to get two podiums in a row, which is a really nice feeling.
Q: Max was gaining rapidly at the end there. How relieved were you to see the VSC come out?
CL: Yeah. I was very happy to see the Safety Car coming out in the last two laps. I think without it, there was more chance of Max getting past than me staying in front. Especially with those Medium tyres, the feeling was just not there from the beginning to the end. I was definitely tempted by the two stops, but I don’t know. At the end, I just stuck to what I was on, which was the Medium tyre, and tried to make it work—and we did. It was close. We got a little bit lucky, but I’m proud we made it stick.
Q: Can we get your thoughts as well about the run to Turn 1? It all got very spicy for you.
CL: Yeah. I didn’t enjoy that at all. I normally quite like fighting, but in this case, being in the middle of Lewis and Max it’s one of those kinds of situations where, as a driver, you cannot do much. Just pray that Max and Lewis will give me enough space just to make the corner. And I touched a little bit with Lewis. And then there was very poor grip on the outside, so I had to cut the corner. But luckily for the three of us, it had no consequences.
Q: So Ferrari are now back in P2 in the Constructors’ Championship by just the one point. Is the car fast enough to stay in P2 through these last four events?
CL: It’s going to be very, very tough. If I look back at the last two weekends, yes. If I look before these two weekends, not really. We just need to focus race by race and do the perfect execution just like we’ve done in the last two races. That pays off, obviously, as always, but it’s very difficult to be performing at this level all the time. But that is the standard that we need to target, and hopefully that will be enough to give us second in the Constructors.
Q: Alright. Very well done to you. Thank you. And Max, we’ll come to you now. Well done on a great race. Just how good a recovery was this from you and the team given where you were with the car a couple of days ago?
Max VERSTAPPEN: Yeah. I mean, personally, I didn’t expect to be on the podium. And I think even in the first stint, it was not really looking like it. I mean, at the time, I thought we were just slow and struggling on tyres. I do think then, of course, when we swapped to the Soft and the others were on Mediums, it all looked a bit more competitive. I think, I mean, still not to the level of Lando if you take the average of the race, but the Soft definitely was a better compound to race on, and it all felt a bit better. So, yeah, I think overall to be P3 has been really good on, yeah, for us a difficult weekend.
Q: You rolled the dice at the start. Given the long run to Turn 1, I think some people were surprised to see you start on the Medium and not the Soft.
MV: I was surprised everyone else was on the Soft.
Q: How hard did you think about being on the Soft?
MV: Not at all. Okay. So that’s why I was very surprised. I had a very good start. Then you just follow the slipstream—three-wide, four-wide. I mean, just following, of course, what the car next to you is doing. So I had to move left, left, left. And then at one point, of course, you’re on the kerb and then I started bottoming out on the kerb. So that was quite hectic. And then a bit of rallying in between Turns 1 and 2. Yeah, that was quite fun. And then, yeah, got back onto the track, found my position again, and then actually, yeah, the first few laps were a bit hectic. But at the same time, also very quickly I could see that the grip was just not there, and I was really struggling actually to just follow the cars ahead of me.
Q: Final one from me. You’ve gained on the leader of the World Championship again. You’re now just 36 points back. Just how bullish are you feeling with four events to go?
MV: I mean, I lost 10 to Lando, if you look at it like that. So, I said before the weekend, everything needs to go perfect to win. And this weekend didn’t go perfect. So that’s your answer. I think it’s going to be tough, but let’s see what we can do in other tracks. I hope, of course, we won’t experience a weekend like this again, but it still shows that we’re not quick in every scenario. And that’s what we need to understand, I think, a bit better.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Gabriel Martínez – TV AZTECA deportes) Lando, congratulations for your first win in Mexico. The last McLaren driver to do it was Ayrton Senna. On top of that, you are now the new championship leader. How does it feel to be part of the history of a track with so much flavour, so much legacy? And, secondly, do you consider that you are now the new favourite driver to win the championship.
LN: I mean, first of all, I think to win anywhere is pretty good. I mean, to win here is also very special. I mean, with the stadium and everything, it’s one of the coolest podiums of the season. Yeah, probably along with Monaco, Monza, Silverstone, that kind of thing. So it’s pretty special. And, of course, for the first time, you know, since Senna won here, it’s nice to bring McLaren back to the winning ways here, obviously, for such a long time. And to have my name anywhere close to someone like that is pretty special. So, yeah, something that’s always nice to look at and I’m sure to look back on in ten, twenty years is pretty cool too. So that’s great. And for the championship, I mean, who knows? It’s still pretty tight between us. Max has still caught me over the last, what, six, seven weekends. So, yeah, write what you want. It’s your decision. But, you know, I’ve been keeping my head down, keeping focus, doing my own thing, and that’s all you can do. But every weekend’s new, every weekend’s different, and still a long way to go.
Q: (Tim Hauraney – TSN) Question for Max. Max, that Soft tyre stint looked pretty impressive. But when the VSC came out, what were you thinking? Was it frustrating to see it?
MV: No, not really. I mean, sometimes the safety car has been very nice to me as well in my career. So sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. It’s how it goes in racing. Would have been fun, I think, to the end. Well, maybe a bit more fun for me than for Charles defending, but it would have been a fun ending, I think, for everyone to watch.
Q: (Tom Cary – The Telegraph) Lando, quick one for you. Well done on the win. Just wondered about the booing. Where’s that come from, and did it sour the victory at all?
LN: Oh, sour. I like sour sweets. I don’t know why, to be honest. People can do what they want, honestly. They have the right to do it if they want to do it. So I think that’s sport sometimes. I don’t know why I can’t stop laughing when I get booed. I think it makes it more entertaining for me. So, yeah, they can keep doing it if they want. Of course, you don’t want it. I prefer if people cheer for me. But I don’t know. Who knows? Like I said, I just concentrate on doing my things. It was the same in, what, Monza and a few other places. So, yeah. I don’t know why. I just can’t stop laughing. So, if they want to continue they can.
Q: (Carlos Jalife – Fast Mag) Let me give you a little bit of background on why the booing. It seems that the Mexican people think—we did a poll—that you are being given the championship. That’s why the booing is coming. And we asked, “What should Lando do?” and they said return the three points. That was the question that got the highest percentage of the answers. So basically, that’s the background of the booing in Mexico. So, would you be willing to return those three points?
LN: From where?
Q: (Carlos Jalife – Fast Mag) From the race that you stopped, they messed up your pit stop, and then you were given the place back that got the three points—the extra points. So basically, people feel that you’re being given the championship.
LN: Sure. If they want to think that, then they certainly have the right to—they can think whatever they want. Yeah. I guess from us as a team, of course, we try and do things fairly. That was the comments we made back then. The same with, you know, two years ago in Budapest when I could have won the race and had to let Oscar back through and let him win a race he deserved to win. It was no different to that really. It was an incorrect decision that we made as a team to box him first—and, or me first here. And, yeah, to be honest, if you want to have the three points, they can. But they have the right to think whatever they want. But, yeah, like Oscar deserved the win last year in Budapest, I deserve to be ahead at Monza. Simple as that.