PART ONE – Oliver BEARMAN (Haas), Franco COLAPINTO (Williams), Zhou GUANYU (Sauber)
Q: Ollie, why don’t we start with you? Welcome back to Formula 1 and a full race weekend for you this time. What are your expectations coming into this one?
Oliver BEARMAN: Yeah, it’s nice to be back, first of all. Of course, not the circumstances I would have hoped, but nonetheless, it’s a great opportunity to build up my experience, get a full weekend under my belt, like you said. With some notice this time. I’ve known it was coming, which is helpful. And yeah, I just want to use it to really build up step by step and enjoy it as well.
Q: How much difference does the notice period make? Because of course you were parachuted in on Saturday morning in Saudi Arabia at Ferrari. You’ve had a couple of weeks now to build up to this. What have you been doing in that time?
OB: Yeah, of course, knowing that I’m going to race is a big help. Also, the fact that I’m going to do FP1 and FP2, that’s going to help me a lot, just to build it up. And, you know, another street track, I’ll have time to build it up, not have to take any risk. And yeah, of course, I’ve been training hard, but I’ve been doing that anyway because I’m racing next year. Yeah, just continuing the training process and making sure I’m as ready as possible.
Q: And tell us about Baku. You have a tremendous record here, having won both Formula 2 races here last year. It’s a tricky track, but one that you go very well at. Are you excited to be making your first full weekend Grand Prix appearance at this racetrack?
OB: Yeah, like you said, last year went pretty well. And yeah, I was excited to come here in F2. And of course, to make the step to F1 for this weekend is a great experience. I’m really looking forward to it. I got a lot of confidence at this track last year. From the outside, it was a very clean weekend. On the inside, I hit the wall every single session. So I’m going to be trying to tone that down a little bit. And yeah, just have a clean weekend and enjoy it as well.
Q: Is that the goal? Just have a clean weekend and enjoy it, and what will be, will be?
OB: Yeah, exactly. I just want to build up step by step, because we have time to do that. In F2, you have to be straight on the pace, take a lot of risk, with just one session. We have three of them this weekend. So I just want to maximise myself and gain experience. It’s going to be the most sessions I’ve done in F1 in a single time. I’ve never done an FP2 session before. I’ve done all the others, but not FP2. So yeah, it’ll just be a case of building it up. And enjoyment is coming anyway. So yeah.
Q: Best of luck to you. Thank you, Ollie. Franco, if we could come to you now. Before we talk about Baku, can we throw it back a couple of weeks to Monza? How do you reflect on that first Grand Prix weekend?
Franco COLAPINTO: It was very special. It’s amazing to see here so many people. In F2, there were so little, and now it’s full! But I’m very happy to be here. It was a very special moment in my career. Of course, you always work for that goal and that dream, since you are very little. And to have achieved it in Monza… It’s very late notice. I was in the sim for F2, preparing the race of Monza, with the MP team. Suddenly, I got a call that I had to go to England and I did the best prep I could, but it was very little. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a lot of experience in the Formula 1 car. So I had to learn quite a lot of things very quick. I had a lot of information coming in from all the team members. And they were super helpful. They were really, really helpful. It helped me to process everything a little bit quicker, to do that learning process quicker. And I think part of the good performance that I had in Monza was due to my engineers, due to the mechanics, due to the warm welcome that everyone has been giving me in the team. Alex has been very, very helpful as well, very supportive and I’m just very happy to be in this team, honestly. It’s an amazing family. It’s, of course, not the best circumstances. I know Logan was very close to all the team members and it’s very sad, but of course you never choose when you get to Formula 1 and it was very special for me. It was something I was not waiting for. I was still training a lot and I was, since the beginning of the year, trying to get ready in case a Formula 1 race was coming in and I think I did the job in Monza. Of course, super grateful with the opportunity Williams gave me. The chance, the trust that James put, you know, to put a young driver again in the seat in Williams, that is something that represents the team, represents Williams. To put the young drivers and give them an opportunity, it was amazing to see and amazing to be there after so many years without an Argentine driver on the grid for it to be me the one joining the Formula 1 grid was just an amazing feeling and very special during Monza.
Q: You did a great job. What was the biggest thing you learned at Monza?
FC: I did learn so, so much stuff. But to be honest, we were going into the race with a lot of question marks. I hadn’t done more than eight laps in a row in a Formula 1 car before that. And then suddenly, they put me into 53. And it was very tough. And there were many circumstances that I was not sure what I had to do. And I was learning during the race. And we went step by step. I think that was the most important part to be building on during the race weekend. We did a good job up until Quali. I did a little mistake and I missed the chance to go into Q2, but it was still a very special weekend. The race was, as I said before, a lot of question marks and we did the job. Just bounced back very strong after a tough Quali and I showed with the team, you know, that gave me the trust to put me there and they are doing a lot of effort these last few races that, you know, I could do a job. The team is, of course, working forward and hoping to be scoring more points soon. So it’s great to see that I might help them in the future.
Q: Now, you’ve never been to Baku, never raced here. What is the approach? What are the goals for this weekend?
FC: The goal is to build up slowly. I think it’s very similar to Monza. Monza, I didn’t know the car. Now I don’t know the track. So it’s still one thing to learn only. As Ollie said before, three FPS, it’s more than enough I think for us to learn the track. I haven’t been on many street tracks, but I hope to have done enough prep in the simulator and to have worked really hard with the team to done enough to be on the pace quick. The reality is that I don’t know the next seven races. And we know that it’s going to be tough. And it was part of the risk. And it’s going to be a great experience as well to know these last seven races of the year that I haven’t been racing in. And F2 doesn’t race as well in the next six. So I know it’s going to be tough. But I’m doing a lot of work and a lot of prep to be ready for it. Of course, I think we have a really good car to be able to score points. And I’m going to try to do the best I can. I think go step by step, session by session, and then see where we end up.
Q: Best of luck to you. Zhou, can we just start by giving some advice? Neither of these two has been here in a Formula 1 car before. Any advice for them?
Zhou GUANYU: Honestly, I think just enjoy the weekend because I think… especially, I think, for Ollie who has already done a whole weekend. He know how this is feeling. And for Franco, I think he will just enjoy all the races, like I did in my first season. I mean you know like the circumstances are different but I think every driver especially in F2 really wants to take that chance and here is the perfect platform for them to shine and have a nice future. So, yeah, I just wish them all the best but not to go too fast though and stay behind.
Q: Why don’t we talk about the performance of Sauber? The team said there were a lot of learnings over the Monza weekend. What were they? Where are you at in terms of performance at the moment?
ZG: You know, every weekend we’re like… Obviously we’re having a similar package for a few races in a row now, but like every weekend we’re trying to extract as much as we could. Like together with me and my teammate, we try to have a different set up to understand what is needed for the current situation to make a bigger step even for the next coming races, or for the future development. So it’s a tough situation at the moment, just because I think we don’t really have the pace for fighting anywhere close to the top 10. And we keep the, let’s say, motivation high and we want to learn as much as we could in every circumstance and to understanding therefore, high downforce track, low downforce track, and then see how it goes. Also, here in Baku and Singapore, because I think the last two races, the coming two, will be completely different circumstances. But yeah, it’s a difficult one to give a very high expectation, but we are trying to work in each individual areas that current weakness and trying to solve that. And hopefully that can give us better coming up races. And in terms of performance, we can be fighting more close up.
Q: Well, what about this weekend? I mean, it’s a unique track layout here, isn’t it? You’ve got the 2.2-kilometre straight and then it’s a street track the rest of the way. Will that make things better for you or not?
ZG: I think it makes us more hopeful for sure for the race. I think the race will never end until the last laps. And for us in the past, I think this not being one of the tracks we’ve been especially struggling a lot with and we’re just hoping with what we have this year so far that can give us a better overall performance and in terms of using as much as we could with the benefits of the current car. And yeah, the rest we need to go step by step from FP1 and see how it goes. And I think the most important is a lot of circumstances or tracks we go to when the car, you put that on ground, it is working well and then you have a really good weekend. So we just need a few more of these, back like the beginning of the season, and then we should be in a much better position.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Harry Benjamin – Sky Sports F1) Questions to Olie. I just want to focus on the notice period you mentioned there. Obviously, you’ve had a couple of weeks in comparison to being parachuted into Saudi. But was it only a couple of weeks? Did you have a little bit longer? Because Kevin’s been on 11 points for a fair while. A ban was highly likely before the end of the year. I’m just wondering if the team or Ayao said anything to you longer than a couple of weeks ago, just to start getting ready before the end of the season, just in case?
OB: Well, I mean, my preparations have been kind of looking towards next year, since the announcement that I’ll be racing with the team next year. And it has been a while that Kevin’s been close to a race ban. So I knew it was a potential possibility to jump in the car at any point. And yeah, if I could have chosen, it would be one that doesn’t clash with F2, but you know, you don’t choose when to jump in F1 and every opportunity is one that you take. But yeah, I’ve been really preparing for next year and part of that means that I’m ready also now. So it’s another great opportunity to show how I’ve improved and what I can do.
Q: (Roldán Rodríguez – DAZN Spain) Question to Colapinto, to Franco. Congrats for the race. I would like to know, in terms of driving, you have a very good teammate, Alex Albon. Where is the point where you have to improve on driving style to get closer to him?
FC: Yeah, it’s tricky. It’s a very big step from F2 to F1. And luckily, I’ve been working a lot in the simulator. I’ve been helping the team to improve the car as well in the deal. So that’s been very helpful already. I think it prepared me well for the races. I have a lot of things to work on. Of course, going into the race, we didn’t have any information, almost – about my data, about what I was doing wrong. So now we have a lot more things to work on. And we used very well, I think, these two weeks to understand better what do I need to do better. It’s a kind of similar track, I think. Very low speed, long straights, low downforce. So I think it’s going in the same direction. I had to fix a few things that I really worked on in the sim. It has a lot of power. It’s sometimes a bit difficult to manage the power, the slip on exits, the slip on entries. Tires are very sensitive to it and I just need to manage that a little bit better. Alex is very smooth. He has got a lot of experience in Formula 1, and I am, I think, using that very well to understand in what areas I need to improve. I think that the tyres are the most difficult part to understand and just working on that to nail every session. But it’s always difficult. Yeah, really working on that to be better in the next few rounds.
Q: (Diego Mejia – Fox Sports Mexico) Question to Franco. So Franco, congrats on the debut as well. Seems like your popularity has suddenly exploded in Argentina and part of Latin America. You’ve been enjoying it on social media, as we’ve seen over the past few days. How are you embracing that? And what has surprised you about the change from two weeks ago when you were still a Formula 2 driver?
FC: Well, no, I always enjoy to interact with the people. Luckily, the Argentinian fans are amazing. And in one way, they help me a little bit to get to where I am now. So it’s always nice to interact with them. Not many drivers do. And it’s always nice to have a little bit of time. I already did before, but now it just went a bit more crazy. I’m already deleting all the social media, so that’s gone probably! And my community manager will have to deal a little bit more with it. But just fully focused on the weekend. And of course, it’s amazing to have so much support from your country. As I said before, you never choose when you get to Formula 1. And it’s just a moment that I’m luckily enjoying a lot. And yeah, just trying to make the most out of it.
Q: Have you been surprised by the reception back home?
FC: No. I knew it was going to be like this. It’s been 23 years since an Argentinian driver got to Formula 1 the last time. And there was so much need of the country. They love sports. And there was so much need from Argentina to have a Formula 1 driver on the grid. They are very, very big motor sport fans. To be honest, I would have loved when I was very little to have someone in Formula 1 to be able to support, to be able to wake up in the mornings and watch the races. And I didn’t have that. And of course, it’s a pleasure that it’s me now, the one that is here, and that so many young kids are starting in go-karts because they are seeing now the races and because motor sport is getting a little bit more and more famous and to more people in their houses. Unfortunately, I didn’t have that person to be cheering for, but it’s amazing that I can see so many people now happy, enjoying, as I am doing here in Formula 1, but also from their houses, cheering and supporting so much.
Q: (Albert Fàbrega – ESPN LATAM) Question for Franco. Was there any special advice, any special message that you received before you start the race from other drivers or from other personnel from the Formula 1 that at the end of the race you say, wow, he was right on that?
FC: Yeah, I did. Actually, the first message I received was from Lando, as soon as it got announced. He just won the race before, and he sent me a message. So he was very nice, very polite. And I’ve been speaking in the Drivers’ Parade later with the guys, with Charles, Lando, Alex and they have been giving me some tips and some things to be aware of. Some things I have been struggling with, that they have helped. But it is very difficult. Until you don’t drive the car, it’s like they told me before driving the Formula 1 car, it’s very tough on the brakes, it’s impressive how much acceleration it has. Then the power, how quick it’s in the entry of the corners. And you can imagine it. But until you drive it, you don’t really realise. You don’t get the feeling of how it is. And it’s amazing. It’s the same on the races. You have to do it to understand some things. And even if they tell you, it’s like, ‘yeah, yeah, I get it’. But until I don’t do it, it’s difficult to feel it. And they have been a lot of drivers. They are very nice and helpful. I think it’s a great community in F1. And it’s the best drivers in the world. So it’s just very nice to be here.
Q: (Albert Fàbrega – ESPN LATAM) Another one for Franco, but as well for Ollie and Zhou. Jumping from the Formula 2 to a Formula 1, do you think that the car is teaching you, is preparing you on the right way, because using the same tyres and the type of car, the characteristics of the car, is preparing you perfectly to jump on a Formula 1? Or there is always a gap that you can never expect?
OB: I mean, it’s the closest category to F1, but I think nothing can really prepare you for F1. Just, you know, the amount of investment and time that goes into producing an F1 car and it’s developed throughout the year and optimised really by so many people, it’s really a different ballgame than driving the F2. So, you know, despite the F2 being the closest as possible to F1, it’s still a very big step once you get to the F1.
Q: In terms of performance, what is the biggest step?
OB: For me, it’s just the downforce level of F1. It allows you to do so much more. The way you drive the car is a bit different. I would relate it a bit more to F3. F3 is a very similar driving style to F1. And yeah, you can just play with the limit a bit more in F1. And yeah, like I say, it’s optimised. So it’s really, I mean, when the car is on point, it’s really perfect. And it’s more of a confidence thing, whether you extract the lap time or not whereas yeah it’s a bit less once you really know the car enough to it’s more you know you drive to what. what is possible from the car other than yourself.
FC: Yeah, I think it’s a championship that is the closest to Formula 1, but nothing can really compare to this. Suddenly, when I got the first test from working with two or three engineers, suddenly I opened a room and there were 30 of them. And you had one that is checking the wing, one that is checking the clutch. One for each little thing. And it’s just like, it’s a completely different level of investment, of technology. And it’s something that you need to get used to. And I think that’s what academies like Williams, or some others maybe, but especially Williams, I think they are doing so well to prepare us as drivers. They are investing a lot of time on preparing us. I think it showed it when I jumped in the car that I hadn’t got any mileage. I only did a half day in Abu Dhabi and I did one FP1 in Silverstone and that was it. That was my Formula 1 running. One hour of track in Silverstone and a little bit in Abu Dhabi and I was on the pace almost straight away. And I think that shows that the team is doing a good job with the young drivers to be able to prepare them. A Formula 2 car, it’s a very nice car to drive, but it’s still a bit far off F1, I think. In F1, everything is maximised. Everything is the best it can be. And you drive the car, and you have no issues. In F2, you go to engineer, you can complain about every part of the corner if you want. But that’s why they have so much work to do. But in F1, everything is close to perfection, and they are following that. They have a lot of tools to be able to maximise the car that you have, and it’s just an amazing car to drive. It’s the fastest in the world, and it’s something you never experienced before.
Q: Zhou, you drove the old F2 car. How did you find the step?
ZG: Actually, I don’t know how the new car, by the sound of it, looks a bit different. On the old one, actually, it wasn’t a massive difference in terms of the low speed. But, of course, the biggest feedback we had was the power steering wheel when it came, and also the high-speed downforce, because suddenly you are approaching a high speed with much higher minimum speed and with the lightness on the wheel that doesn’t really give you the confidence to be pushing the car around for the first time when you tried it. Yeah, I think the whole, back in the factory, how as a team, a group of people working F2, compared to Formula 1, it’s a completely different world, because obviously everything you are communicating with two of the engineers only in F2, and they’re helping with everything, starts, car balance setups, and there’s so limited, only certain things you can do. But here, you can change every single part on the car and try to… make the benefit of it. So I think it is a big step, but it is a good one to be, of course, get yourself as much prepared as possible to be ready for F1 chance.
Q: (Erwin Jaeggi – Motorsport.com) A question for Franco. After you finished the race in Monza, you said you never experienced so much pain in a car before. What did you feel exactly? Has the team discovered the cause and has the team made any changes to make things more comfortable for you here?
FC: Yeah, I think I should make changes to my body as well, probably. You know, I never drove in a carbon seat before. It’s really, really stiff. It’s like sitting on a, I don’t know… It’s like, stiff as a wall, you know? And even though they scan your body, It’s suited to your back. It was still not fully moulded, I think, to me in some parts. And we did a really good job with the team now. And it’s fully fixed, luckily. I think it’s going to be much better. Always with a little bit of bouncing on a lap you feel it a bit more. But I think it was good. In terms of how I train physically and how I was at for that race, I’m really happy. The neck, that is sometimes the toughest, yeah, it’s normally the toughest part of F1. And it reacted very well. So it means that we did a very good job on the training side. And yeah, the seat looks perfect now. So that’s very good news.
Q: (Jake Boxall-Legge – Autosport) Another one for Franco, please. Franco, having had a look at kind of your race runs throughout Monza, it became clear that your Hard-tyre run was very, very close to Alex’s on pace. Did you kind of feel comfortable doing those lap times off the bat? Because it seemed that it was kind of like a veteran stint there from someone so inexperienced.
FC: Yeah, it was good. I think it was really good, the stint on the Hards. It was really positive. And as I said before, it was a big question mark. I never drove the Hard before. The first time we were putting it was in the race. And I’ve never done more than eight laps in a row. So everything was kind of new. And I think I did a very good job in managing the tyres. I did a good job in preventing the graining, as many drivers said, it was, I think, one of the toughest races in terms of degradation, because we had a lot of issues with rear overheating, but we had also a lot of issues with front graining. So we had to manage both axles, and it was very tough. But the team took me in the right direction. They helped me so much to keep the car under control, to keep both tyres, the front and rear axle, on the low side in terms of temperature, and they have been on it all the race to try to help me with tools, to try to help me with everything I could do to keep the tyres alive. And I think we’ve been one of the only teams to be able to take both cars into one stop, which shows that I think I’ve done a very good job in the degradation. The car was good and helping the tyres as well. So it’s very positive that we could finish the race doing very good lap times. I did my best lap in the last lap, which shows that the management was good. I still need to do a lot of work, but the stint, of course, on Hard was very strong. The first one was a little bit more difficult on traffic and understanding the dirty air and all that, that was also a new thing. But I think It’s just a process, and it will get better.
Q: (Samarth Kanal – The Race) For Oliver and Franco. I just want to know, Zak O’Sullivan has pulled out of F2 due to a lack of funding. I wanted to know, is that a problem with Formula 2 that is too expensive, or is it just a fact of life? And what struggles did you have competing in that championship in terms of that?
OB: Yeah, I mean, it’s sad, you know, he’s a really talented driver and I think he was going in a really good way. His team was struggling a little bit, so I think compared to his team-mate, he was performing really well as a rookie. and a situation like that when you can’t finish the season due to funding, it’s not easy. The budgets are getting higher and higher pretty much every year in the feeder series. And yeah, without the help of my sponsors and partners, I wouldn’t have been able to do what I did. My car is completely full in F2 and it’s thanks to that that I’m able to compete. It’s tough because, you know, you have to fund it yourself and find the backing. And without that, you can’t show your talent. And I’m sad for Zak because I think he’s, every time I’ve raced him, he’s been performing really, really well. And yeah, I rate him really highly as a driver. So it’s a tough situation and a sad one as well.
FC: Yeah, I think Zak has shown this year that he was strong. He was doing a good job. Unfortunately, motor sport is like this. It’s very tough in some ways. It is a very, very expensive sport and something that we cannot change. I think we have a lot of support now of many companies that are showing in the sport. F2 has grown so, so much compared to the last few years. F3 as well. And that has, I think, allowed us, the drivers, to find more sponsors. And it has been very helpful. But it’s tough. Of course, very sad for him. I’m sure he will find a way to get back in. And he’s a very talented driver. So yeah, let’s hope we can do so.
Q: (Joost Smedema – NOS) A question to Oliver. You talked about how tricky this circuit is and about the success you had last year, although hitting the walls a few times. Can you tell us some more about this circuit and how tricky it is? Because in Monza we saw Kimi crashing when he had the opportunity in a car. Can you tell us something more about that?
OB: Yeah, it’s definitely a tough track. It’s my second race in F1, and it’s my second street track that I’m racing. So it’s been a bit of a tough draw. If I could have picked two races, it probably wouldn’t have been these ones. But then again, I had success here last year. It went well. I think, yeah, the difficult part is building up the confidence on a track like this because the walls are close. So, you know, without having confidence on the brakes, you struggle to be fast. But, you know, to get the confidence on the brakes, it’s risky. I did touch the wall quite a few times last year, most notably in qualifying where I bent the suspension, which wasn’t my finest moment. I somehow managed to do the pole, but I don’t think I’ll get away with that this year in F1. So I’m going to leave a bit more safety margin, especially in the first sessions. And yeah, I think the main goal is to build up the confidence and really be confident in the car and myself before I start to push and find the limits.
Q: (Haonan Jin – Tencent) Question to all three drivers. A lot of Formula 1 drivers believe that the wind is difficult for a Formula 1 car. And do you guys believe it, trust it, or the reason of that?
ZG: Honestly, obviously it’s quite sensitive, these cars. Especially, I think, every car is built different. Some of the team is a little bit more sensitive than the others. And Baku has been one of the windy tracks, but I think, yes, Zandvoort, it doesn’t get much worse than that, to be honest. So Zandvoort, I remember, it changed a lot of the settings and braking to Turn 1 for the high speed in Turn 8, 9. So every session, we try to check the wind and not get very communication with the engineer on the radio before breaking especially into Turn 1 when you start your flying lap. I think all this information that’s where really makes important information when it comes to quality. So , we are monitoring every wind change every single weekend and I remember some tracks that we have to change all the settings we had due to different wind circumstances, different positions. So yeah F1 car is definitely one of the toughest one to understand that because in other category you don’t really feel much on that.