European Grand Prix – Saturday 18th June 2016. Baku, Azerbaijan

Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) It’s not less bumpy or something like that?

DR: The straight is bumpy, sure, and to be honest, I think all of us, all weekend are trying to find where there’s less bumps and I think it’s actually even changed a little bit compared to yesterday.. But yeah, I think the key for Checo and I today was not the way we took the straight, it’s turn 15. I think having the crash there was very character-building and that’s the reason we’re here today.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – Globo Esporte.com) Daniel, here is a genuine power unit engine and it looks like you’re in very good shape and concerning what you just said, is it because if you go near the wall, it’s the more straight line, it means shorter distance? You’re fighting for thousandths of seconds…

DR: Yeah, yeah. You want to find… there’s a few jokes in my previous answer but yeah, you want to find the shortest line and then the line of least resistance. Yeah, that’s why I was doing it!

Oh, the engine? Yeah, it looks like everyone’s a lot closer this weekend. The Mercedes-powered cars seem quite quick from yesterday; Force India and Williams were very competitive. We had to take a little bit of downforce off to try and get closer but yeah, as Canada, we’re seeing improvements so we’re getting there.

Q: (Oana Popoiou – F1 Zone) Sergio, we are yet to see a clean race for Force India. Is it going to happen tomorrow?

SP: I hope so, I really hope so. I think the team definitely deserves it. I think Nico had a problem today. I think he should definitely be around here, you know, and hopefully tomorrow we can put together a great race and make a lot of progress and who knows what can happen? It’s going to be a lot going on in this race and hopefully we can do a strong performance tomorrow.

Q: (Niharika Karnasingh Ghorpade  – Top Gear India Magazine) To all three of you: almost 60 percent of the drivers have had off-track moments at T15, T3 or T4. How do you think you’re going to avoid those in tomorrow’s race, knowing how critical it is?

NR: It is a very exciting track, it’s a tough track so that’s why we have been seeing so many mistakes everywhere and that’s why tomorrow’s race is going to be – for sure – very very interesting and I think there’s going to be a lot going on.

SP: Yeah, we’re pushing to the maximum and sometimes more than that. As soon as you go over it you pay for it. It doesn’t matter if it’s T15 or it’s T2 or T3, it doesn’t matter, you really pay for it here. Tomorrow, I think, you’re going to see some crashes, some mistakes. Hopefully not me again but there will obviously be mistakes around this place because it’s so difficult and we are all pushing to the maximum.

DR: Yeah, I think they’ve really done a really great job with the circuit. It’s very challenging, very easy to make mistakes so I think that’s what’s going to create an exciting race. It makes it difficult for us but that’s why we enjoy racing as well. We love the challenge and some of the real modern circuits, I feel, are too open and you don’t really get that sense of risk and reward and that adrenaline rush that you get through, so here, you get that on several corners and you know if you brake a little bit late you’re going to pay the price.  In saying that, I think it’s still done safely, I think if you crash, the run-off or how the barriers are shaped it’s safe but sure it’s going to ruin your race. I think it’s got a really good balance.




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