Williams in the News: Points, Penalties and Podiums

Formula 1 returned from the summer break with a dramatic Dutch Grand Prix, and now all eyes turn to Monza.

Here’s a round-up of the latest stories.

“I think today was a perfect race. We had a really strong start and then there was a lot of crashes that helped us. I don’t know why there was so much chaos, but we kept it clean and had a good race.

“We were hoping for rain, and in terms of race strategy it didn’t look like it was going to be a fun race at all, but I think we made it for ourselves with that strong start.

“By being P10 by Lap 1, it put us in contention for the rest of the race. We kept it on track and picked up the pieces of what went on around us and got that P5.”

“I think it’s a complete joke. Honestly, I need to go now to the stewards just to get an explanation to see what is their point of view of the incident because it’s unacceptable.

“I think it’s not the level of the stewards in Formula 1 if they are really considering that to be a 10-second penalty on my behalf. I think it’s a serious matter now that concerns me as a driver, as a GPDA director and something that I will make sure I raise.”

“It’s been a long time coming,” she admitted. “Singapore last year was so close in that first race, so I feel relieved to be here. Just happy for the team as well, we got to grab some good points.

“It was a clean race. Maya and I had a good battle in the last two laps, my rear tyres were going so I’m really happy to be here and I hope we keep this momentum going into the next race this weekend.”

She also spoke about her progress as a driver and the determination behind her result.

“I’ve matured, that’s for sure. As a driver and as a person. It’s been a long two years and a season and a half so far. It’s been a struggle, honestly we did not start the season the way we wanted it to. Unlucky stuff has happened one after another, so I’m really glad to be turning that luck around and this is the redemption arc.”

“We struggled with getting a clean weekend together for a big part of the season just due to driving mistakes and some moments of bad luck,” he said.

“It took a lot of analysing and understanding what I could do better as a driver.

“A lot of work was also done with my engineer and with the whole of the Prema team and, in the end, that brought the result.”

The Ukrainian driver also spoke about the powerful support from home, where the support “has been amazing over the year”, he said.

“To finally get the result and to see how well they reacted to that has been a really nice feeling.

“These little boosts when the Ukrainian athletes perform really well is what helps cheer them up at least a little bit.

“I’m trying to win for my country as well.”