Barcelona delivered Rich Energy Haas F1 Team’s first double-points finish of the season and its eighth since joining Formula One in 2016. Scoring points is always good, but how much of a shot in the arm was it for the team to have a strong weekend from beginning to end that yielded some tangible results? “I think it was good. The car felt good from FP1, and that’s important. The first free practice always gives you the first clear idea of how the weekend is going to go. It went really well in Barcelona. We were happy with that, and we could get the tires to work nicely. In the race, the pace was pretty good. I think at one point we were faster than a Red Bull, which is very good for us. Obviously, the safety car didn’t help us, but the car felt really good.” You were able to sample all of the upgrades for the Haas VF-19 from the opening practice of the Spanish Grand Prix on Friday right through to the checkered flag on Sunday. How much of a difference did these upgrades make, and how impactful were they in achieving your first points-paying performance of the season? “The upgrades worked great because our pace was very close to that of Red Bull. That’s amazing. I still believe without the upgrade we would have finished seventh, but maybe not so close to the top teams because our main issue since the start of the year has been getting the tires to work, and we did that in Barcelona. That’s where the performance came from.” Getting the tires into the proper operating window and then keeping those tires in that operating window had been the team’s challenge prior to the Spanish Grand Prix, but that didn’t seem to be a problem in Barcelona. What made the difference? “I guess the difference was made by the track layout and the energy going into the tires with the high-speed corners, and the higher track temperatures really helped us. We know where we need to get. We know our windows are correct, but now it’s a question of how do we get them into the window at every race.” Can what you learned about the Haas VF-19 and its relation to its tires carry over to Monaco? “It’s a good question. I think the team’s going to keep working hard in the background and make sure we get the tires into the window in Monaco. If that’s the case, we’re going to be very competitive again.” Rich Energy Haas F1 Team has proven strong in qualifying this year, placing both its cars into the final round of knockout qualifying in all but one race this year. Knowing how important qualifying is at Monaco, is that the team’s best asset to secure another points-paying performance? “Yes, definitely. In Monaco you want to be in the top-10. You want to be as high as you can on the grid to be able

How important is it for Rich Energy Haas F1 Team to put a complete race weekend together at Barcelona, where the speed its shown since testing is carried through practice, qualifying and the race so that you achieve your ultimate goal of scoring points? “Well, it’s always very important, but at the minute the most important thing for us is to get the race pace back. We need to get the car where it should be. The last three weekends haven’t been good for us. The car’s got a lot more potential than we’ve been able to extract. The most important element is not the result. It’s to understand how to make the car go faster.” How helpful is it to go back to Barcelona where Rich Energy Haas F1 Team has the most data of any track in Formula One simply because you spent two weeks testing there before the season even started? “It’s important to go back to Barcelona because it’s our first European race and we’re bringing big updates on the car. It’s a track with high energy, so I’m not too worried about getting the tires to work, in theory. It’s interesting, as we definitely got them to work in winter testing, going back there and seeing if we can still get them to work will be a good test, because we know the car should be fast there.” Does Barcelona allow teams to reassess where they stand because of what they learned in preseason testing and how it’s translated to the first four races? “Yes, but you also know everyone’s going to bring big updates, so it’s almost like everyone’s going to have a B-car, therefore the standings could be a bit different. I think it’s important that our updates go in the right direction. It’s important, as we know what we can do there. We’ll see if we can repeat that and understand where our race pace has gone.” Barcelona was repaved prior to last year’s preseason test. How has the new surface evolved and what are your expectations for your return to the track in much warmer conditions, specifically in regard to tire management? “I have no expectations. We’ll see what’s coming. Normally, the first feedback is quite accurate, so I’m hoping it’s a good one, but I go with no expectation.” What are you feeling inside the racecar when you’re unable to get the tires into their proper working range? Is it a combination of an actual lack of grip and also a lack of confidence in what you can expect from the tires? “It’s a lack of grip and a lack of consistency. The latter makes it so that you can’t have any confidence because you can’t push the tire to its limit. If you do go above the limit, which is very low, it’s a big lock-up or you go off the track. If the tires don’t work, the car can be as good as you want, but it’s just

You’ve advanced to the final round of qualifying in every event this season. How has the team’s methodology and execution augmented your own skills behind the wheel? “I think the car is fast in qualifying, and we know it, so that’s how we’ve managed to go through to Q3. Obviously, what happened in Q3 in China was not ideal, but the car is fast in qualifying and that’s why we’ve made it into the top-10 each Saturday this season.” Emulating the success of qualifying in the race has proven to be difficult, at least in the last two races. What are you feeling in the car during qualifying that you’re not feeling in the race? “The grip is going. We have good grip in qualifying. On new tires, the car is amazing, but when we go into the race, we’re losing the grip and things become a bit more complicated. That’s the problem we’re facing at the moment. It’s probably coming from the way we use the tires. We haven’t managed to get on top of it yet. That’s our number one priority for the next few races.” The tires seem to have an even smaller operating window than they did last year. Is that accurate, or is it more a matter of getting the tires into their operating window rather than keeping them in that window? “That’s what we’re trying to find out. The window may have moved, or the operating of the tires may be a bit different with the thinner treads. Obviously the chassis is good, otherwise we wouldn’t be so fast in qualifying, we wouldn’t be so fast over one lap. We need to understand the tires a bit more, and where the window is and how we get there. That’s the next task for the engineers.” Rich Energy Haas F1 Team had speed throughout the Australian Grand Prix race weekend. With it taking place at a street circuit, do you envision some carryover of that kind of sustained speed when you return to Baku City Circuit? “No, not really – for various reasons. Australia was very warm, we managed to get the tires to work well. Baku is a different circuit, it’s probably closer to China. We need to work really hard before Baku to try to understand how to get the tires to work. That’s really going to be the key for us there.” Baku has been described as a mix between Monza and Monaco. That means high speeds at a very tight track. How do you expect this year’s new aero package to impact the race, both in terms of the speed you can achieve and the overtaking opportunities that will be available? “Overtaking in Baku has always been good. The straight line is so long that you get a massive tow, a massive slipstream, which is always good. It’s probably a racetrack that is much more fun in the race than in qualifying. In qualifying, you’re dealing with those 90-degree corners, it’s

One thousand grands prix – that’s quite a number. From May 1950 at Silverstone to April 2019 in China, Formula One has seen an incredible transformation. What’s it like to be a part of this sport and a participant in such a milestone event? It’s great. I’ve been following Formula One for a long time – not since the 50s, obviously – but I’ve been in love with the sport since the early 90s. Reaching 1,000 races for Formula One is very impressive. When they started, I’m sure they didn’t think it would come this far. It’s pretty impressive. It’s going to be a great grand prix in China. I’m looking forward to the event and, hopefully, some good luck. What was it about Formula One that first made you a fan of the sport, and how old were you when you began following Formula One? I was around seven years old when I really began to follow Formula One. I was watching Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna racing. It was great to watch. My dad was passionate about racing cars, but as soon as I saw it, I fell in love with the sport. It was the look of the cars, the sounds, the speed – I loved all of it. When did you transition to just being a fan of the sport to wanting to actually be a part of the sport? For a long time in my career, I was driving because I loved it. It was more for fun than thinking, ‘I would make it to Formula One.’ When I won the GP2 Asia Series, that’s when I thought, ‘Well, why not?’ If I could win GP2, which was just one step below Formula One, I knew there could be a good chance there. That’s really when I realized I could make it to Formula One and have a chance. There are only 10 teams and there are only 20 drivers. How hard is it to stay in Formula One? It’s a tough sport. You need to be on top of your game every year. There are youngsters winning Formula Two every year, and they want to step up to Formula One. Experience is not something you can buy, which is great when you have some. It’s one of the most unique jobs in the world. Rich Energy Haas F1 Team is still the youngest team in Formula One, and the Chinese Grand Prix marks just its 65th grand prix. Yet in just four years, the team is battling at the top of the midfield with the Formula One establishment that has decades more experience. How are you doing it? The team is doing really well. I remember from day one when we started, I thought we were up to speed. Now from where we are, I see we weren’t up to speed at the time. The team’s been growing year-on-year and we’ve established ourselves as a very strong team. Once again, this year we have