Back-to-back races are a double-edged sword: on the one hand, they’re a challenge for any team, which is tasked with managing the logistical, mental and physical burdens of two race events within two weeks; on the other, it’s an exciting, adrenaline-filled time in which the focus on the job at hand is total and one is given two chances to get things right, an immediate opportunity to set things right.
This is even more so when you’re approaching a race with the burning desire to right some wrongs: after the first two races of the season, where we did not score the points our performances probably deserved, we head to Portugal first and then Spain determined to get our tally off the mark.
Confidence is high within the team, which is unshaken by the bad luck of the opening races. The swings of fortune are bound to favour us soon, and with them should come the just rewards for our improved form. In the meantime, hard work and commitment remain unwavering. We head to Iberia with quiet confidence, ready to put up a fight to bring home the results we deserve.
Frédéric Vasseur, Team Principal
“We approach this back to back with the confidence of being able to have a good performance and the determination to make up for the circumstances that prevented us from scoring in the first two outings of the season. We know we could have, and should have, had two cars in the points on merit last time out, but that is no consolation as the final result is all that matters. It is now time to turn performance into points: we know we need a spotless weekend to edge out the other teams in the midfield and we are determined to do just that.”
Kimi Räikkönen
“Two more races mean two more chances to have a good result – something we went really close to in the opening events of the season. We are not miles off, we are right in the middle of this scrap and we can fight with anyone in the midfield if we do our job properly and we have a little luck, which we missed so far this season. Last year I had a fun first lap in Portugal, but it’s not going to be on my mind: in the end, it doesn’t really matter how you start a race, but where you finish it and we need to finish it in the top ten to achieve our objective.”
Antonio Giovinazzi
“I can’t wait to be back in the car for the races in Portugal and Spain. I feel we definitely haven’t reaped what we deserved in the first two rounds: we have been terribly unlucky, especially in Imola where we would have been on course for ninth or tenth if it hadn’t been for a tear-off stuck in a brake. We need to take the positives of those performances and use them as a spur to go one better in the next races: we know we are in a very close fight and we know we can come home with some really good results if things go our way.”