French GP: Driver Preview Quotes - McLaren

DRIVER PREVIEW QUOTES - McLAREN F1 TEAM

Fernando Alonso - "It’s not often we get to drive on new tracks, or tracks that are new for most of us but already have a strong legacy behind them, so after my Le Mans experience it’s great to be staying in France and heading to Paul Ricard. Winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans still feels like a dream and it was an incredible week. It’s finally sinking in now and I’m already looking forward to getting back in my car and going racing again. 

    I’ve never raced at Paul Ricard in Formula 1, but I drove there in testing a few years ago and I’ve seen the designs of the new circuit configurations. I think it looks like it has the potential to be a mega track, and going to a new venue always makes things exciting, as we’re all in the same position learning its characteristics from scratch.

    From what we do know, it’ll be a tough race for the cars and drivers, and a tricky technical challenge to set the cars up. It does look like there are a few overtaking opportunities though, which should hopefully provide some exciting racing. After a couple of disappointing weekends, I hope we can bounce back in France with a more positive result."

Stoffel Vandoorne - "Although Formula 1 hasn’t visited Paul Ricard for a long time, I’m actually one of the only drivers on the current grid that has driven the track – I drove there during a Pirelli test in 2016, which was a really cool experience, and I also raced there in my Formula Renault days.

    It looks like a great track which has been very much modernised, and I think it’ll provide some great racing. It’s a technical circuit, with a mix of high-speed and low-speed sections, and some of the corners like Signes are extremely challenging and really good fun. There are also some areas where overtaking is definitely possible, so hopefully it should help to mix up the pack a little bit.

    There will be a lot of fans coming to Paul Ricard to experience this race for the first time, so there should be a great atmosphere all weekend. It’ll be great to visit a new city and see how our package performs on a new track – it’ll be unknown territory for all of us, but I’m looking forward to the challenge and hope we can put our last couple of results behind us. 

    Congratulations to Fernando for his win at Le Mans – I watched the last few hours at home and was hoping nothing dramatic would happen right at the end. I know Fernando did a lot of preparation and it was a well-deserved victory for the whole team."

----
Article Written By: Amy Hawk
No copyright infringement intended - Quotes belong to Drivers
Follow us on Twitter @F1Insider78 & @bethonieboost