Ross Brawn, Brawn-Mercedes (Team Principal):
“Fantastic drives from Jenson and Rubens, outstanding pit stops from the team and the performance of our Mercedes-Benz engine secured an amazing one-two victory for Brawn GP here in Monaco today. Jenson gave himself the best possible chance of victory after achieving pole position with his flying lap yesterday and he was able to control the race from the front today. Bringing the car home in one piece after 78 laps is no easy feat in Monaco but Jenson was calm and assured throughout the race and drove with real finesse. Rubens had a great start to get ahead of Räikkönen and was showing excellent pace before his first set of rear tyres began to grain heavily as a result of following Jenson so closely. Unfortunately that compromised his chance of fighting it out with his team-mate but he did superbly well to keep Räikkönen at bay and bring home maximum points for the team's championship challenge. The Monaco Grand Prix is an incredibly special race and to win here means so much to everyone here at the track, at the factory in Brackley and at Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines in Brixworth. Special congratulations to Mercedes-Benz for supplying an engine that has now won three Grands Prix, a modern day record in Formula One.”
Stefano Domenicali, Ferrari (Team Principal):
“The most important thing to come out of today is the confirmation that our car is back to being competitive, thanks to the great amount of work that everyone at the Scuderia, both back home and at the track, has put in over these past few weeks, without getting distracted by everything going on around us. It's not easy to work in these conditions and I want to thank everyone for what they are doing. Today, we got a third and a fourth place which, given the difficult start to our season, is a nice result, but it's still not the one we want. Our aim is to be ahead of everyone and we will do all we can to achieve that as soon as possible. Of course the others won't remain idle but we must continue to push as we have done in these recent times.”
Chris Dyer, Ferrari (Head of Engineering):
“That was a very interesting race today. In the end, we are a bit disappointed, but that's a good sign, both because it shows how much we want to get back to being ahead of everyone and also because, when you begin to think you should have been able to do better than a third and fourth place finish, it means that you are back to being really competitive again. If we had not lost position at the start, probably we could have attacked Rubens, if we hadn't encountered a problem changing the right rear wheel at Kimi's second pit stop. What is reassuring is the pace shown by the F60, especially in the second part of the race, when despite having more fuel than the leaders, we were always quicker. We are very happy with the performance of the car and we are confident we can improve it further with coming developments.”
Christian Horner, Red Bull-Renault (Team Principal):
“A good drive from Mark today. He lost quite a bit of time in the first stint behind Kovalainen and thereafter managed to close in on the Ferraris – although unfortunately not quite enough to jump them at the final stop. Therefore fifth was the optimal finish he could achieve today. Sebastian was on an aggressive strategy from yesterday. Starting on the option tyres, they sustained high degradation almost immediately, which backed up a lot of the field. As a result we called his first pit stop reasonably early to get him onto the better tyre, but unfortunately a couple of laps later he went off at Ste. Devote. All the guys in the team have put in exceptional hours this weekend and four points for their efforts isn't really a just reward.”
Fabrice Lom, Red Bull-Renault (Renault Track Support Principal Engineer):
“A typical Monaco race, which was long and difficult. We took a gamble with Sebastian's tyre choice and went for the super soft tyres at the beginning, but it didn't pay off. He then had an off, which ended his race. Mark had a very strong drive, but starting eighth he couldn't hope for a better result than fifth. He was very quick at the end, very competitive. So, it was a bad overall result here, but I think we have some positive things to take away from this weekend.”
Sam Michael, Williams-Toyota (Technical Director):
“It was good to collect some points today and Nico drove well, unfortunately we were on a compromise strategy as a result of yesterday's qualifying, so it was always going to be quite difficult for Nico to beat the guys around him, but he did well to earn some points. It was difficult to progress Kazuki somewhere like Monaco where you can't overtake. The car was good in terms of pace around here and if we keep pushing the development, the performance will start to show through.”
Flavio Briatore, Renault (Team Principal):
“Very disappointing for us today as we were not helped by the circumstances. Nelson's race was cut short by an accident where he was not to blame and Fernando's was spoiled by the traffic, which didn't work in our favour. Nevertheless, we know that Monaco is an atypical race. It's also some consolation that the car kept improving during the race and was matching the pace of our main competitors. We are working harder than ever and plan to introduce another step forward, starting at the next race in Turkey. We have shown we can react fast and hopefully the rest of the season will see us bring in serious points for the team.”
Pat Symonds, Renault (Executive Director of Engineering):
“It was a long and tough afternoon, but Fernando pushed hard throughout the race and has come away with a couple of points. We had higher hopes for this race, but it's encouraging that the car's pace was really improving throughout the race. Nelson was very unlucky to have been taken out in the early stages as he had made a good start and was running a promising strategy. It's a shame for him, but he'll bounce back in Turkey.”
Remi Taffin, Renault (Head of Engine Operations):
“Despite finishing seventh, we are a bit disappointed. We actually thought that we would be able to do better. Our strategy did not unfold as we wanted it to and we were blocked by some slower cars. However, when Fernando was in clean air, the performance was there. Nelson's race ended prematurely with an accident which is a shame because I think he could have been competitive today. However, we will take these two points and hope to get a better result in Turkey.”
Franz Tost, Toro Rosso-Ferrari (Team Principal):
“After scoring points here last year, it seems that Monaco suits us, as once again the ball in the Roulette wheel fell in the Red. Buemi's start wasn't bad, but he got passed by Piquet. Our car had the potential to be faster, but as usual at this track, you end up in the barriers if you don't have the discipline to wait a little bit. But, in Buemi's defence, he did a really good job in qualifying and I see today's incident as another step in his learning process. I am really happy for Bourdais, who drove a fantastically good race, picking up a point that is very important for him and the team. This result is good for his selfconfidence for the next few races. Well done to the strategy crew, led by Laurent Mekies. They changed the strategy a few times during the race and it turned out to be the correct choice.”
Vijay Mallya, Force India-Mercedes (Team Principal):
“This has been a very encouraging weekend all round. We got two cars into Q2 and finished within a whisker of the points; and all on merit. We've incremented our performance and raced it well this weekend, and we know we have more upgrades in the pipeline, which is a great motivating factor. I would like to say thank you to both drivers for keeping focussed and pushing so hard and to the entire team at the track and at the factory for keeping the momentum going. If we continue on the path we have now laid before us, I am certain we'll achieve the success we all deserve.”
Tadashi Yamashina, Toyota (Team Principal):
“Even though it has been a difficult weekend for us, and a disappointing race, the team and both drivers pushed as hard as possible and did a professional job. They never gave up even after such a frustrating qualifying result and that is a credit to them. We obviously have to look very carefully at what went wrong this weekend when we get back to Cologne. Everyone in the factory has worked really hard this season so I am sure we will be back where we belong in Turkey. We remain third in the Constructors' Championship so we must continue to fight hard and think positively.”
Mario Theissen, BMW Sauber-BMW (Team Principal):
“A better result was not possible for us here this weekend. At no point was our car competitive. No points are the result. We have to improve our speed of development significantly in order to match our own expectations. Robert had a damaged tyre on lap two and later on suffered from brake problems, which caused him to retire. Nick was the first driver to change to the softer tyre compound after a long first stint. Nobody else was on Option tyres for such a long period, and they degraded dramatically before recovering a little towards the end of the race.”
Willy Rampf, BMW Sauber-BMW (Head of Engineering):
“After the free practice and qualifying sessions it was clear that today's race would be difficult. Nick's race ran without any special incidents. In the closing laps he was able to defend his position against Lewis (Hamilton) with worn out soft tyres. Robert had a flat tyre early in the race. Surprisingly, he was then able to do good lap times with a very heavy car. We had to bring his car back to the pits early due to a brake problem. Overall, this was a disappointing weekend. It is now our goal to be competitive again in Istanbul. A lot of work lies ahead of us.”
Martin Whitmarsh, McLaren-Mercedes (Team Principal):
“To leave Monaco without having scored world championship points is clearly disappointing, especially since our car was very competitive here: our pace in both sessions on Thursday, and on Saturday morning, demonstrated that very clearly. Even so, after Lewis's troubled qualifying, there was little he could do from the back of the grid today – Monaco is a notoriously difficult circuit on which to overtake, even with a decent performance advantage over the cars ahead. Nonetheless, Lewis drove very hard all afternoon, which is typical of his never-give-up attitude. As for Heikki, he was driving a strong race that would have netted him a very welcome points finish, when he entered the Swimming Pool just a little too fast, unloaded his car's rear-end and couldn't quite catch it. But that's Monaco: when you're pushing hard, it's very unforgiving, as Lewis also showed yesterday. Overall, then, the 2009 Monaco Grand Prix was a race that could and should have gone a lot better for us – but the reality is that both our cars showed genuine pace so there are also plenty of positives for us to take forward from here.”
Norbert Haug, McLaren-Mercedes (Mercedes-Benz Motorsport Vice President):
“Lewis's chances for the race were greatly affected by him hitting the guardrails during Q1 yesterday. What could have been possible with a good starting place close to the front of the grid was shown from Lewis in the last third of the race when he was without traffic posting competitive lap times until he got stuck behind a slower car in the closing laps. Heikki crashed after two thirds of the race at the Swimming Pool section – his speed in seventh place before had been good and was promising a better result. We need to quickly put this race behind us and concentrate on further improvements for the car before the next grand prix in Turkey. My sincere congratulations to Jenson Button and the Brawn GP team for winning this prestigious race today – he has now won the last three grands prix on the same engine, a new record in modern Formula 1.”
Hiroshi Yasukawa, Bridgestone (Motorsport Director):
“Congratulations to Jenson Button and the Brawn GP Team for their fifth win of the season. Winning in Monaco is a special honour as here is the ultimate test of driving skill and one of the biggest tests of our Bridgestone tyres. It is a privilege to be here and see the Bridgestone brand broadcast on televisions around the world from this fabulous location.”
Hirohide Hamashima, Bridgestone (Director of Motorsport Tyre Development):
“Today was very interesting in terms of tyre strategy. Those who started on the super soft Bridgestone experienced a bigger tyre performance drop off than those who used it for their final stint. The reason for this is track improvement, as the circuit surface was far more forgiving to the tyres near the end of the race. The level of track improvement could be seen by the race's fastest lap being almost as fast as pole position. Jenson drove very well to get strong performance from the super soft in his first stint, and that helped him for his win. Four cars showed that a one stop strategy was a viable option here. There were many interesting strategies throughout the field today.”